CNN reporter Tom Fuhrman explains how porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 in payments to keep silent about an alleged affair with Donald Trump, has become the center of a legal case facing the former US president.
Trump had a big TV show and Daniels was in porn movies. He was 60 and she was 27 when they met at a golf tournament in 2006. Daniels said Trump shared pictures of his wife and new baby with her, and that they had sex at the time.
But Trump has since denied it, saying, “He mentioned that kind of bullshit and he mentioned this witch hunt all the time… That’s all you want to talk about.”
Born in Louisiana, Stephanie Clifford broke into adult entertainment as a teen as “Stormy”. By her account, she thought Trump might help her get into television. Instead, her allegations of an affair made headlines.
One of the main allegations as Trump’s 2016 campaign came out into the open was saying it was paid $130,000 in exchange for keeping quiet about it. Trump denied any knowledge of this in the spring of 2018. But that same summer, he said in an interview that he learned of her later.
Daniels’ story was baffling at times. For example, at one point she signed statements denying that any affair had taken place. According to what she said, they “made it sound like I had no other choice”, adding that the sentence they told her was “they can make your life hell in many different ways”.
There are now more complex questions at the heart of the legal case against Trump. Did the alleged payments come from campaign funds and was this a violation of campaign finance laws?
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was jailed for the alleged payments, said they were, and that Trump knew about the payments. But others in Trump’s circle say it’s impossible.
As for the former president, a few days ago he insulted Daniels while insisting again by saying: I did nothing wrong in the “horseface” case, I never had a relationship with her. It’s a witch hunt.