Who is Stormy Daniels and what is her relationship with Donald Trump?
Stormy Daniels is set to testify today in the criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump. Who is she and what is her relationship with the former president?
Last spring, Donald Trump became the first president, former or sitting, to be charged with a crime, and by the end of the year, he had been indicted four times. The first case that he was indicted in was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, over allegations that he made an illegal hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels using campaign funds in 2016.
Daniels is set to testify in Trump’s hush money trial in New York today.
Who is Stormy Daniels?
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is an adult film actress, screenwriter, and director originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Horses were her main interest and hobby, according to a New York Times article. She supported herself financially by working in strip clubs, starting in high school.
READ ALSO: Details murky as police investigate shooting outside Drake’s Toronto home
After several years, she began appearing in and directing pornographic films, using a pseudonym derived from the name Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Six gave his daughter, Storm, as well as his preference for Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
READ ALSO: Why did Mark Hamill call President Biden “Joe-B-Wan Kenobi”?
The relationship between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump
According to The Guardian, Daniels met Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, where she was hired to greet the competitors. Daniels has recounted that a Trump bodyguard invited her to dinner, and that they later had sex in his hotel room despite the fact that he was married to Melania Trump.
Daniels has also said they kept in touch for a while and that he offered her a role on his reality show ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’ The actress claims that she had the sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania.
For his part, Trump has denied that there was a relationship between them. Bragg, who brought the case forward, alleges that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, made a $130,000 payment to Daniels on behalf of the former president.
Cohen testified that the payment was to cover up the affair Trump allegedly had with her. With the payment, it was hoped that the news would not come to light so as not to harm his 2016 presidential candidacy.