Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued President Donald Trump for defamation, saying he lied when he wrote on Twitter that her claim of having been threatened was a “total con job.” 
 
 Daniels is already embroiled in litigation with the president and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, over a 2016 deal in which she agreed to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006. Daniels got $130,000 from Cohen and sued to get out of the agreement. 
 
 She claimed in interviews that in 2011, after she agreed to cooperate with a magazine about an article, she was threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot by a man to keep quiet about her tryst with Trump. Daniels’s lawyer released a composite sketch of the man on April 17. 
 
 Trump dismissed the claim in an April 18 Twitter posting: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!" 
 
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 In her lawsuit, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, says Trump’s statement in effect accuses her of committing a crime under New York law by saying she falsely accused an individual of committing a crime against her. 
 
 “Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford,” according to her claim. 
 
 Trump has about 51.4 million followers on Twitter. 
 
 Daniels is seeking more than $75,000 in damages, saying she has been exposed to death threats and had to hire bodyguards to ensure her safety. 
 
 Representatives for the Trump administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Daniels said her ex-husband approached In Touch magazine, without her approval, about her relationship with Trump. She said she agreed to help with the article "only after being told the magazine was going to be running the story with or without her cooperation." 
 
 She said she was then approached by the man in Las Vegas, who looked at Daniels’s infant daughter and said “it’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” Daniels said she didn’t report the incident to police. 
 
 Daniels claims Cohen had the In Touch story killed, using threats and intimidation. 
 
 Since very few people knew about the possible magazine story, Daniels said it’s reasonable to infer that the person who threatened her “could have only been acting directly or indirectly on behalf of Mr. Trump and/or Mr. Cohen.” 
 
 The case is Clifford v. Trump, 1:18-cv-03842, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). 
 
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 / Updated By Sarah Fitzpatrick and Tracy Connor 
 
 Adult film star Stormy Daniels has filed a defamation suit against President Donald Trump for a tweet that said a forensic sketch of a man who allegedly threatened her in 2011 was "a total con job." 
 
 Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and was warned by an unidentified man to keep quiet about it five years later, after she gave an interview to a gossip magazine. 
 
 A sketch of the man Stormy Daniels says threatened her and her infant daughter in 2011 inside a Las Vegas parking garage. Michael Avenatti 
 
 Earlier this month, Clifford worked with a forensic artist to create a sketch of the man she says accosted her in a Las Vegas parking lot, told her, "Leave Trump alone. Forget the story," and ominously suggested something bad could happen to her. 
 
 The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan centers on an April 18 post on Trump's Twitter account in which he reacts to another person's tweet about the sketch. 
 
 "A sketch years later about a nonexistent man," Trump's post said. "A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!" 
 
 The suit alleges Trump's comment amounts to an accusation that Clifford fabricated the threat and exposed her to ridicule and violent threats. 
 
 "Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford," the complaint says. 
 
 Trump's attorney had no immediate comment on the defamation claim. 
 
 Read Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit 
 
 Clifford's attorney, Michael Avenatti, said, "Regardless of who you are or what position you hold, you are not permitted to fabricate statements in an effort to deceive people. There are consequences for doing that." 
 
 The case was assigned to Judge Jesse Furman, who issued a summons for Trump on Tuesday. Furman, a former prosecutor who was nominated by President Obama, has been on the federal bench since 2012. He recently dismissed a harassment lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein by his personal assistant on the grounds that the court didn't have jurisdiction. 
 
 This is the second lawsuit that Clifford has filed against Trump. Earlier this year she sued him and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to dissolve a confidentiality agreement she signed days before the 2016 election in exchange for $130,000. 
 
 Last week, a federal judge put the earlier suit on hold for 90 days because Cohen is now under federal investigation in connection with the payment to Clifford. 
 
 The White House has said Clifford's allegations are false. 
 
 "I've had conversations with the president about this," Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in March. "And as I outlined earlier, that this case had already been won in arbitration, and that there was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he's denied all of these allegations." 
 
 Earlier this month, aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he didn't know about the $130,000 payment to Clifford and said they should ask Cohen. Cohen has said that he paid the hush money out of his own funds and was not repaid by the Trump campaign or Trump Organization — though he has not explicitly said Trump himself didn't repay it. 
 
 Last week, during a live interview, Trump appeared to acknowledge that Cohen was representing him in the payment arrangement. 
 
 "He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me," Trump said in a phone call to "Fox and Friends." 
 
 Clifford underwent a polygraph test in 2011, and the examiner concluded she was telling the truth when she said she and Trump had unprotected sex in 2006. She took the exam at the request of a magazine that interviewed her about the encounter but didn't publish a story about it at the time. 
 
 She contends the confidentiality pact she signed in 2016 is invalid because Trump didn't sign it. Lawyers for Cohen and Trump say the president was not a party to the agreement, so his signature wasn't required. ||||| Adult-film star Stormy Daniels has filed a defamation suit against President Trump Donald John TrumpEx-Russia ambassador: Trump has done more damage to NATO in months than Russia has in decades Trump takes credit for increased defense spending by NATO allies, but says 'it isn't nearly enough' Trump questions how Russia probe can 'proceed' given FBI agent's private comments MORE in addition to her ongoing one against his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. 
 
 Daniels's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tweeted Monday that his client has filed the lawsuit for Trump's "irresponsible and defamatory statements" about Daniels, whom Cohen paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement weeks before the 2016 election. 
 
 The complaint alleges that Trump's tweets mocking Daniels over a forensic sketch of a man she says threatened her to keep quiet about her claims of an affair with the president amount to defamation because they accuse her of fabricating the alleged crime, which would itself be illegal. 
 
 Moments ago, we filed this lawsuit against Mr. Trump for his recent irresponsible and defamatory statements about my client @stormydaniels. He is well aware of what transpired and his complicity. We fully intend on bringing it to light. #buckleup #bastahttps://t.co/ZuBjI1EY9z — Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 30, 2018 
 
 Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, claiming that in posting the tweets, Trump knew that Daniels "would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage." 
 
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 Daniels claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview last month that in 2011 a man approached her and her infant daughter in a parking lot and threatened her not to speak about the alleged affair. 
 
 “He leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That’s a beautiful little girl,' ” Daniels said. “ 'It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone.” 
 
 In response to the forensic sketch Daniels released, Trump tweeted that the situation was “a total con job,” and shared a tweet that compared the sketch to a photo of Daniels’s ex-husband, suggesting that the two are the same person. 
 
 A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018 
 
 Cohen has requested and on Friday received a 90-day stay in Daniels's lawsuit against him, following the FBI raids on his office, home and hotel room earlier this month. 
 
 Last week, Cohen invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in the suit, saying he could not effectively defend himself because it might incriminate him in the federal case. 
 
 The FBI raids included documents related to the $130,000 payment, among other issues. They came in part from a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE, though the case against Cohen is reportedly not directly related to the probe into Russia's election interference. 
 
 Cohen is reportedly under investigation for campaign finance and bank fraud violations.
– After Stormy Daniels shared a forensic sketch of a man she says threatened her in 2011 and warned her not to discuss her alleged affair with now-President Trump, Trump tweeted that it was just "a sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!" Now Daniels is suing the president over that tweet. The adult film star filed a defamation suit against the POTUS Monday in federal court in Manhattan, NBC News reports. "Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford," the complaint says. Daniels is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, per the Hill. According to the complaint, Trump essentially accused Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, of fabricating the threat against her—and that by doing so, he exposed her to more threats. The lawsuit also claims Trump basically accused Daniels of committing a crime, as it is illegal under New York law to falsely accuse someone of committing a crime against you, Bloomberg reports. "Regardless of who you are or what position you hold, you are not permitted to fabricate statements in an effort to deceive people," says Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti. "There are consequences for doing that." (Meanwhile, a federal judge recently put Daniels' other lawsuit against Trump on hold for 90 days.)