And she can say anything she damn well pleases AND keep the money, since it was not in payment for a contract he didn't have with her.

Exactly

if you give me money as part of an agreement and the agreement is later determined to be null and void, i have to give the money back. i don't get the keep the money and go haha you lose if the contract goes away.

i have to give the money back, unless i actually gave you something of value even in the absence of the agreement. if it's not something you can give back to me, then i can keep a portion of the money for that.

the point is, equity has to be restored. stormy may be able to argue that her silence during the period she *thought* the contract was valid was worth a substantial amount, and may be able to keep a portion of the money based on that. but she has to make an argument on the basis of equity, not on the basis of gotcha.



separately, what donnie says about this in public doesn't much matter. what he says in court does.
moreover, cohen is the one who paid stormy, so what donnie says is even less relevant.
in any event, just because donnie says something stupid, and quite probably untrue, how should that make cohen lose his money?

1. There wasn't a contract.
2. Stormy Daniels accepted the money but didn't spend it.
3. She held the money in trust as a bailee with the intention of returning it when asked.
4. No consideration, no exchange of offers and acceptances, no signature by one party = no contract, no problem

Add Trump not acknowledging payment. That means that the money could be interpreted as a gift by Michael Cohen, esp. as it came out of his account and never repaid or reimbursed by Trump.

And I disclaim the theory of substantial performance to make this an agreement. Just b/c SD said nothing until this point in time doesn't signify that she was going through with her end of an illusory contract.* She could have chosen to be silent on her own volition, not a contractual obligation.

* Illusory Promise

A promise that is unenforceable due to indefiniteness or lack of mutuality, where only one side is bound to perform. An example of this would be an agreement between a seller and buyer which states that the seller "agrees to sell all of the ice cream he wants to" to the buyer.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/illusory_promise

there's no way stormy or anyone can spin it that it was a gift.
even if the contract was not properly drafted or executed or is otherwise not enforceable, the existence of those drafts and proof of those negotiations clearly shows that it was contemplated that the $130,000 was in exchange for something that was intended to be of comparable value.


say i pay $25k (not that i have that kind of cash lying around, but for argument's sake, i'm paying in cash in full) for a car at a dealership and drive it off the lot. repo man takes it from my driveway that night and leaves a note on my door. i go back to the dealer and he shows me the sales contract where i signed it but the car dealer never signed it. he says haha, no contract no sale. does he get to keep the money and claim it was a gift?

no, it really doesn't work that way.


as a practical matter, she'll be more than happy to return the $130,000 if it means she can then make millions off her story.
in fact she's explicitly offered that.

Same as Agent Orange...he didn't sign the contract and says he doesn't know about the money. Well, then he isn't the one who has any recourse, then.
As for the cash..I keep thinking of the movie "All of Me" with the argument that the cheating husband was just very open-handed to his lady friends "You give money to lots of people, don't you? And is he to be condemned for being generous?" Cohen was just a free-spender and gave her some money to tide her over till after the elections, right?

Sure, that may not be how the courts will see it, but when did the law matter to the trumpasaurus? It's what he (you should excuse the word) thinks the case is that is important.

breaking the NDA that he didn't have with her over the affair that they didn't have.....

He simply cannot discipline himself to tell the truth about anything. A totally soulless being.

Link to tweet

In his words "Merry Christmas."

Link to tweet