Sex, bribes and threats: here are the details of the saga about Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels, this former porn star with whom the former president is said to have had an affair.
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In recent days, Donald Trump has warned his supporters that he will be arrested Tuesday in connection with an investigation into a $130,000 payment to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence in 2016.
We summarize the saga for you.
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The sexual relationship
Stephanie Clifford, better known by her former porn star name Stormy Daniels, claims she met Donald Trump in July 2006 during a charity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, which straddles the states of California and Nevada.
In her 2018 book Full Disclosure, she says that Donald Trump’s bodyguard invited her to dinner, but it was actually an invitation to join the billionaire at his apartment. The encounter ended in consensual sex. The former president also promised him a spot on his reality show The Apprentice, a promise he never kept.
The book published by the former porn actress names several juicy details of the sexual relationship. In it, she describes Trump’s penis as “smaller than average,” but “not terribly small.”
“He has a huge mushroom head. Like a toad…I lay there annoyed at being fucked by a guy with Yeti hair and a dick like the mushroom in Mario Kart…” the 27-year-old wrote during his meeting with Trump.
“It was maybe the least impressive sex I’ve ever had, but obviously he didn’t share that opinion,” she also says in the book.
The payment of $130,000
As Donald Trump neared the US presidency in 2016, attorney Michael Cohen wanted to make sure the case wouldn’t hurt his client’s election. In October 2016, two weeks before the election, he reportedly paid Stephanie Clifford $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents her from divulging the smallest detail of her affair with the Republican candidate.
Getty Images via AFP
Stephanie Clifford said she agreed to sign the contract because she feared for her family’s safety.
Almost two years later, on January 12, 2018, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed the details of the $130,000 payment. Michael Cohen later admitted to making the payment to the former actress.
Shortly after that admission, Stéphanie Clifford sued Donald Trump and Cohen to get rid of the confidentiality agreement she signed during the 2016 presidential election.
the threats
The first time Stephanie Clifford spoke publicly about her affair with Donald Trump was in a 2011 interview with American gossip magazine In Touch Weekly. However, the magazine only published the story in 2018 because Michael Cohen is said to have threatened him with legal action.
Stormy Daniels also said she was the victim of threats around the same time a man approached her and her daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot. He allegedly told her to “leave Trump alone.”
“She’s a beautiful little girl. It would be a shame if something happened to her mother,” the man reportedly told him.
AFP
When the story broke out in 2018, the ex-porn actress was asked to testify in a report aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes. She claims that just before the episode aired, a company associated with Mr. Cohen tried to dissuade her from speaking out by threatening her with a $20 million lawsuit.
Stormy Daniels testified during the report.
Donald Trump says he will be arrested
Donald Trump has always denied having sex with Stomy Daniels. He’s also always said he has no idea about the financial arrangement between his lawyer and the former actress.
The problem is that on May 2, 2018, another of his attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, contradicted him by claiming that the billionaire reimbursed Michael Cohen through his company, the Trump Organization.
AFP
The payment would then have been classified by the Trump Organization as legal fees. Prosecutors believe this amounts to Mr Trump falsifying business records, which constitutes a criminal offense.
The American judiciary also assumes that it could be a hidden donation to the 2016 presidential campaign by Stephanie the former president, which would violate electoral laws.