Adult actress Stormy Daniels is at the heart of Donald Trump’s recent indictment. She told The Times of London the news was “evidence” but also “bittersweet”. Daniels also warned that the indictment could “divide people” and lead to violence. Something is loading.
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Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the center of Donald Trump’s indictment, said she was aware of the absurdity behind her role in the criminal charges against the former US president.
But she also found it “poetic”, invoking an infamous line Trump said about women years before he was a presidential candidate.
“I am fully aware of the madness of being a porn star,” Daniels told The Times of London in an interview. “But it’s also poetic, this cat has pulled itself together.”
The reference comes from a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood,” in which Trump was caught on the hot microphone bragging that he could “grab” women “by the pussy.”
“When you’re a star, they let you,” Trump could be heard saying. The audio leaked a month before the 2016 election.
Daniels has become an unlikely figure in an already unprecedented event in which a former US president – and presidential candidate – faces criminal charges. While the exact charges are not yet known, the indictment likely relates to a “silent” $130,000 payment that former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels days before the 2016 elections.
The Wall Street Journal first reported in 2018 that the payment was made to silence Daniels about an alleged affair that occurred in 2006.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been investigating Trump’s personal and business finances for nearly five years, including the silent payment.
The crime in question likely has to do with how Trump handled a payment reimbursing Cohen for the silent payment to Daniels. Former Manhattan senior prosecutor Mark Pomerantz wrote in his book “People vs. Donald Trump” that the reimbursement was classified as “legal fees.”
In New York, falsifying business records is a low-level crime.
Daniels has since been on a victory lap after reports of Trump’s impending indictment first surfaced.
She tweeted a storm, mocking Trump supporters about “taking him straight to jail” and claimed her “Team Stormy” merchandise has seen sales increase since the indictment was announced.
In her interview with The Times of London, she called the indictment “vindication” but also said it was “bittersweet”.
“He did so much worse he should have been shot [for] before,” she told the publication.
Daniels also warned that the indictment could “continue to divide people and lift them up in arms.”
“Whatever the outcome, it will provoke violence, and there will be injuries and deaths,” she told The Times. “There’s the potential for a lot of good to come out of it. But either way, a lot of bad will come out of it too.”
A spokesperson for Daniels and Trump’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.