Trump faces defamation charge from Stormy Daniels over "con job" tweet DATE: 2024-05-25 07:47:14
Donald Trump's Twitter account has, once again, gotten him in some hot water, which should shock absolutely no one.
Trump is facing another Twitter-related lawsuit, but this time it's for defamation and -- in a twist that only the best screenwriter could whip up -- the plaintiff is adult film star Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford).
SEE ALSO:Donald Trump not getting Melania a birthday gift was the sanest thing about his Fox News interviewDaniels filed the lawsuit on Monday. It centers on an tweet from April 18 in which Trump addressed her claim she was threatened to stay quiet about her affair with Trump. He specifically called out the sketch of Tom Bradythe man who allegedly threatened her as a "con job."
Tweet may have been deleted
(Just for reference, the other things Trump has referred to by the "con job" label are Jeb Bush and climate change.)
In the complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, Daniels demands $75,000 and claims Trump's tweet "falsely attacks the veracity of Ms. Clifford's account" of the incident and that the tweet "is false and defamatory."
Tweet may have been deleted
But the lawsuit also cites Trump's ability to reach millions of people directly via his Twitter account, something Trump himself has bragged about.
"Mr. Trump knows that his personal Twitter account has an audience of over 50 million followers and that the Twitter post would be repeated and reported upon by other news and media outlets online, in print, and on television and radio."
And that, in turn, "exposed Ms. Clifford to hated, contempt, ridicule, and shame, and discouraged others from associating or dealing with her."
Trump has already faced down another lawsuit related to his Twitter use, one that says his blocking of others on Twitter violates the blocked users' First Amendment rights because it prevented them from communicating with the President.
The judge in that case recommended that Trump just mute people in his mentions that he disliked instead of blocking, but, really, Trump would be better off avoiding his mentions altogether because that's the one place on Twitter that's crazier than Trump's tweets.
You can read the complaint filed by Stormy Daniels in full below.
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