Stormy Daniels fully cooperating with federal investigators, while the Summer Zervos defamation case pushes forward. Update!

Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators probing 2016 non-disclosure agreement and $130,000 payment she received from Pres. Trump’s longtime personal attorney. https://t.co/gJagoFny4S - @NBCInvestigates

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 10, 2018

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators looking into a $130,000 payment she received from President Donald Trump's personal attorney, multiple sources familiar with the proceedings told NBC News. 

The cooperation is in connection with a broader federal probe of the attorney, Michael Cohen, which triggered a raid on his office and hotel room on Monday.

Oh I bet Daniels is cooperating, and probably with a giant smile on her face.

It should also be noted that the investigation is focused on just on the $130,000 dollar payment to Daniels, but also the payoff that Playmate Karen McDougal received.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The FBI agents who raided Michael Cohen’s office were reportedly looking for “records about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump,” and materials related to the "National Enquirer’s role in silencing" former Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to The New York Times. The raid—which sought materials related to Cohen’s $130,000 payout to Stormy Daniels and the $150,000 payment made to McDougal from the parent company of the Enquirer—was carried out by the public corruption unit of the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan. 

Ans while all of this is going on Summer Zervos is attempting to move forward with HER defamation lawsuit.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The lawyer representing former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos in her defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump filed a memorandum opposing Trump's attempt to have the case temporarily suspended until his appeal, which is pending, has been decided. 

In one of the exhibits attached to Tuesday's filing, Zervos details the harassment and threats she received after Trump denied her claims that he sexually assaulted her. 

"Immediately after he made each derogatory statement, I would get calls and people coming to my restaurant threatening me or my business," said Zervos, who runs a restaurant in California. 

"They would shout 'lying c--t' or 'lying b--tch' into the phone and say I should die, or say that they would drive us out of business," she said. "Several customers told me specifically that they would no longer come to my restaurant because I had lied. Other people called and placed fake take-out orders to hurt my business. I worried constantly for my safety, the safety of my family and the people I work with." 

"Because I'm a Republican and small-business owner and live among many supporters of Defendant [Trump], it was especially bad," Zervos said.

You know Donald Trump can fire Mueller, and bomb Syria until the cows come home, but clearly that is not going to make any of this go away.

Update: We are now learning that during that FBI raids of Cohen's office and residence, that they were also searching for evidence linking back to the Access Hollywood tape.

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The F.B.I. agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump’s lawyer on Monday were seeking all records related to the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Mr. Trump was heard making vulgar comments about women, according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. 

The search warrant also sought evidence of whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, tried to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

It is not clear what role, if any, Mr. Cohen played regarding the tape, which was made public a month before the election. But the fact that the agents were seeking documents related to the tape reveals a new front in the investigation into Mr. Cohen that is being led by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Well isn't THAT interesting?

Stormy Daniels is now suing Donald Trump's lawyer for defamation of character.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Stormy Daniels ramped up her legal battle against President Trump on Monday, alleging in court that his personal attorney Michael Cohen defamed her by insinuating that she lied about an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. 

Daniels amended her existing lawsuit against Trump, adding Cohen as a defendant in the pending case. The expansion of the lawsuit in a California federal court comes one day after the adult-film actress’s widely watched interview on “60 Minutes.”

Now this is very problematic because Trump is also being sued by alleged sexual harassment victim Summer Zervos for defamation of character as well.

That would be two different women, with two entirely different experiences, suing Trump, or a Trump lawyer, for defaming them.

And at this point I should add, so far.

Now interestingly enough Michael Cohen's lawyer sent off a cease and desist order last night essentially accusing Daniels of defaming HIM by suggesting that he sent the thug that threatened her back in 2011.

Cohen’s lawyer fired back almost immediately after the Daniels interview with this letter saying allegation of goon threatening her was false >> pic.twitter.com/TWH2djrFPq

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 26, 2018

The problem is that she never made any such allegation.

As proven by a transcript written by Think Progress:  

Stormy Daniels: I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T– taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin’ all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” And then he was gone. 

Anderson Cooper: You took it as a direct threat? 

Stormy Daniels: Absolutely. 

Stormy Daniels: I was rattled. I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna– drop her. 

Anderson Cooper: Did you ever see that person again? 

Stormy Daniels: No. But I– if I did, I would know it right away. 

Anderson Cooper: You’d be able to– you’d be able to recognize that person? 

Stormy Daniels: 100%. Even now, all these years later. If he walked in this door right now, I would instantly know.

At no point in her answers to Anderson Cooper does Stormy Daniels suggest that the thug was sent by Cohen.

The attorney for Stormy Daniels also responded with this to questions about whether threats are still being directed at his client: 

"Absolutely. She receives threats on a near-hourly basis. Now, we don't have anything tying those to Mr. Cohen or Mr. Trump, to be clear, but she's certainly scared for her safety and the safety of her family."

You know it seems more and more like this attorney for Stormy Daniels just casually sets up a tripwire for Donald Trump and his attorneys, and they clumsily stumble into it every time.

There are a lot of trolls out there working overtime to convince us that this is a nothing burger, and that it will have no impact on Donald Trump whatsoever, but I disagree.

In fact this story seems to be metastasizing. and public interest remains high.

In fact the Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes interview brought in the show's highest ratings in nearly a decade.

And things may continue to ramp up from here. According to one of Daniels' best friends, there is a dress:

During a much longer interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto, Stormy's friend Alana Evans told him she was unaware of any texts, pictures or video but there was one thing. One little thing. 

"All I know is that Stormy still has the dress that she wore from that night," Evans told Sciutto

They may come to this story for the sex, but they leave recognizing that the guy in the White House is vulnerable to blackmail, and is almost certainly compromised by foreign agents.

It appears that Stormy Daniels has reinforcements.

Courtesy of  NBC News:

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels underwent a polygraph exam in 2011 about her relationship with Donald Trump, and the examiner found there was a more than 99 percent probability she told the truth when she said they had unprotected sex in 2006, according to a copy of the report obtained by NBC News Tuesday. 

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, took the lie detector test at the request of a magazine that interviewed her in 2011, but didn’t publish the content at the time. 

The report is accompanied by a sworn declaration from the examiner, signed on Monday, March 19, 2018, attesting to the polygraph report’s authenticity. Details of the report were first published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Now that by itself is pretty unfortunate news for a certain tangerine teapot tyrant.

However it was only the beginning of the shitty Trump news for today.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

A former Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with Donald J. Trump sued on Tuesday to be released from a 2016 legal agreement requiring her silence, becoming the second woman this month to challenge Trump allies’ efforts during the presidential campaign to bury stories about extramarital relationships.

The model, Karen McDougal, is suing the company that owns The National Enquirer, American Media Inc., which paid her $150,000 and whose chief executive is a friend of President Trump’s. The other woman, the adult entertainment star Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, was paid $130,000 to stay quiet by the president’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. She filed suit earlier this month.

Ms. McDougal, in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims that Mr. Cohen was secretly involved in her talks with A.M.I., and that the media company and her lawyer at the time misled her about the deal. She also asserts that after she spoke with The New Yorker last month after it obtained notes she kept on Mr. Trump, A.M.I. warned that “any further disclosures would breach Karen’s contract” and “cause considerable monetary damages.”

Kinda feels a little coordinated doesn't it?

Well if it is that is a damn smart play.  After all there is strength in numbers.

And speaking of numbers, they are continuing to grow.

Courtesy of Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump can’t avoid a former "Apprentice" contestant’s defamation lawsuit and may be forced to respond under oath to allegations of sexual assault and his treatment of women. 

Summer Zervos, a contender on The Apprentice in 2005, sued Trump in January 2017 alleging he “ambushed” her on more than one occasion starting in 2007, kissing her, touching her breast and pressing his genitals against her. On Tuesday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter denied the president’s request to throw out the lawsuit or delay it until he leaves office.

"No one is above the law," Schecter wrote in an 18-page decision. “Nothing in the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution even suggests that the president cannot be called to account before a state court for wrongful conduct that bears no relationship to any federal executive responsibility.” 

The ruling could subject Trump to extremely broad questions about this case and similar ones, and he might be forced to testify under oath and provide documents, said Naomi Mezey, a professor at Georgetown Law School and an expert on civil procedure.

Damn! I almost forgot about Zervos.

And if SHE can get Trump to testify under oath, that means that his other accusers might be able to do the same. 

 Remember it only took one intern, with one stained dressed, to get Bill Clinton impeached.

By the time this is over there could be over a dozen women, with a whole closet full of DNA stained clothing to bring to the courtroom.

Attorneys for woman claiming Donald Trump groped her subpoenas all campaign documents pertaining to women being touched inappropriately. Update!

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

A high-stakes legal showdown is brewing for President Donald Trump, as a woman who said he groped her has subpoenaed all documents from his campaign pertaining to “any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately.” 

The subpoena — whose contents have not been previously reported — was issued in March but entered into the court file last month. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Trump’s attorney. 

Summer Zervos, a former contestant on the Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice, accused Trump of kissing and grabbing her when she went to his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007 to discuss a possible job at the Trump Organization. After Zervos made the accusation last October, just weeks before the election, Trump denied her accusation and called it a lie. 

She responded by suing him for defamation. As part of that suit, her lawyers served a subpoena on his campaign, asking that it preserve all documents it had about her.

They also asked for “all documents” concerning other women who have accused Trump of groping them, including Jessica Leeds, Mindy McGillivray, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Temple Taggart, Kristin Anderson, Cathy Heller, Jill Harth, and Jessica Drake. The subpoena seeks “all documents concerning any accusations that were made during Donald J. Trump’s election campaign for president, that he subjected any woman to unwanted sexual touching and/or sexually inappropriate behavior.” Last year, Trump tweeted a blanket denial, saying, “Nothing ever happened with any of these women.”

Trump lawyers of course have been trying to have this case dismissed by claiming that their client is immune from civil suit while in office, and have tried to dismiss this subpoena as overly broad and designed to dredge up dirt to use to impeach him.

So far those arguments do not appear to have worked.

And I hope that holds true, because I think we all would like to see these documents exposed in a court of law.

I would also like to see the "pussy grabber" take the stand and attempt to blame the victims for getting their naughty parts too close to his tiny little hands.

Update: By the way here are just some of the women who spoke out against Trump's sexual victimization.

These women spoke out against @realDonaldTrump for the sexual assault and rape he committed on them. Their voices matter.#MeToo pic.twitter.com/n5ONX4JWTM

— William T. Riker (@RikerResist) October 16, 2017

Donald Trump's lawyers are desperately trying to get the Summer Zervos defamation case thrown out.

Courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter:  

Donald Trump is looking to end a defamation lawsuit brought by season-five Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos — or at least delay it until he leaves office. 

The dispute arose after tape was published of Trump boasting to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush about grabbing women's genitals. As Trump was under fire for his comments, Zervos came forward to accuse him of kissing her twice in 2007 and attacking her in a hotel room. “I never met her at a hotel,” responded Trump, who would also attack allegations from his accusers as "100 percent fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton campaign." 

Zervos claims she's been branded as a liar, and while she's only seeking $2,914 in actual damages (though potentially more in punitive damages), her attorney, Gloria Allred, has expressed that she is looking forward to taking “far-reaching” depositions and asking "many questions he may not wish to answer, but will be required to answer."

Trump's lawyers are using a number of tactics to get this case thrown out, such as accusing Zervos' attorney Gloria Allred of being politically motivated, saying that you cannot sue a sitting president in a New York court, and finally that Trump's statements are protected by the First Amendment,

No seriously, the 1st Amendment:

"The allegedly defamatory statements were made during a national political campaign that involved heated public debate in political forums," writes Kasowitz. "Statements made in that context are properly viewed by courts as part of the expected fiery rhetoric, hyperbole, and opinion that is squarely protected by the First Amendment."

So essentially the lawyer is suggesting that Trump just said controversial things to attract support and did not necessarily mean any of it to be taken literally.

So when he accused Zervos of being a liar, that was just political hyperbole?

Somehow I don't think that is going to pass the smell test.

Also keep in mind that though this is a defamation case the initial accusations were that Trump sexually assaulted this young woman, and the fact that he is hiding behind the 1st Amendment to keep that from being discussed in open court is pretty damn despicable.