For the first time in the history of America, a former president is on the brink of being indicted and facing criminal charges in court. Former president Donald Trump has been tied in several legal cases, but the hush money payment matter regarding porn star Stormy Daniels is the one that can push him off the edge. The matter pertains to a hush money payment of $130,000 Stormy Daniels says she was given when Trump was campaigning for the 2016 presidential elections. It was given in lieu of her silence regarding an affair she had with Trump in 2006. She reportedly had sex with Trump right after his wife Melania gave birth to Barron Trump. The money was paid by Trump’s then-former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who says he did the same at Trump’s direction. Cohen was jailed after pleading guilty to federal charges stemming from the payoff. However, Trump escaped unscathed from the entire incident at that time but looks all set to become part of a drama this week.
Who is Stormy Daniels?
Stormy Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Clifford. At the time the alleged affair happened, she was an established adult-entertainment actress and a director. She even had several awards to her name. Stormy is a Scotlandville Magnet High School graduate and once wanted to become a journalist. But her career took a massive turn when she visited a friend at a strip club at the age of 17 and soon started performing herself at a strip club in Baton Rouge. She changed her name soon after and chose “Stormy Daniels” since she loved the American rock band Mötley Crüe, and the band’s bassist, Nikki Sixx, had named his daughter Storm.
She became an adult film actress and also directed several movies. Stormy Daniels has also appeared in a few mainstream TV shows and movies. She was in Steve Carell-starrer The 40-Year-Old Virgin and seen as a pole dancer in the Maroon 5 music video Wake Up Call.
In 2010, Stormy even tried her luck in politics and sought a Republican Senate nomination in Louisiana against David Vitter, but backed out soon after saying that she could not afford to run for the Senate and slammed the media for not taking her seriously.
What Stormy says about her liaison with Trump
Stormy spoke about her relationship with Trump at length in an interview with 60 Minutes in 2018. She says that she met Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. The two talked about the television business since Trump had been appearing on The Apprentice at that time. Trump then invited her over for dinner where she says Trump told her that she could appear on Celebrity Apprentice, but Stormy wasn’t sure about that since she was a porn actress. “He talked about himself and bragged about his photo on the cover of a magazine,” Stormy told Anderson Cooper during the interview.
The two then indulged in some “dirty business” and went on to have “unprotected” sex later. Trump referred to Stormy as “honeybunch”, the adult film star says.
The two stayed in touch after that, with Trump inviting her to a Trump Vodka launch party in California and to his office in Trump Tower in New York. However, she says she was never told to keep the affair a secret.
In her book Full Disclosure, Stormy says that Trump invited her to his private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles to talk about her appearance on Celebrity Apprentice. She says they didn’t have sex again and the next day Trump told her he hadn’t been able to get her on Celebrity Apprentice.
Selling the story
Stormy tried to sell the story of her affair with Trump to In Touch magazine. But two employees of the magazine say that Michael Cohen threatened to sue the magazine if the interview ran. It didn’t see the light of day. Stormy says she was threatened by a man in a parking lot in Las Vegas who told her to “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story”.
But just when Trump entered the political arena, former Playboy model Karen McDougal sold the story of her alleged affair with Trump to the National Enquirer. A Federal Election Commission (FEC) document suggests that National Enquirer’s parent company American Media Inc (AMI) bought the rights to McDougal’s life story. It then struck a deal with Trump’s campaign officials to buy McDougal’s story in order to kill it.
The case
During Trump’s campaign, 19 women alleged that Trump had made sexual advances towards them. His legal team then reportedly set out to pay off all such women. But in 2018, reports emerged that Cohen had secretly paid $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her silence. On January 12, 2018, Wall Street Journal published the first reports of the affair. Cohen denied the affair, but later in February admitted to having paid Daniels from his own pocket.
She announced in March that she will sue Trump. Daniels claimed Cohen forced her into signing a statement denying the affair. Later in April, Trump came out and denied having made any such payment. On December 12, Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Trump earlier this week claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA’s office will arrest him within days. He calls the probe “corrupt and highly political” and an “old and fully debunked fairy-tale”.
source- wion