Stormy Daniels uncertain about fate of her ‘60 Minutes’ segment

Porn star Stormy Daniels said in an email on Sunday “we will see what happens” in a taped segment she did for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” as reports suggested that lawyers for President Donald Trump were trying to block the broadcast.

The most likely legal course for Trump’s attorneys would be to seek a court injunction to try to enforce the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed when she accepted $130,000 from Trump attorney Michael Cohen before the 2016 presidential election. In the deal, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, promised to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

CBS declined to comment Sunday on a BuzzFeed report that Trump’s attorneys were considering legal action. Late last week, CBS said the interview with Anderson Cooper, who posed for a photo with Daniels that was widely circulated on social media, had not been scheduled.

BuzzFeed, quoting an anonymous source, said Trump’s lawyers “are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing.”

Daniels, in a brief email to The Washington Post, declined to comment on any legal discussion. “All I can say is it was never going to air tonight and I guess we will see what happens,” she said. Michael Avenatti, her attorney, shared without comment BuzzFeed’s report on Twitter shortly after it was published.

An injunction would be the latest in a series of moves to silence Daniels, including a restraining order the president’s lawyers obtained recently.

Avenatti on Tuesday filed suit on Daniels’ behalf, claiming the contract was invalid because it did not have Trump’s signature.

Now that Trump is president, the existence of an extramarital relationship becomes a matter of public concern, said C.J. Peters, dean of the University of Akron School of Law. “A judicial ‘gag order’ against Ms. Daniels or CBS would constitute a ‘prior restraint’ of speech, which under First Amendment doctrine is almost never permissible,” Peters said.