Hearing date set for Trump showdown with porn star

Porn star Stormy Daniels will go to court on July 12 in a bid to dissolve an agreement stopping her discussing an affair she says she had with President Donald Trump, according to court papers.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti filed a lawsuit on behalf of Daniels last week seeking to toss out the confidential settlement she signed just days before the November 2016 election.

The lawsuit alleges that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, began an "intimate relationship" with Trump in the summer of 2006 that continued well into 2007.

A copy of the settlement filed in court yesterday shows that Daniels received the USD 130,000 from a company known as Essential Consultants LLC in return for her silence.

Later yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published details of an arbitration document filed on February 22 in California and signed by Jill A Martin, a Trump Organization lawyer.

The document, intended to stop Daniels from further discussing the alleged affair, represents the first link between Trump's company and efforts to stop Daniels talking.

The White House has denied any sexual encounter between Trump and Daniels - who has offered to return the USD 130,000 she received so that she can be free to "speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the president and the attempts to silence her."