--- title: Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen description: Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President's attorney Michael Cohen canonical: https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-26T22:00:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:46:49.677Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stormy Daniels Sues Donald Trump's Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation og:description: The lawsuit was filed the day after she appeared on 60 Minutes og:url: https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: 60 Minutes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stormy Daniels Sues Donald Trump's Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation twitter:description: The lawsuit was filed the day after she appeared on 60 Minutes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=be307659-bd32-4197-b728-e422a1cf6a95&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 26, 2018 10:00 PM UTC  Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper broadcast on CBS' 60 Minutes on March 25, 2018. Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper broadcast on CBS' 60 Minutes on March 25, 2018. CBS/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 26, 2018 10:00 PM UTC Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President’s attorney Michael Cohen, who she alleges is defaming her by questioning the veracity of her claims on her affair with Trump. The porn star’s attorney filed the expanded case in court on Monday, one day after she appeared on _60 Minutes_ in a wide-ranging interview with Anderson Cooper. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has alleged that she had an affair with President Trump in 2006, and sued President Trump earlier this month, arguing that a non-disclosure agreement she had signed before the election was invalid because Trump never signed it. In the expanded lawsuit, she says Cohen defamed her by calling her a liar for her statements about the affair, and that he and Trump “aggressively sought to silence her” to ensure he could win the election – knowingly violating campaign finance laws in the process. In 2016, Cohen wired $130,000 from a bank account linked to company called Essential Consultants LLC, which the attorney had set up in Delaware a month before the presidential election. Cohen subsequently said in a statement last month that he had paid the money out of his own pocket, in response to a complaint from the non-partisan watchdog group Common Cause, alleging that the [payment was illegal](http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/trump-campaign-stormy-daniels-watchdog-group/) and a campaign finance violation. “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump,” Cohen said in the statement. Daniels is alleging that statement is defamatory, claiming it is false and Mr. Cohen knew that. “Both on its face, and because of the facts and circumstances known to persons who read or heard the statement, it was reasonably understood Mr. Cohen meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, someone who should not be trusted, and that her claims about her relationship with Mr. Trump is “something \[that\] isn’t true.” Mr. Cohen’s statement exposed Mr. Clifford to hatred, contempt, ridicule, and shame, and discouraged others from associating or dealing with her,” [the lawsuit states.](///Users/aabramson1271/Downloads/14%20-%20FIRST%20AMENDED%20COMPLAINT%20-%20Stephanie%20Clifford%20v.%20Donald%20J.%20Trump%20et%20al.pdf) Neither Cohen nor his attorney immediately responded to request for comment. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters Monday that Trump has consistently denied the claims and that the White House did not violate any campaign finance laws. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/"},"headline":"Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation","datePublished":"2018-03-26T22:00:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:46:49.677Z","description":"The lawsuit was filed the day after she appeared on 60 Minutes","url":"https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"60 Minutes","caption":"60 Minutes","creditText":"CBS/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/","name":"Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation"}}]}] ```