Questions for Stormy Daniels
Callum Borchers
Porn star Stormy Daniels’ highly anticipated interview about her alleged affair with US President Donald Trump airs on CBS’s 60 Minutes today. 1) When exactly during a 2006 golf tournament did they have sex? The stated timeline matters, as viewers judge whether Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) is telling the truth. According to a 2011 interview with In Touch magazine, published for the first time in January, Daniels met Trump and had sex with him at the 2006 American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe. News accounts put Trump at the event for at least six days. Daniels told In Touch that she had dinner and sex with Trump one night. Former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claims to have had an affair with Trump, told CNN on Friday that she too was with him at the golf tournament. “My first thought is how could [Daniels] have been with him when I was with him?” McDougal said. “I went to every event, every after-thing, parties, daytime things. I was there . . . I can’t imagine when he found the time, except for maybe the day I left.” Daniels’ segment was taped before McDougal’s. 2) Does Daniels have evidence of a relationship with Trump? A lawsuit Daniels filed on March 6 to extract herself from a nondisclosure agreement refers to “certain still images and/or text messages which were authored by or relate to” Trump. The nondisclosure agreement required Daniels to turn over all such documents and destroy her own copies, but her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has suggested that she might have retained evidence. 3) Who threatened Daniels? How? When? “My client was physically threat- ened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump,” Avenatti said on CNN last week. If Daniels can demonstrate that she was threatened before signing the nondisclosure agreement in October 2016, then she might have a better shot at voiding the contract. And the source of the alleged threat, regardless of timing, will dictate how profusely Trump should be concerned. Are we talking about someone connected to the President or a bunch of online trolls? 4) What’s the story behind the US$130,000 payoff? Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says he used his own funds to pay Daniels to sign the nondisclosure agreement. The White House has declined to say whether Trump reimbursed Cohen — or knew about the payment. Avenatti said on MSNBC, without offering evidence, that Trump did know. 5) What is Daniels’s endgame?
It is not clear why Daniels has chosen to speak publicly or what she hopes to accomplish. In court documents and in In Touch, she describes a consensual affair. She said on Twitter that she has “never claimed to be a victim” and said she is not being paid to tell her story. The closest thing to a stated motive is in Daniels’s lawsuit, which notes that after the infamous Access Hollywood tape in 2016, “several women came forward publicly to tell their personal stories about their sexual encounters with Mr Trump. Around this time, Ms Clifford likewise sought to share details surrounding her relationship and encounters with Mr Trump with various media outlets.” Daniels ultimately signed the agreement but the Wall Street Journal reported its existence in January. It could be that she didn’t really choose to speak publicly but felt compelled to talk, since a version of her story was in the open.