Michael Avenatti is representing the Stephanie Clifford, adult-film star, in court in accordance to her lawsuit against President Donald Trump. Avenatti said that he is now being sued by Shera Bechard, a former Playboy model. He states that he is unaware as to why the lawsuit was being sealed by the courts.
The only thing able to see of the sealed complaint filed by Bechard is who it it targeting. Former GOP fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, is the first named defendant on the suit. Broidy and Bechard had formerly had an affair together, which led to a $1.6 million confidentiality agreement last year. Shera is also targeting the lawyer who represented her in the deal, Keith Davidson. Keith also represented Stromy Daniels in 2016 with her non-disclosure agreement involving alleged relations with Donald Trump. About two dozen other unnamed defendants appear on the lawsuit, including Keith Davidson’s law firm itself.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Briody stopped paying Bechard, claiming their agreement was voided due to Davidson “sharing information with Avenatti”. There were supposed to be eight installed payments between the two. Although, the Journal notes that Davidson denies breaching their agreement, “I was never a party to any agreement with her and I never had any obligation to her”.
Michael Avenatti filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, which he later publicly posted on Twitter. He claimed to not know the nature of said allegations. Elliott Briody’s affair was separately released in a case which involved Michael Cohen. Cohen is a former lawyer of Donald Trump, who served with Broidy as the deputy chairman for the Republican National Committee (RNC)’s finance committee. However, the two men have since resigned from the RNC; Briody resigning in April.
The work between Briody and Cohen was discovered post the FBI raid of one of Cohen’s office. He attempted to have some of the information between the two kept classified. He then represented Shera on her “hush-money” deal to Bechard.
Briody’s lawyers, Avenatti and Chris Clark, were not prompt in responding to public comment requests. However, Bechard’s Lawyer Peter Stris posted on twitter as well saying, “our team will litigate aggressively and responsibly on behalf of our client”.
