The Herald (South Africa)

Porn star Daniels conning the media – US president

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UNITED States President Donald Trump lashed out at porn star Stormy Daniels yesterday in his first substantiv­e comments over the scandal surroundin­g the woman who says she slept with him and was paid to keep quiet.

A day after Daniels released an artist’s sketch of a man she said threatened her years ago in a Las Vegas parking lot and told her not to talk about the alleged affair, Trump tweeted: “A sketch years later about a nonexisten­t man.

“A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it).”

Daniels, 39, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, also offered a $100 000 (about R1.2-million) reward for any informatio­n about the unidentifi­ed man.

Daniels, in an interview on ABC’s The View, said she was pursuing legal action against the president because she was tired of being “bullied”.

“I’m tired of being threatened, intimidati­ng me, and trying to say that you’ll ruin my life and take all my money and my house. I’m done being bullied,” she said in response to what she described as legal threats from Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is now embroiled in his own troubles with the law.

Cohen, Trump’s long-time personal lawyer and fixer, is under criminal investigat­ion by the FBI. The nature of the probe has not been revealed.

Last week, agents confiscate­d documents in a raid on Cohen’s home, hotel room, office and a safety deposit box. They also seized two cellphones.

Some of the documents seized by the FBI reportedly relate to a payment of $130 000 (R1.5-million) that Cohen admits making to Daniels, who claims she had a one-night stand with Trump in July 2006 in Lake Tahoe.

Trump has denied any knowledge of the hush payment to Daniels, which was made just days before the November 2016 presidenti­al election.

Asked on The View about Trump’s denial, Daniels said: “Let me just say I work in the adult business and I’m a better actress than he is.” – AFP

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