A federal court in Los Angeles has on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit presented by porn actress Stormy Daniels alleging that she and United States President Donald Trump had a hush-money agreement.
According to Reuters news reports, the US district judge James Otero has dismissed the lawsuit because the US president and his former lawyer Michael Cohen have agreed not to enforce the non-disclosure agreement against Daniels, the court document said.
In a tweet, actress Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, said, “The Court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuit – she won.”
However, Trump had denied having an affair with Daniels. Cohen has said the agreement, under which Daniels was paid $130,000, was struck to help Trump capture the White House.
Otero sent the defamation lawsuit back to California’ Superior Court, ending the case. Otero said Trump’s case “lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”
However, the nondisclosure agreement didn’t prevent Daniels from talking to news media, including releasing a memoir, “Full Disclosure”, or CBS’ “60 Minutes”.
After the court’s ruling was made publically, Daniels, in a tweet, wrote: “More than a year ago when I was being threatened with a 20 million lawsuit, I asked a judge to toss out this illegal NDA. Glad I stood my ground & kept fighting.”
Otero had in October dismissed Daniels’s defamation lawsuit against the US president and ordered Daniels to pay his attorney’s fees. He said in that ruling that a tweet the president had written referring to her was protected by free-speech laws.