Trump Organization Lawyer Was Involved In Effort To Silence Stormy Daniels

Ken AshfordStormy Daniels & Karen McDougal Affairs, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

An attorney tied to the Trump Organization has been listed on recent documents in arbitration proceedings preventing porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking publicly about her alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump.

The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Rothfeld and Joe Palazzolo report that Jill Martin, a Trump Organization lawyer, is listed on confidential arbitration documents as representing Essential Consultants, LLC, which is the Delaware-based limited liability corporation Trump attorney Michael Cohen created to pay Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) $130,000 in hush money ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign.

This is a big deal because it ties a top Trump Organization lawyer directly to the scandal for the first time. Cohen has said that he personally paid Daniels the $130,000 in exchange for her silence, but has denied that the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign had anything to do with it.

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said in a statement to the New York Times in February. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Martin responded Wednesday with a statement from the Trump Organization that indicated she was working on the Daniels matter in a private capacity. “The Trump Organization is not representing anyone and, with the exception of one of its California based attorneys in her individual capacity facilitating the initial filing … the company has had no involvement in the matter,” the statement read.

Nevertheless, Martin’s connections to the Trump Organization are clear. Her LinkedIn page lists her as the vice president and general counsel for the Trump Organization, and as the Wall Street Journal detailed:

In the arbitration proceedings, Ms. Martin signed a declaration listing her office address as One Trump National Drive, which is at the Trump Organization’s Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Ms. Martin, a lawyer for the Trump Organization since 2010, has defended Mr. Trump both in court and in the media. She was a lead attorney for the Trump Organization in lawsuits alleging Mr. Trump’s real-estate seminars, Trump University, had defrauded customers.

Martin was not directly involved in the Trump campaign, but CNN reports that she publicly defended Trump during the campaign, including on television.

Of course, Martin’s name appears on this very recent demand for arbitration dated February 22, 2018 — long after the “hush agreement” with Daniels. It is not yet clear whether she had any role in the Daniels case before last month.

Still, the arbitration documents Martin submitted included the request for a restraining order to keep Daniels from talking openly about her alleged encounter with Trump. The restraining order was issued on February 27; its existence was made public only after Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, filed a lawsuit claiming the hush agreement was invalid because Trump had never signed it.

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