Why the "Stormy Daniels" case is so much more than a story of adultery for Donald Trump
In addition to the physical threats to which she was allegedly subjected, the $ 130,000 paid to silence the porn actress could constitute a violation of electoral laws.
This article was updated on Monday March 26, following an interview with ex-"Stormy Daniels" pornstar Stephanie Clifford, real name, on CBS.
A former porn star, a Playmate and a president accused of adultery ... Should the "Stormy Daniels" affair be relegated to sordid headlines in the American tabloids? Former adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, real name, accuses Donald Trump's lawyer of making her sign a "confidentiality agreement" in 2016 and pay $ 130,000 to keep her from having sex with him in 2006, when he had just married Melania, and this four months after the birth of their son Baron. And the Trump clan for threatening her, physically, to keep her silent.
Stephanie Clifford's media campaign came to a head this Sunday evening, when an interview with the show "60 minutes" was broadcast on CBS [full transcript here]. Something to delight the gutter press. But this affair could have implications which go far beyond the sphere people - especially as "Stormy Daniels" is far from being alone in accusing the American president of having tried to silence her in the middle of the electoral campaign.
Physical threats
On CBS, "Stormy Daniels" recounted having sex with Donald Trump in July 2006, on the sidelines of a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Trump, for his part, denies having had any intimate relationship with her.
The actress and the businessman would have remained in contact for a year, because Donald Trump dangled a place in the show "The Celebrity Apprentice", a promise that has not been followed up.
The young woman assured that she had no other sexual intercourse with the billionaire after the meeting in Lake Tahoe.
The pornstar claimed to have been physically threatened by the Trump clan and urged to keep the sexual relationship a secret. According to her, the incident dates back to 2011, four years after the end of their supposed contacts. Stephanie Clifford says she was approached by a stranger in a parking lot of a Las Vegas gym, while she was with her daughter, a few months old.
"Leave Trump alone. Forget this story," the stranger would have told him. "She's a very pretty little girl", he would have said then, looking at the girl from "Stormy Daniels". "It would be a shame if something happened to his mother," he would have added, before leaving.
Stormy Daniels said she did not contact the police because she was "afraid" and did not identify the individual. "I was shocked," she says.
"There can be no question as to the source of this threat," tweeted after the interview was broadcast, Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti. "It could only come from one place."
As revealed on January 12, the "Wall Street Journal", "Stormy Daniels" then agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement with a lawyer for Donald Trump. The latter paid her out of his pocket, during the presidential campaign, $ 130,000 so that she would keep quiet about her sexual relationship with the real estate mogul. The deal, between Michael Cohen and Stephanie Clifford, had been negotiated a month before the presidential election won by Trump. On CBS, the ex-actress confides that she then accepted this sum because she was afraid for the safety of her family.
"Stormy Daniels" has filed a lawsuit against Michael Cohen to have the confidentiality agreement invalidated, claiming that it is not valid because Donald Trump did not sign it himself. Michael Cohen's lawyers say for their part that Stephanie Clifford has violated this agreement more than 20 times and that they are entitled to claim from him ... no less than $ 20 million in damages! The actress offered to reimburse Trump for the $ 130,000 for her free speech, to no avail. A hearing date is currently set for July 12 to consider the request to invalidate the agreement. Meanwhile, the ex-star of the X does not hesitate to tell his story with the now president.
More than the adultery committed by Donald Trump, it is the methods used to silence his supposed lover that question.
"His 60-minute interview shows that it's not about sex. It's about abuse of power," writes journalist Dylan Mattews on the Vox website. "I don't care if Donald Trump has had consensual sex with a woman other than his; it concerns him and Melania privately. What matters to me is that the president is a stalker, who has tried to silence anyone who stood between him and what he wanted, with money and intimidation. "
"This is an abuse of power, pure and simple," adds the columnist.
Asked about the purpose of his client's interview with CBS, for which she claims not to have received any money, the lawyer for "Stormy Daniels", Michael Avenatti explains:
"It's about this cover-up attempt. It's about the fact that Mr. Cohen and the President went to intimidate this woman, silence her, threaten her and put her under their control. It's rogue behavior. came from people of power. And that has no place in American democracy. "
Violations of electoral laws
In addition to the physical threats of which "Stormy Daniels" accuses the Trump clan, the latter's lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to having settled this transaction out of his personal funds through his consulting firm Essential Consultants. But he did not explain why he made the payment, or whether the billionaire had been informed.
Problem: In doing so, the president and his campaign team may have violated campaign finance law. This is the thesis of the Common Cause organization, which seized the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Department of Justice. Donald Trump and his lawyer could be heard at the end of this investigation.
Because the 130,000 dollars paid a few days before the deadline of November 8, 2016, day of the presidential one, could be considered as violations of the electoral laws and attempts to influence the election. This money should indeed have been integrated into the candidate's campaign accounts, details Common Cause. According to the actress' lawyers, Donald Trump would not have signed the agreement on purpose in order to be able to deny it later, and was however necessarily informed, because the code of ethics required his lawyer to do so.
Michael Cohen claims this is a "private transaction" - which doesn't really make sense, since he was working for Donald Trump at the time. And that says a lot about the practices of its teams, points out a columnist of the "New Yorker":
“It gives a picture of the 'Trump Organization' as a place where anything the company is not supposed to do could be done under the guise of personal favor, which can be disguised as an act of friendship or loyalty. "
"The Trump-style White House seems to function a lot like the Trump Organization, in terms of blurring the borders," adds the writer. "$ 30,000 for Ben Carson's catering service, $ 40,000 for Scott Pruitt's soundproof cabin, $ 1 million for Steven Mnuchin's military flights. The president's sons meet foreign political figures on business trips, his daughter plays a diplomatic role with the leaders of countries where it has commercial interests [...]. It is important to know who pays whom and for what. "
A hundred similar cases?
This case seems to be anything but an isolated case: according to the lawyer for "Stormy Daniels", six other women claim to have had affairs with Donald Trump, some of whom have also signed confidentiality clauses. In his book "Fire and Fury", Michael Wolff also quoted former Presidential adviser Steve Bannon, stating that as many as 100 similar cases were reportedly settled by Marc Kasowitz, a lawyer for Trump, during the presidential campaign. .
The legal battle and elsewhere mounted under pressure last Tuesday, to become downright stormy. A former Playmate of the erotic magazine "Playboy" has also lodged a complaint asking to invalidate the confidentiality clause she signed to remain silent on her "romantic relationship" of 10 months, in 2006 and 2007, with the president . Karen McDougal claims to have received $ 150,000 for her silence and claims that half was returned to her lawyer who she said was in collusion with the Trump camp.
The former model explained to CNN that she too had a first sexual relationship in 2006 with Donald Trump at a hotel in Los Angeles.
"After our intimate relationship, he tried to pay me. And I didn't know what to think about it," she says.
"I looked at her and told her, I'm not like that, I'm not that kind of girl," adds the former Playmate, who says this episode made her "very sad". "It hurt me," she says, adding that she cried in the back of the car that had brought her home. Regardless, she and Trump then spent "a lot of time together." "It was a real relationship. There were feelings between the two of us," she said, adding that she felt "guilty" of Melania Trump, to whom she apologized on CNN. :
"What else to say: I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Since this affair was revealed in the press, she says she has been pressured and threatened not to speak to reporters, while Trump's legal team continues to disseminate disparaging information to discredit her. The $ 150,000 donated could also constitute a violation of election laws and an attempt to influence the election.
"He broke laws to cover up the case"
US media also revealed that "Stormy Daniels" took a lie detector test in 2011 to prove that she was not lying about her past relationship with the president. On Tuesday, her lawyer posted a photo of her strapped to a chair, taking the exam.
The report of this examination carried out in May 2011 at the request of the magazine "In Touch" says that she is not lying when she claims to have had unprotected sex with Donald Trump in July 2006. Accused of wanting to talk about her and to make money on this business, Stormy Daniels replied Tuesday to a net surfer in a tweet:
"Technically I didn't sleep with the President of the United States twelve years ago. There was no sleep (hey hey) and he was just a wacky reality star. [ ...] But IT IS important for people to know that he lied, tried to intimidate me, broke laws to cover it up, etc ".
Intimidation, blackmail ... this affair, which could gain momentum if other women forced to be silent break the silence, does not come to fix the image of a president accused by several women of harassment and sexual assault dating back several years. Not to mention this 2005 video in which Trump bragged about being able to grab women "by the pussy". Usually so quick to castigate his critics on Twitter, Trump, also mired in the affair of Russian interference during his campaign, has still not reacted to the complaints of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
This Thursday, his wife posted a smiling photo alongside her husband on the social network. It was her first "postcard" celebrating their relationship since the "StormyGate" burst.
