The porn star is afraid of violent Trump supporters, but she’s ready to face the man in court. He can’t be scarier with his clothes on
Trump is no longer untouchable,” says Stormy Daniels. “A person in power is not exempt from the law. And no matter what your job is, or what your bank account says, you’re held accountable for the things you’ve said and done, and justice is served.”
That did not appear to be the case for Donald Trump, the former president who has spent a lifetime escaping consequences and, latterly, prosecution. Until now.
“It’s vindication,” Daniels says, sounding cautious rather than triumphant. “But it’s bittersweet. He’s done so much worse that he should have been taken down [for] before. I am fully aware of the insanity of it being a porn star. But it’s also poetic; this pussy grabbed back.”
Although the charges against Trump have yet to be made public, prosecutors have been investigating the payment of $130,000 in alleged hush money to Daniels, now 44, a week before the 2016 election. On Tuesday the 76-year-old former president must turn himself in or face arrest and extradition to New York. He is the first US president in history to face criminal prosecution.
“It’s monumental and epic, and I’m proud,” Daniels says. “The other side of it is that it’s going to continue to divide people and bring them up in arms. He’s already gotten away with inciting a riot, and causing death and destruction.
“Whatever the outcome is, it’s going to cause violence, and there’s going to be injuries and death,” she says. “There’s the potential for a lot of good to come from this. But either way, a lot of bad is going to come from it, too.”
Trump supporters have gathered outside his Mar-a-Lago resort, which he is expected to leave to hand himself in
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
For Daniels, speaking from an undisclosed location in the United States, the bad has already begun. Within hours of the indictment, she started receiving threats of violence across “all social media platforms, and email, and phone”.
“The number and the intensity is the same as it was the first time around, but this time it’s straight-up violent,” she says. “The first time it was ‘gold digger’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘liar’ whatever. And this time it’s ‘I’m gonna murder you’. They’re way more violent and graphic.”
Is she frightened? “For the first time ever, yeah. And part of me is hesitant to say that because you don’t want blood in the water. It kind of encourages the sharks.” But, she says, “it’s especially scary because Trump himself is inciting violence and encouraging it.”
Since the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump’s supporters have felt emboldened, she believes. “The country is more divided and people are more desperate. I’m not afraid of him, or of the government, but it just takes one crazy supporter who thinks they’re doing God’s work or protecting democracy.”
Her fears, however, do not extend to the prospect of facing Trump in court. “I’ve seen him naked. There’s no way he could be scarier with his clothes on,” she quips. “And after what Avenatti put me through last January I’m not as scared.” (She was cross-examined for hours in court by her former lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was representing himself on charges of cheating her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in book proceeds; he was jailed for four years.)
‘When the news came I was on a horse named Redemption’
Daniels, whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford, has yet to be officially called to testify against Trump. “I hope that I do have to,” she says. “I’m not afraid, I have nothing to hide, and I look forward to telling everybody what I know.” And, bar one Zoom call with prosecutors, she has not been party to the months of testimonies that have been held behind closed doors.
The news of the indictment, which came on Thursday afternoon in the United States, was, she says, “a shock. There was no warning.” She’d taken a nap, then gone outside to ride her horse.
“There’s something really ironic and hilarious that I got the news about the indictment while I was sitting on a horse named Redemption,” she says. An accomplished equestrian, she used part of the $130,000 she was paid by Trump, via Michael Cohen, to buy a horse trailer.
According to Daniels, she had sex with Trump in a Nevada hotel room in 2006. Trump maintains that he never slept with her, although he does admit to repaying Cohen the $130,000. If they never had sex, what was the money for? She laughs. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s ever answered that question.”
Donald Trump denies having had sex with Stormy Daniels in 2006
Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer”, has served three years in prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He has crossed the floor, becoming a key figure in the prosecution of Trump. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has interviewed Cohen no less than 15 times.
“I know that he is worried for his safety and his family — and even my safety,” says Daniels, who bears no ill will towards her former adversary. “He was sort of responsible for making my life hell, indirectly. But part of me understands that he was trying to be loyal and do his job and really thought he was trying to do the right thing. And it takes a brave person to do what he’s done.”
Though she has to justify “every day” to others that she accepted the $130,000 from Trump, and signed the non-disclosure agreement that accompanied it, Daniels sees it differently.
“If I hadn’t signed the NDA, and I hadn’t taken the hush money, then he didn’t do anything wrong. He banged another hot chick — which he’s kind of known for doing — and nothing about that is illegal. Signing the NDA and taking the hush money was actually the greatest gift that I gave. Because it’s what made it illegal, which made it possible to actually go after him.”
Her profession made it simple for Trump to discredit her, she says. “Can you think of a single time that ‘porn star’ wasn’t put in front of my name? Imagine if I did something else — would ‘school teacher Stormy Daniels, or ‘accountant Stormy Daniels’ have ever been printed? No, it was salacious and used against me and used to ruin my credibility.”
But, she says, it also went in her favour. “Because I couldn’t be shamed. I couldn’t be threatened with nude photos — they are everywhere.”
Stormy Daniels says she feels like a danger to her loved ones
In 2018, when Daniels first went public with her story, “I would get messages that my daughter should be euthanased”. Last year she married Barrett Blade, a fellow porn star and longtime friend. “I thought this was behind me. And now I’m responsible for subjecting another person and another person’s family to shit that they didn’t ask for. I feel like I’m a danger to anybody who I love or care about, or supports me or I’m friends with.”
Still, she does not regret speaking up. “Sometimes in the moment, I’m like, ‘What the f*** was I thinking? Was it worth it?’
“But I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror,” she says. “If I could go back far enough to where I did go to the hotel that night, I wouldn’t have done that. But . . . coming forward, I would do the same thing again. Because it was the right thing to do.”
Source: The Times
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