Adult film actress Stormy Daniels sues Trump over 'hush agreement'

Adult star Stormy Daniels on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump seeking to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement the former had signed before the US presidential elections in 2016.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles by Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleged that Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen tried "to silence Clifford through the use of an improper and procedurally defective arbitration proceeding hidden from public view" last week.

The lawsuit also said that the adult star had publicly claimed she had an "intimate relationship" with Trump, following the revelation that Cohen had paid her $130,000 before the 2016 election in October last year.

The lawsuit seeks a court order that would void an alleged non-disclosure agreement between Trump and Daniels. The suit also claims that Trump never signed the agreement "so he could later, if need be, publicly disavow any knowledge of the Hush Agreement and Daniels", The Guardian reported.

In her filing on Tuesday, Daniels said that she started her "intimate relationship" with Trump at Lake Tahoe in 2006 and continued it in 2007 as well.

In January, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Cohen arranged $130,000 for Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement, one month before the 2016 presidential elections. However, Cohen had "vehemently" denied the WSJ's report.

A former Playboy model told the New Yorker last month that she regretted signing away rights to her story of a nine-month relationship with Trump for $150,000 in August 2016.