Donald Trump became the first US president to face criminal charges on Thursday after he was indicted by a New York grand jury over hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
So who is the woman whose statements led to the former president’s indictment?
WHAT DID SHE SAY ABOUT TRUMP?
Stormy Daniels (44), whose legal name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has appeared and directed numerous pornographic films, under a pseudonym derived from the name Motley Crue bassist Nikki Six gave to his daughter – Storm – and her preference for Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Daniels said she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006, a year after he married eventual first lady Melania. The two were introduced in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California. She said Trump invited her to dinner in his hotel room.
She appeared on a CBS programme in 2018 and said Trump asked her whether she would like to appear on his reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’. “He was like, ‘Wow, you – you are special. You remind me of my daughter.’ You know, he was like, ‘You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you,'” Daniels told CBS.
She said the two later had consensual sex.
Stormy Daniels said Trump called her again the following year and they met in July 2007 at his request at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. According to Daniels, Trump wanted to have sex with her again at the hotel but she declined. A month later, he called her and said he was not able to get her booked on his show.
HUSH MONEY PAYMENT
The relationship between the two took a drastic turn while Donald Trump was campaigning for the presidential election in 2016. According to a Guardian report, Stormy Daniels was negotiating a deal to go public about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump when she received what prosecutors say was a $130,000 payment to hush up.
The non-disclosure agreement was signed by Keith Davidson, Daniels’ lawyer at the time, and Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer. The document included a spot for Trump’s signature, but he never signed it.
In 2018, the Wall Street Journal published a report on the payment given to Daniels and Cohen made a public statement that he paid the adult film star using his own money and was not directed to do so by Trump.
Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit against Trump and Cohen to revoke the agreement led to the ex-president’s legal team acknowledging that the NDA cannot be enforced as he did not sign it himself.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels and said the payment had nothing to do with his election win. However, during the hearing for a case to determine whether he violated state campaign finance laws or falsified business records, prosecutors persuaded the grand jury to charge that his method of repaying Cohen – in $35,000 monthly increments – was illegal.
Michael Cohen later pleaded guilty in 2018 to paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and a former Playboy model at Trump’s direction. He was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment on multiple charges.
TRUMP CLAIMS INNOCENCE
After his indictment by the grand jury, Trump, who has already announced his 2024 presidential bid, said he is “completely innocent” and called the probe a “political persecution”.
“This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said, providing no evidence.
For Stormy Daniels, this is not the first time that she has gone head-to-head against a Republican. She almost ran against David Vitter for the 2010 Louisiana Senate race after his phone calls to an escort service were exposed by an investigator for Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. People were outraged over the calls, which were a direct contradiction to his public image of a senator with traditional family values.
Daniels toured around Louisiana in what she described as an effort to listen to voters’ thoughts on issues that were important to them. However, she ultimately did not run against Vitter and he won the election and was re-elected as Louisiana Senator.