Ex-Playmate files lawsuit against former RNC official over hush-money agreement

A former Playboy model is suing Elliott Broidy, a former financial official at the Republican National Committee (RNC), and others over a nondisclosure agreement he made with her to cover up their affair.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Shera Bechard is suing Broidy, her former attorney Keith Davidson and Stormy Daniels’s lawyer Michael Avenatti. The lawsuit comes after Broidy alleged this week that Davidson disclosed details about the agreement to Avenatti this spring.

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Broidy resigned from his post at the RNC in April after he admitted to paying an unnamed woman $1.6 million in 2017 after she became pregnant with his child.  

The former RNC official confirmed the affair to the newspaper at the time and admitted that he had “offered to help” a former Playmate financially when she wanted to end the pregnancy.

Broidy has alleged that Davidson, Bechard’s former attorney, disclosed information about the affair to Avenatti, who is representing Daniels in her case against President Trump. 

The Journal reported earlier this week that Broidy would stop paying Bechard as part of a hush-money agreement because Davidson had allegedly disclosed the information. The newspaper reported Friday that Bechard’s complaint was filed after the initial report was published.

A spokesperson for Broidy referred to the Journal to a past statement from his lawyer Chris Clark, who previously said “there was an intentional breach that renders the contract null and void.”

A spokesman for Davidson declined to comment for the report Friday, but the Journal noted that he has previously said that Davidson denies breaching the agreement.

Avenatti had tweeted about an agreement between a top GOP donor and “an L.A. woman” in April. The Journal reported details of Broidy’s arrangement with the woman the next day.

Avenatti told the newspaper that he wasn’t sure why he was named as a defendant in the lawsuit “unless it is a ploy by Ms. Bechard to get publicity.”

“I was never a party to any agreement with her and I never had any obligation to her,” he said

Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen had represented Broidy in the hush-money deal, but is not a party to the lawsuit, according to the Journal.

Updated: 4:38 p.m.