After months of headline grabbing intrigue, adult film actress Stormy Daniels has spoken publicly about an alleged affair with President Donald Trump in her first televised interview.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, appeared appear on CBS’s 60 Minutes, interviewed by longtime host Anderson Cooper. The interview, which was actually taped earlier this month, was broadcast even though Mr Trump’s lawyers had sought to stop the interview from being made public.
Ms Daniels claimed in the in interview that she was threatened with physical violence after she first attempted to go public with the story by a man who told her: “Leave Trump alone.”
She claimed the encounter took place in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, some time after she had arranged for the story of an alleged sexual dalliance with Mr Trump to be sold to a magazine. Ms Daniels said was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she said she was accosted.
“A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’” she said. Ms Daniels then claimed the man, who she could not identify, “leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”
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Ms Daniels received $130,000 from a company established by Trump attorney Michael Cohen just before the 2016 presidential election. Mr Cohen said the money came from his own funds and denies it being paid on behalf of the president.
Ms Daniels told Anderson Cooper that the agreement was appealing because it meant she would receive some money but also not have to worry about the effect the revelation of the alleged affair would have on her child. She signed the agreement 11 days before the election.
Earlier this month Ms Daniels launched a lawsuit against Mr Trump and Mr Cohen claiming the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) she signed about the alleged 2006 affair is void as Mr Trump did not sign it.
Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...
17 show all Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...
1/17 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” REUTERS/Carlos Barria
2/17 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago. AFP/Getty Images
3/17 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
4/17 The 'muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security. Bryan R Smith/Getty
5/17 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there. AP
6/17 Called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea.
7/17 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control. Getty Images
8/17 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no.
9/17 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
10/17 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet.
11/17 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news”.
12/17 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop. Getty Images
13/17 Not realizing being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire. REUTERS
14/17 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters
15/17 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.)
16/17 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement. Getty Images
17/17 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t. The day was very dreary. Reuters
Attorneys defending Mr Trump and Mr Cohen's company have filed to move the lawsuit against their clients to federal court and are claiming she could owe in excess of $20 million for violating the NDA.
In their filing, the Trump and Cohen attorneys say that Ms Daniels agreed to pay $1 million for “each breach,” and and allege that 20 such breaches have taken place.
Ms Daniels has offered to return the money paid in the "hush agreement" in order to speak freely about her alleged relationship with Trump.
Mr Trump, through the White House and his representatives, has denied that the affair took place.
After nearly a month of hype, "60 Minutes" has finally aired its special interview with porn star Stormy Daniels (AKA Stephanie Clifford), who says she had an affair with Donald Trump early on in his marriage to Melania Trump.
In her interview with Anderson Cooper, Daniels says that she was threatened after making a deal in May 2011 to sell her story for $15,000 to a magazine. The deal was reportedly canceled after Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, threatened to sue the magazine.
Daniels recalls that later, while she was with her daughter in a parking lot, a man threatened her: "...a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."
After the threat, Daniels said she signed a $130,000 agreement brokered by Michael Cohen to keep the story quiet, as a way to protect her family and her career. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the agreement, which was later acknowledged by Cohen to The New York Times, in January 2018.
In February, In Touch Weekly published what it says was Stormy's 2011 interview. In it, she tells similar stories to those she tells in "60 Minutes," including playfully spanking Trump with a magazine featuring his image on the cover — and comparing her to his daughter Ivanka:
Stormy Daniels says Trump told her: “Wow, you are special. You remind me of my daughter.” pic.twitter.com/WFH4Lcv4v0 — Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 26, 2018
[Via CBS]
60 Minutes Stormy Daniels describes her alleged affair with Donald Trump S50 (26:57)
The adult-film star and director is being threatened with financial ruin, but she wants to set the record straight about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. Anderson Cooper reports.
