A US federal judge has dismissed porn actress Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit seeking to annul a hush money agreement she had with President Donald Trump.
The agreement prevented her from discussing an alleged 2006 fling with Mr Trump – but Mr Trump had already agreed not to enforce it.
Mr Trump has denied having an affair with Ms Daniels.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen has said the $130,000 (£100,000) payment was made to help Mr Trump get elected.
Last month Mr Cohen told Congress that Mr Trump had reimbursed him for the payment “as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws”.
Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing.
The decision in favour of Mr Trump by Los Angeles Federal Judge James Otero follows the failure of Ms Daniels’ defamation case against Mr Trump last year – a case over which Judge Otero also presided.
She had sued the US president after he mocked her claim that a stranger had threatened her to keep quiet.
Ms Daniels said the latest ruling amounted to the end of the non-disclosure agreement.
“More than a year ago when I was being threatened with a 20 million lawsuit, I asked a judge to toss out this illegal NDA. Glad I stood my ground and kept fighting,” she said on Twitter.
Her lawyer Michael Avenatti also insisted the result was a win for his client.
Yet again, lots of misreporting going on. Be clear: The Court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuit – she won. How people can claim this is a “loss” after we forced Trump and Cohen to cave and Cohen has been convicted, etc. is a mystery.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 8, 2019
