US judge suggests he may dismiss Stormy Daniels lawsuit against Donald Trump

A U.S. District Judge James Otero has suggested that he may dismiss Stormy Daniels lawsuit against Donald Trump after noting that the businessman turned politician had a free-speech right to make a Twitter comment disputing allegations by adult film actress.

Daniels who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, sued the president for defamation in April in federal court over the tweet.

Her grouse captured in her lawsuit centres on her assertion that a man approached her in 2011 in a Las Vegas parking lot and made a veiled threat after she agreed to talk about her alleged encounter with Trump to In Touch magazine.

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Trump who later denied Stormy Daniels claim, disputed her account on Twitter, saying: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

Daniels’ attorneys said the tweet portrayed her as a liar, but attorneys for Trump asked a federal judge in Los Angeles to dismiss the defamation lawsuit.

“The question is whether the tweet by the president is protected communication or political hyperbole and non-defamatory on its face,” U.S. District Judge James Otero said at a hearing on Monday.

Otero cited certain protections from defamation Trump would have under the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of free-speech rights.

“He’s a public official, he’s president of the United States, so it doesn’t get much higher than that,” Otero said. “It’s free speech by a public official on a matter of public concern.”

 

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