Los Angeles Times: Trump waives millions in claims against Stormy Daniels in new fallout from illegal payoff

Los Angeles Times: Trump waives millions in claims against Stormy Daniels in new fallout from illegal payoff

“All the information, as it’s trickled out, has only further confirmed our suspicion that the Trump Organization violated campaign finance laws, and maybe other laws too,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.

President Trump has agreed to give up his right to pursue millions of dollars in damages against Stormy Daniels in a move to kill litigation over an illegal payoff to the adult-film star.

The maneuver marks a sharp reversal for Trump. His legal team sought earlier to pull Daniels into an arbitration that could have forced her to pay the president more than $20 million for breaking a nondisclosure agreement over her claim of a sexual liaison with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied the affair. …

Cohen’s admission that he broke the law by paying Daniels through a shell company he set up just before the election mirrors allegations made in January by the nonpartisan ethics group Common Cause in a complaint to the Justice Department after the Wall Street Journal broke the story of the hush money.

Cohen’s guilty plea effectively “obliterates any claim by Donald Trump to damages” from Daniels, said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.

One of Daniels’ arguments in her lawsuit is that the nondisclosure pact is void because its purpose was illegal.

Common Cause has also accused the Trump Organization of wrongdoing in its handling of the payoff to Daniels.

“All the information, as it’s trickled out, has only further confirmed our suspicion that the Trump Organization violated campaign finance laws, and maybe other laws too,” Ryan said.