Posted March 29, 2018 06:53:54

The lawyer acting for adult film star Stormy Daniels has filed a motion seeking to depose President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, dialling up pressure on the President over his alleged sexual encounter with her years ago.

If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since former president Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his encounter with Paula Jones.

Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is seeking sworn testimony from Mr Trump and Mr Cohen about a $US130,000 ($170,000) payment made to Ms Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election, as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Mr Avenatti's documents were filed in the US District Court in California.

He is part of a growing list of lawyers looking to question Mr Trump. Lawyers for a former contestant on one of his reality television shows have said they want to depose the President as part of a defamation suit.

Mr Trump's legal team also continues to negotiate with special counsel Robert Mueller over the scope and terms of an interview with the President

Mr Avenatti wants to question Mr Trump and Mr Cohen for "no more than two hours".

In a statement to CBS, Mr Cohen's lawyer, David Schwartz, called the filing a, "reckless use of the legal system in order to continue to inflate Michael Avenatti's deflated ego and keep himself relevant".

In the filing, Mr Avenatti said the depositions were needed to establish if Mr Trump knew about the payment, which he referred to as a "hush agreement", and if he consented to it.

"We're looking for sworn answers from the President and Mr Cohen about what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about it," Mr Avenatti said.

While he noted, "in every case you always have to be open to settlement," Mr Avenatti said, "At this point we don't see how this case would possibly be settled".

The White House, which has said Mr Trump denies the relationship, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hearing set for end of April

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, detailed her alleged 2006 tryst with Mr Trump in a widely watched television interview that aired on Sunday.

She said she had slept with him once, shortly after Mr Trump's wife Melania gave birth to the President's youngest son.

She also said a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter, and threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story.

The interview prompted a new flurry of legal action, with a lawyer for Mr Cohen demanding Daniels publicly apologise to his client for suggesting he was involved in her intimidation.

Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Mr Cohen of defamation.

Mr Cohen has said he paid the $130,000 out of his own pocket and that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction.

Mr Avenatti has argued the "hush agreement" Daniels signed in October 2016 was invalid because it was not signed by Mr Trump.

A hearing before Judge S James Otero in the Federal Court's Central District in Los Angeles is set for April 30.

As precedent, the motion notes Mr Clinton was deposed while in office in 1998 during the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.

That came after the Supreme Court ruled a sitting president was not immune from civil litigation on something that happened before taking office and was unrelated to the office.

Ms Jones' case was dismissed by a judge and then appealed, and the appeal was still pending when Mr Clinton agreed to pay $850,000 to Ms Jones to settle the case. He did not admit wrongdoing.

AP

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, donald-trump, world-politics, united-states