Trump ‘strongly denies’ claims of affair and intimidation after porn star’s TV interview
Stormy Daniels accused of making up story about physical threats during appearance on CBS News
DONALD TRUMP last night denied having an affair with a porn star and accused her of making up claims she was threatened to stay quiet.
The White House said that the US president has “strongly, clearly, and consistently” rejected suggestions he had a relationship with Stormy Daniels in 2006.
A spokesman also said Mr Trump did not believe Ms Daniels’s claim that she was once intimidated and told to “leave Trump alone”, which she made in an interview on the CBS television programme 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
The interview came after it emerged Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s lawyer, paid Ms Daniels $130,000 before the election to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Ms Daniels was yesterday sent a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer for Mr Cohen, moments after the interview was broadcast. It also requested an apology.
Mr Cohen’s attorney wrote to Ms Daniels’ lawyer to allege she had made defamatory claims, “namely that he was responsible for an alleged thug who supposedly visited” and made threats to Ms Daniels.
“In truth, Mr Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred,” the letter read.
In the 60 Minutes interview, Ms Daniels claimed she was threatened after the alleged affair ended and she attempted to sell her story to In Touch magazine in 2011.
She described how she was approached in a car park outside a gym in Las Vegas by an unknown man while she was with her infant daughter. “A guy walked up on me and said to me: ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’” Ms Daniels said.
“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.”
Asked if she took the comment “as a direct threat”, Ms Daniels responded “absolutely”, adding that her hands were “shaking” so much she feared she would drop her daughter.
The White House comments are the fullest response to the allegations, and came after more than 20 million Americans watched Ms Daniels detail the alleged affair, which she says happened 12 years ago, when she was 27 and Mr Trump was 60.
She described how Mr Trump, who was then the star of the US version of The Apprentice, invited her to dinner in his bedroom before the pair had unprotected sex.
The account included bizarre details, including a claim that Mr Trump dropped his trousers to be jokingly spanked with a magazine he appeared on the cover of.
Mr Trump was also said to have compared Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to his daughter because she was “smart and beautiful”.
Things fell apart after Mr Trump’s offer of a TV appearance never came about, according to Ms Daniels, who said they only had intercourse once.
Responding to the interview, Raj Shah, the White House deputy press secretary, issued a firm rebuttal to Ms Daniels’s claims.
He said: “The president strongly, clearly, and has consistently denied these underlying claims. And the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims.” Asked if Mr Trump believed Ms Daniels’s claim of a physical threat, Mr Shah said: “No, he does not.”
Mr Trump is yet to personally comment on the interview. His lawyers have always denied the affair and note that Ms Daniels has previously signed statements saying it did not happen.
Mr Trump tweeted yesterday: “So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!”
‘The president strongly, clearly, and has consistently denied these underlying claims’