Sex industry workers slam Giuliani for saying Stormy Daniels isn’t credible

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Stormy Daniels’ claim she had sex with Mr. Trump in 2006 isn’t credible because she’s a porn actress with “no reputation,” drawing condemnation from members of the legal sex industry.

“I’m sorry I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation,” Mr. Giuliani said Wednesday at a conference in Tel Aviv.

Ms. Daniels’ work as an adult film actress “entitles you to no degree of giving your credibility any weight,” he said, adding that people could “just look” at Ms. Daniels to know she wasn’t believable.

“Excuse me, but when you look at Stormy Daniels ...” Mr. Giuliani said, prompting the moderator to interject and tell him that he must respect women while speaking at the “Globes” Capital Market conference.

The adult film industry took the former New York City mayor to task Thursday, saying his comments demean women in general and were aimed solely at discrediting Ms. Daniels because of how she makes a living and not based on the facts of the case.

“The fact of the matter is the average person in the adult film industry is generally no more or less honest than any other person in society, and in the case of Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, probably quite a bit more honest,” said Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News, the industry’s trade publication, and a longtime friend of Ms. Daniels’.

Jackie Martin, a spokeswoman for Vivid Entertainment, one of the industry’s largest porn producers, said Mr. Giuliani’s comments were “offensive and outlandish. Many talented women of substance have chosen to make their careers in the adult industry.”

“It’s an insult to every sex worker, every adult film star, every woman who has ever gotten naked for a paycheck,” adult film actress Alana Evans, a friend and vocal supporter of Ms. Daniels, told the New York Daily News. She pointed out the irony in Mr. Giuliani playing the purity card when Mr. Trump himself has appeared in three softcore Playboy videos with partially clothed women.

“As to be expected, when it’s a man doing said acts, it’s far more acceptable than when it’s a woman,” Ms. Evans, 41, said. “When you’re a man, you’re regarded for it, you’re treated as a stud, but when you’re a woman you’re treated as if you’re a whore.”

Mr. Giuliani’s comments also drew a heated response from Ms. Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, who called for Mr. Trump to immediately fire Mr. Giuliani.

Ms. Daniels has said she had sex with a married Mr. Trump in 2006. She is fighting to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 election.

Mr. Trump has denied Ms. Daniels’ allegations that they had sex just months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son.