In deciding in favor of the president, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero - who is also overseeing Daniels' pending lawsuit about her non-disclosure agreement - ruled that Trump's tweet \"constitutes 'rhetorical hyperbole' normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/donald-trump-01-gty-mt-181014_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a "Make America Great Again" rally at the Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Ky., Oct. 13, 2018.
Otero noted that Daniels had \"sought to publicly present herself as an adversary\" to Trump, and that to deny him the ability to engage in responding to her allegations \"would significantly hamper the office of the President.\"
\"Any strongly-worded response by a president to another politician or public figure could constitute an action for defamation,\" Otero wrote in his opinion. \"This would deprive the country of the ‘discourse’ common to the political process.\"
\"Such a holding would violate the First Amendment,\" Otero ruled.
Otero also denied Daniels' efforts to engage in what he called a \"fishing expedition\" to seek evidence that Trump was aware of the alleged threat.
Otero has scheduled a hearing for early December on Trump and Cohen’s motions to dismiss Daniels’ principal lawsuit, which seeks a court ruling that the non-disclosure agreement she signed in late October 2016 in invalid.
Cohen and Trump have recently abandoned their opposition to the lawsuit, effectively conceding that the contract is void, and they have asked Otero to dismiss the claim.
Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, has countered that the case should continue because the public deserves to know why a candidate for president and his attorney were so determined to silence his client.
\"I have been practicing law for nearly twenty years,\" Avenatti tweeted last month.
\"Never before have I seen a defendant so frightened to be deposed as Donald Trump, especially for a guy who talks so tough,\" Avenatti wrote. \"He is desperate and doing all he can to avoid having to answer my questions. He is all hat and no cattle.\"
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