Michael Cohen’s other client makes telling new move
Top Republican fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, has announced that he will make no further payments to Shera Bechard, his purported mistress, alleging that Bechard breached their nondisclosure agreement. One wonders what might really be behind this development. Broidy entered a nondisclosure with Bechard, a former Playboy Playmate, pursuant to which Broidy was to make eight quarterly payments of $200,000 to Bechard. Bechard allegedly was the mistress of Broidy, who got pregnant and had an abortion.
Suspicions arose about the provenance of the story, and many suspected that the NDA entered by Broidy was for Donald J. Trump. (Michael Cohen used the same NDA he used with Stormy Daniels, the same pseudonyms, and the plaintiff’s attorney in each case was Keith Davidson.) Broidy received several White House meetings with the United Arab Emirates, and then received $600 million in contracts with the UAE. (Broidy also has pleaded guilty in the past to making payments to government officials in exchange for business, including paying more than $90,000 to a mistress of a government official.) Broidy was one of only three people disclosed as current legal clients of Cohen (the other two are POTUS and Sean Hannity).
Broidy is asserting that the NDA is “null and void” because Davidson violated the agreement by disclosing aspects of the NDA to Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels. Broidy has made no allegation that the party to the NDA, Bechard, violated the NDA.
The timing of the declaration by Broidy is interesting, coming on the heels of Michael Cohen suggesting he is ready to put his family first and might be willing to tell all to the Feds. It also potentially opens the door for Bechard to tell what she knows, given that the payments have ended. It is one more interesting twist in this ongoing investigation of Cohen, the Fixer, and his primary client, POTUS.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.