Stormy Daniels says she feared for safety
Adult film star details alleged Trump affair during “60 Minutes” interview
WASHINGTON – Adult film actress Stormy Daniels said she agreed to accept what she called an “extremely low” payout of $130,000 days before the 2016 presidential election to remain silent about her alleged affair with Donald Trump because she had been threatened years earlier and still feared for her safety.
In her highly anticipated interview with 60 Minutes airing Sunday night, Daniels said she had been threatened in 2011, a few weeks after she agreed to tell the story of her alleged tryst to In Touch Weekly magazine.
“I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. Taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin’ all the stuff out,” Daniels said on the CBS program. “And 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.”
Daniels said she never saw the unidentified man again and did not file a police report, but she said that threat and lingering concerns about the effect of the alleged tryst on her growing daughter propelled her to take the payout from Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen 11 days before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said she was tempted to accept “large amounts” of money for her story in the final weeks of the presidential campaign as the Trump team faced a barrage of allegations about the New York businessman’s treatment of women.
Daniels said the decision to accept $130,000 for her silence is proof that she was operating on fear, rather than opportunism.
“The fact that I didn’t even negotiate, I just quickly said ‘yes’ to this very, you know, strict contract — and what most people will agree with me ex- tremely low number,” she said. “It’s all the proof I need.”
Daniels’ interview caps two weeks of intense publicity by her lawyer Michael Avenatti as they battle with President Trump and his legal team over the confidentiality agreement.
Asked by 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper why she chose to break her silence, Daniels said she wants to defend herself.
“I’m not OK with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money and people are like, ‘Oh, you’re an opportunist. You’re taking advantage of this,’ ” she said. “Yes, I’m getting more job offers now, but tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than they’ve been making, doing the same thing that they’ve always done?”
Trump and his legal team have denied the affair even as they are engaged in a fight to force a lawsuit Daniels filed this month back into private legal arbitration and out of public view. Cohen said Daniels faces $20 million in damages for breaching the confidentiality agreement.
Daniels and her lawyer said the agreement isn’t valid, in part because it was never signed by Trump.
Asked in Sunday’s interview what she would say to Trump if he was watching the CBS program, Daniels said, “He knows I’m telling the truth.”
White House officials and Cohen did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the interview.
The In Touch interview in 2011 came years after the alleged beginning of the affair, which Daniels said she and Trump started in 2006.
60 Minutes, citing two former employees, said the magazine opted not to publish the interview at the time after Cohen threatened to sue.
“And a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’ ” Stormy Daniels on “60 Minutes”