Broidy Breaks Off Hush Money Payments, Claiming Breach Of Contract

Businessman and Republican megadonor Elliott Broidy. Image by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Pepperdine University

By Alyssa Fisher July 2, 2018

Republican donor Elliott Broidy will end hush money payments to his onetime mistress, claiming that she breached their nondisclosure agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Broidy agreed last year to pay Playboy model Shera Bechard $1.6 million in installments in exchange for her silence about their alleged affair, according to the Journal.

The deal for Bechard’s silence was reached between President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, who like Broidy served as a finance chair of the Republican National Committee, and Keith Davidson, who has represented both Bechard and Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleges that she had an an affair with Trump.

Broidy is now calling the deal off, claiming that Davidson improperly discussed the hush money with Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ current lawyer.

A spokesman for Davidson denied the allegations to the Wall Street Journal, saying that “any accusation to the contrary is false and defamatory.”

Avenatti told the Journal: “I’m neither going to confirm nor deny what information I have about this, whether it’s all been disclosed yet, or where I learned it. But I would encourage Ms. Bechard to disclose everything she knows about this situation to the public.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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