Donald Trump Attorney Calls Stormy Daniels a 'Bad Actor' in Latest Defense

Donald Trump's new lawyer accused adult film star Stormy Daniels of allegedly attempting to extort the former President and claiming she was a "bad actor."

Attorney Joe Tacopina accused Daniels— whose given name is Stephanie Clifford— of acting in bad faith by claiming she was paid "hush money" to keep quiet about her alleged involvement with Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump is facing an imminent indictment over the matter as Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, pursuing a potential violation of state election law and falsifying business documents.

Daniels was allegedly paid $130,000 by Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in 2016 to keep quiet about her supposed sexual relationship with the presidential candidate during his campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 to making an illegal payment to Daniels and that Trump reimbursed him the money. He also testified the same more than 20 times in meetings with Manhattan prosecutors.

Tacopina appeared on Fox News' Life, Liberty & Levin to denounce Daniels' claims and attempted to paint his client as an "extortion victim."

"There's no crime here. The only potential crime here, Mark, is that Donald Trump was an extortion victim. When someone says 'give me money, or I'm gonna tell a nasty story about you,' whether true or not, that's absolutely irrelevant to the equation, 'I'm gonna tell a story to the press, I'm gonna embarrass you to your family, unless you give me money'."

He added: "That's extortion 101. How she's not being looked at as someone who was a bad actor is beyond me. But yet Donald Trump is the victim of extortion. For the first time in this country's history in a most novel, novel, untested legal theory, of prosecution is being subject to a grand jury investigation.

"It makes no sense on the law. It makes no sense on the facts."

Prosecutors must prove to the grand jury that the former U.S. president reimbursed Cohen and then falsified business records to hide the payment.

Trump and his attorneys have denied wrongdoing, most recently arguing it was legal and those payments would have been made regardless if he was running for president or not.

One of his lawyers, Susan Necheles, met with members of the DA's office to make the argument and to insist campaign funds were not used to pay Daniels.

The grand jury in New York invited Trump to testify last week—which legal experts described as the "last stop" before an indictment.

Trump had denounced the hearings as a "political witch-hunt," and told followers on the Truth social media platform that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday.

In his posts over the weekend, he did not indicate why he thought Tuesday could be the day of his potential arrest but did call for his followers to protest in the event of his indictment.

Necheles told CBS his post was based on speculation: "As President Trump states, his post is based on the media reports. Since this is a political prosecution, the District Attorney's office has engaged in a practice of leaking everything to the press, rather than communicating with President Trump's attorneys as would be done in a normal case."

If Trump is arrested it would make him the first former President to be indicted, and put a dent in his plans to run for president again in 2024.

Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Stormy Daniels via email.