LEGAL/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WOMEN: “The adult-film actress Stormy Daniels on Wednesday [6-6-18] accused her former attorney Keith Davidson of colluding with President Donald Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer, calling Davidson a ‘puppet’ for Trump who ‘hatched a plan’ to put a lid on reports of his infidelities. Daniels made the complaint in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court in which she demanded copies of communication between Davidson and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The two men, one working for Trump, one for Daniels, negotiated a deal that paid her $130,000 just days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged relationship with Trump a decade earlier. Cohen is under federal investigation for potential fraud and his role in arranging the hush-money deal. As prosecutors pursue potential criminal charges, Daniels’ current lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has mounted an aggressive battle in civil court that could pry loose information that proves damaging or embarrassing to the president. Davidson’s lawyers vigorously denied that he was secretly cooperating with Cohen, and took aim at Avenatti’s relentless publicity on behalf of his client. Avenatti’s constant media presence has brought its own stardom but has also opened him up to negative news coverage about his finances and business dealings.”
-Lorraine Woellert, “Stormy Daniels calls her former lawyer a Trump ‘puppet’,” Politico, June 6, 2018 9:14 pm