Thread: Stormy Daniels Judge Puts Cohen’s Civil Case on Hold

Stormy Daniels Judge Puts Cohen’s Civil Case on Hold

By Edvard Pettersson
April 27, 2018, 5:32 PM EDT Updated on April 27, 2018, 6:36 PM EDT

Judge says Cohen probe by FBI is ‘no simple’ investigation
Porn star’s lawyer says ‘justice delayed is justice denied’

President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, won a temporary halt of the lawsuit by adult film star Stormy Daniels over her alleged tryst with Trump while a criminal probe of Cohen is under way.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles issued a stay Friday and set a status conference for July 27, saying he thinks Cohen will probably be indicted. Cohen has told the judge he will assert his right against self-incrimination under the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment in the lawsuit after the FBI raided and searched his residence, office and hotel room this month.

Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels, responded in a tweet that “Justice delayed is justice denied.” He vowed to appeal the ruling.

“While we certainly respect Judge Otero’s 90-day stay order based on Mr. Cohen’s pleading of the 5th, we do not agree with it,” Avenatti said.

Trump Fixer’s Bad Week Gets Worse With Confirmation of Probe

Daniels sued under her real name, Stephanie Clifford, to undo a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2016 that she said was intended to silence her about a sexual encounter she had with Trump a decade earlier. Cohen has said that he paid $130,000 to Daniels out of his own pocket just before the presidential election and that he wasn’t reimbursed.

Cohen and Trump had argued that they couldn’t provide an adequate defense to Daniels’s allegation that a 2016 "hush agreement" wasn’t enforceable without Cohen’s testimony. The U.S. attorney is investigating Cohen’s business dealings, including the $130,000 payment.

"This is no simple criminal investigation; it is an investigation into the personal attorney of a sitting president regarding documents that might be subject to the attorney-client privilege," the judge said. "Whether or not an indictment is forthcoming, and the court thinks it likely based on these facts alone, these unique circumstances counsel in favor of stay."

The case is Clifford v. Trump, 18-cv-02217, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...l-case-on-hold

I don't understand what a payment to Stormy Daniels under a legal California civil hush agreement about an alleged one-night stand with Donald Trump in California 12 years ago has to do with a federal criminal investigation of Michael Cohen related to the taxi-cab business in New York City. According to another article I read, the taxi-cab businesses are actually owned and operated by other people and are struggling. Apparently, the nice standard old-fashioned Medallion regulated taxi cab businesses aren't doing so well due to massive competition from Uber and Lyft.

It really doesn't make any sense. And those Cohen raids? Why? Did they raid the taxi-cab businesses that are supposedly the subject of the investigation? Not that we know of. Makes no sense other than a Witch Hunt.

It's like what they did to Michael Flynn. The FBI people who actually interviewed Flynn didn't think he was lying. Yet, Mueller ruins his life trying to get a confession of "lying". This is not the justice system we think we're paying for, not at all. We're being ripped off as taxpayers and Americans are being spied on, their rights violated, their lives ruined and prosecuted for their political beliefs and associations.

Probably because of my personal upbringing, I am total unsympathetic to Daniels. She was paid to have sex on film. To me that is prostitution. Any normal person would be arrested and prosecuted for having sex for money. In this case, she did a trick and was paid $130,000. But now that the "John" is President Of The United States Of America, she sees the opportunity for more money for the same trick. So now she is an extortionist, another crime.

I'm not sure there is a reason to delay this trial. Whether or not she can get relieved of the confidentiality agreement she agreed to is a separate matter to any criminal charges Cohen is facing. However I can agree that Cohen has the right to refuse to testify, which puts him at a disadvantage in this civil case.

Giuliani: Trump repaid Cohen $130K for payment to porn star