NEW YORK: Adult film actress Stormy Daniels sued US President Donald Trump for defamation on Monday, saying he lied by tweeting that her claim of being threatened if she discussed an alleged sexual encounter with him was a “total con job”.

The lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan escalates Daniels litigation with Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid her $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter a decade earlier.

Trump used Twitter on April 18 to complain about a composite sketch that Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti released the previous day.

That sketch depicted a man Daniels said assailed her in a Las Vegas parking lot soon after she had agreed in May 2011 to work with a magazine on a story about her relationship with Trump.

“A sketch years later about a non-existent man,” Trump wrote. “A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018