The lawsuit comes after Trump accused Daniels of creating a sketch about a "nonexistent man" and pulling a "con job" on the news media after the adult film star released a composite sketch earlier this month of the man who reportedly threatened her in 2011 to stay silent about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, revealed the drawing on ABC's "The View" earlier this month. The man is described as "lean but fit" and standing between 5'9 and 6 feet tall. There is a $100,000 reward for the identification of the man.
"A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,'" Daniels told Anderson Cooper in an interview. "And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."
According to the complaint, which was released on Twitter Monday by Avenatti, Trump's Twitter remark is "false and defamatory" and "falsely attacks the veracity of Ms. Clifford's account of the threatening incident that took place in 2011."
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 30, 2018
"It also operates to accuse Ms. Clifford of committing a crime under New York law, as well as the law of numerous other states, in that it effectively states that Ms. Clifford falsely accused an individual of committing a crime against her when no such crime occurred," the lawsuit states.
"In making the statement, Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford. Mr. Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported, and that Ms. Clifford would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm and reputational damage as a result," the statement adds.
The new lawsuit, which includes compensatory and punitive damages to be decided by a jury, seeks more than $75,000 in damages.
Daniels is currently locked in a legal battle to break from the nondisclosure agreement she signed prior to the 2016 presidential election that kept her from speaking on the alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006. The actress is claiming that the agreement is void because Trump never actually signed the documents.
