Shera Bechard says she was pregnant with Republican donor Elliott Broidy’s child when Michael Cohen, the longtime personal fixer for Donald Trump, was approached to “solve” Broidy’s problem, according to a newly unsealed complaint in California Superior Court.
Bechard, a former Playboy Playmate, sued Broidy, the married man with whom she had the affair; her former attorney Keith Davidson, who also represented Stormy Daniels; and Michael Avenatti, the current lawyer for Daniels.
Bechard signed a nondisclosure agreement about the affair with Broidy, which was facilitated by Davidson.
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“Despite his fiduciary and ethical duties to his client, Mr. Davidson treated Ms. Bechard’s claims as a commodity to be traded for his own financial gain,” the complaint, which is heavily redacted at points, alleges. “He began by recruiting Michael Cohen... to approach Mr. Broidy with an offer to represent Mr. Broidy and ‘solve' his issues with Ms. Bechard.”
As Bechard’s complaint notes, Davidson and Cohen previously worked together to ink a hush-money deal between Daniels, represented by Davidson, and Trump, represented by Cohen. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
In October 2017, Bechard said she met with Davidson when “she was seven weeks pregnant with the child of Mr. Broidy,” who was then serving as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Subsequently, Davidson got Bechard to sign a settlement agreement for $1.6 million in exchange for giving up “all rights to sue Mr. Broidy for past conduct and would be required to never again speak of the affair,” according to her complaint.
Bechard and Broidy have both previously acknowledged the affair and that she had an abortion following it.
“Mr. Davidson told her that she was not getting paid to have an abortion,” the complaint said, “but rather to give up her rights to sue Mr. Broidy and to not to talk about the relationship.”
In November 2017, Bechard said she was surprised to discover how quickly Davidson had begun conversations with Broidy’s lawyer, Cohen, unaware of Davidson and Cohen’s pre-existing relationship.
“Mr. Davidson responded that he had a ‘relationship’ with the lawyer, a guy named Michael Cohen.
“Ms. Bechard asked, ‘Wait, he’s your friend?’ But Mr. Davidson said no. Ms. Bechard had no reason to suspect anything was amiss. So she let the issue go and told Mr. Davidson that she looked forward to hearing more,” the complaint reads.
It was not until April 2018 that Bechard says in the complaint that she learned more about the relationship between Davidson and Cohen with the news of their “apparent collusion” over Daniels and Karen McDougal, a woman who also claims to have had an affair with Trump.
Bechard and her counsel allege that Broidy breached their agreement by not paying an installment on July 1. Broidy has said he quit paying once the news of the NDA and the affair was made public. Bechard claims Davidson leaked the information to Avenatti, a claim also made by Broidy that he previously denied to The Daily Beast.
