LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CNS) - A Los Angeles federal judge today dismissed adult film actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against President Donald Trump, saying Trump's promise not to enforce a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement over an alleged affair rendered the case moot.
In a written order Thursday, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero granted Trump's request to throw out Daniels' claim.
In September, Trump's attorneys filed a statement that "Mr. Trump does not, and will not, contest Ms. Clifford's assertion that the settlement agreement was never formed, or in the alternative, should be rescinded. Moreover, Mr. Trump covenants that he will not bring any action, proceeding or claim against Ms. Clifford to enforce any of the terms of the settlement agreement."
The judge previously dismissed a defamation claim against Trump in which Daniels alleged that the president defamed her on Twitter when he suggested she had lied about being threatened to keep quiet about their alleged decade-old relationship. Otero tossed the claim in October on free speech grounds but ordered Daniels to pay the president more than $293,300 in legal fees. Last month, Otero dismissed a defamation claim against Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney.
Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, wrote on Twitter that the dismissal of the lawsuit was not a loss for the adult-film actress.
"Be clear: The court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuit -- she won," Avenatti wrote. "How people can claim this is a `loss' after we forced Trump and Cohen to cave and Cohen has been convicted, etc., is a mystery."
In December, Cohen was sentenced in New York to three years in federal prison for, among other things, arranging the $130,000 payment to Daniels and a separate payment to another woman in exchange for their silence about alleged affairs with Trump. The payments, according to prosecutors, violated federal campaign finance laws.
Daniels, 39, has said she had sex once with the married Trump in 2006 and carried on a platonic relationship with him for about a year afterward. She detailed the alleged affair in her book "Full Disclosure," published late last year. Trump has denied any sexual relationship with Daniels.