Now and then it seems to become a little quiet for a moment around the probably most famous affair of a US president next to Monica Lewinsky: Stormy Daniels. But now President Donald J. Trump, flooded with numerous scandals and trials, has deemed it a good idea to sue the porn actress in the middle of his impeachment trial. Thus the almost endless battle goes into a new round.
For a while last year, it seemed that Stormy Daniels could cost the controversial US president his job. Media all over the world turned the porn actress into a global star. Together with her lawyer Michael Avenatti, she sued Trump several times and suffered numerous legal defeats later on.
However, the actress’s lawsuit against the Columbus police in the US state of Ohio was successful. There Daniels was illegally arrested last year and was awarded 450,000 dollars in damages in court. Donald Trump now wants to take some of that money away from his former affair.
In a lawsuit against the porn actress, his lawyers claim that two-thirds of the payment actually belong to Trump. Daniels, according to the suit, should transfer a total of 293,000 dollars to the President, who won a libel suit against the porn star last year.
Now Daniels strikes back and takes legal action against Trump’s claim as well. In court, it is now to be clarified whether the president is entitled to the reimbursement of the legal costs at all. The outcome of this new suit will determine whether Trump can actually enforce his claim.
An eternal back and forth, which presumably brings immense costs to all parties involved and will mainly benefit lawyers for the time being. Strategically, however, every lawsuit, every public move by Trump will keep Stormy Daniels’ brand name in the headlines. And also for Trump himself, it is useful to be a little noise about the whole Stormy Daniels affair again, even if the memory of the scandal may be unpleasant: distraction from the impeachment trial against the president should be welcome at any time.
Trump has perfected the motto »There is no such thing as bad press«. He now seems to think: »A lot of different bad press is the best!«