July 10, 2018 |
Different Model, New Lawsuit, Same Damn Lawyers |
LOS ANGELES â For the last few months, Iâve been keeping a weary, bloodshot eye on all the legal developments involving Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, Michael Avenatti and assorted other interrelated parties. Iâm not going to lie â at first it was kinda fun. After all, who doesnât enjoy the occasional sex scandal, particularly when the scandal involves a porn star, a President, a healthy dose of mouthy lawyers and the use of catchy, alliterative pseudonyms like âPeggy Petersonâ and âDavid Dennisonâ? Soon the fun ended, though. The initial mirth of the alleged affair and corresponding coverup was quickly buried beneath a growing pile of briefs and motions, tweets, counter-tweets and gratuitous publicity-hounding. Before you knew it, it wasnât just Stormy suing to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement. Soon it was Stormyâs former lawyer suing her current lawyer and Trumpâs former lawyer, and Stormyâs current lawyer unsuccessfully trying to insert himself into a criminal case involving Trumpâs former lawyer, and the former Mayor of New York saying inane bullshit to anybody willing to point a microphone at him. Now, just to make things more confusing, irritating and PACER-fee-inducing, thereâs a whole new fucking lawsuit involving not only a bunch of the same dickheads Iâm already tired of writing about, but some other asshole, too. Making matters worse, the new asshole, major GOP donor Elliot Broidy, apparently negotiated a hush money agreement of his own through Trumpâs former attorney and Stormyâs former attorney, which means itâs only a matter of time before his current attorney sues Stormyâs current attorneyâs former attorney, or some similarly mind-numbing bullshit. The baffling interconnectedness doesnât stop there, though. Remember those catchy pseudonyms I mentioned earlier? Well, it turns out when Trumpâs former attorney negotiated the hush money payment with Stormyâs former attorney on behalf of Broidy, they decided to call Broidy âDavid Dennisonâ and Shera Bechard (the former Playboy model Broidy allegedly impregnated) âPeggy Peterson,â just as they did with Stormy and The Donald. To top things off, the fact the Stormy/Trump NDA and the Broidy/Bechard NDA use the same pseudonyms â along with some other coincidences, inferences and speculations â are enough to lead some law professor to theorize it was Trump, not Broidy, who had the affair with Bechard. The latest wrinkles in this whole mess seem to have formed when Broidy decided to stop making payments to Bechard, asserting she had violated their NDA. It didnât take long after that decision had been reported for reports to surface of Bechard suing Broidy, Stormyâs current attorney (Avenatti) and the former attorney she shares with Stormy, Keith Davidson. Thatâs all clear enough, right? Riiight. Hansel and Gretel could hijack a Wonder Bread delivery truck and still not have enough breadcrumbs to follow this shit. Fortunately, at least for the time being, thereâs a seal on the lawsuit Bechard filed, so I donât have to spend time reading that shit and digging out boring-ass quotes like: âAround this time, Bechard (âPeggy Peterson 2â) contacted Davidson (âMuckrakerâ) on the advice of Cohen (âSeñor Fixâ) without realizing Cohen was also advising Brody (âDavid Dennison 2â) at the behest of Trump (âDavid Dennison 1â).â The fact thereâs nothing much to say about the case yet isnât about to stop Avenatti from talking about it, naturally.
Whatâs next for this wild and crazy set of cases? Will Bechard reveal she did indeed have an affair with Trump and not Broidy? Will either NDA survive court scrutiny? Will Trumpâs current lawyer sue Stormyâs former lawyer for failing to abide by a hush agreement negotiated by Michael Cohenâs future lawyer? Will the court, in an unprecedented move, join all the cases together and remove them to the Peopleâs Court for trial? As one of the parties involved in this clusterfuck of cases is so fond of saying, âweâll see.â Shark Image © Chatrin Rockerz |