A federal judge agreed this week to a request from Stormy Daniels to drop her defamation claim against Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, filed as part of her ongoing legal battle with the president. While Cohen and Trump initially issued denials relating to the payment, they later acknowledged that Cohen paid Daniels and that Trump repaid Cohen. Attorneys for Daniels and Cohen both claimed victory in the wake of Otero’s ruling, which also dismissed as moot Cohen’s request that the defamation claim be removed. “When a plaintiff’s claim has been dismissed ‘with prejudice,’ the defendant, in this case Mr. Cohen, is the prevailing party. Trump later argued that he “never directed [Cohen] to do anything wrong.”

Source: Washington Post February 05, 2019 19:21 UTC