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Porn Star Stormy Daniels Testifies In Trump’s Hush Money Trial, Describes First Meeting With Former US President

Porn Star Stormy Daniels Testifies In Trump’s Hush Money Trial, Describes First Meeting With Former US President
May 7, 2024

Daniels’ testimony, which included a detailed and at times graphic accounting of an encounter Trump has denied, is central to the case.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford testified on Tuesday at Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

 

In her testimony, Daniels described a sexual encounter she had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off by the ex-president to keep silent during the presidential election 10 years later.

 

Prosecutors have accused Trump’s attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, of paying $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with the former President.

 

Trump has denied the allegation.

 

Daniels’ testimony, which included a detailed and at times graphic accounting of an encounter Trump has denied, is central to the case.

 

In the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

 

According to AP News, in her testimony, Daniels described how an initial meeting at a golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a “brief” sexual encounter that she said Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.

 

After it ended, she said, “It was really hard to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so hard,” she testified.

 

“He said, ‘Oh, it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch,’” Daniels continued. “I just wanted to leave.”

 

In the years since the encounter was disclosed, Daniels has emerged as a vocal Trump antagonist, sharing her story in a book and on television.

 

She recalled meeting Trump because the adult film studio she worked for at the time was sponsoring one of the holes on the golf course.

 

They chatted about the adult film industry and her directing abilities when Trump’s group passed through. The celebrity real estate developer remarked that she must be “the smart one” if she’s making films, Daniels recalled.

 

According to Daniels, later, in a room where celebrity golfers collected gift bags and swag, Trump remembered her as “the smart one” and asked if she wanted to go to dinner.

 

Daniels testified she accepted Trump’s invite because she wanted to get out of a planned dinner with her company colleagues. She said her then-publicist suggested in a phone call that Trump’s invitation was a good excuse to duck the work dinner and would “make a great story” and perhaps help her career.

 

“What could possibly go wrong?” she recalled the publicist saying.

 

Testimony so far has made clear that at the time payment was made to Daniels, Trump and his campaign were reeling from the October 7, 2016, publication of footage in which the then-presidential candidate boasted about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission.

 

The candidate spoke with Cohen and Hope Hicks, his campaign’s press secretary, by phone the next day as they sought to limit damage from the tape and keep his alleged affairs out of the press, according to testimony.

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