The porn star who could put Trump behind bars: Stormy Daniels says she had ... trends now
Former president Donald Trump claims he will be arrested on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.
It comes more than six years after Trump's lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair, with New York prosecutors considering if he should face charges. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'
If Trump's claims about an imminent arrest are true, it would make him the first former president ever to face criminal charges. His post came hours after it was claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning on indicting Trump next week.
It would also be the end of a chapter of what's been a long, strange rise to fame for Daniels, an adult film star whose name became front page news for a sizable portion of the Trump presidency.
Former president Donald Trump (pictured left in 2006) claims he will be arrested on Tuesday over accusations he paid porn star Stormy Daniels (pictured right) to keep quiet about their alleged affair
Grew up poor and wanted to be a journalist - but turned to stripping
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, grew up in a rough neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - where she developed a passion for riding horses and writing.
The bubbly blonde entertainer and mother-of-one, spoke over the phone about her background with The New York Times, ahead of the 60 Minutes airing.
'At first I thought I wanted to be a journalist,' Daniels explained, while expressing her love for animals and a possible career in veterinary work growing up.
Daniels, who has described herself as 'smart' on social media, is also remembered as 'serious' and 'unobtrusive' in her earlier years, according to her former colleagues.
'I wasn't like the popular girl, and I wasn't the jock, and I wasn't the ditz. I don't know. I was just sort of in the middle of the road,' Daniels told the Times about her status in school.
She continues to compete in equestrian shows, which she takes very personally, one of her trainers, Dominic Schramm, told the Times.
Before working in the porn industry, Daniels had her first experience stripping at the early age of 17. She later began working at the local Gold Club in Geismar.
As she rose in the ranks of adult film she won numerous industry awards and has been inducted into several porn halls of fame - Daniels also has done more mainstream acting, appearing in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and a Maroon 5 video.
In 2010, Daniels even tried to turn that business savvy into a political career, launching an unsuccessful bid for the Republican Senate nomination in Louisiana.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, grew up in a rough neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - where she developed a passion for riding horses and writing
Before working in porn, Daniels had her first experience stripping at the early age of 17. She later began working at the local Gold Club in Geismar
"Textbook generic" 'sex' in Lake Tahoe with Trump, who she claims told her she was just like Ivanka
In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2018, the adult film actress dished the dirt on her liaison with The Donald and what occurred after they met in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Daniels, then 27, said Trump, then 60, had recently had his son Barron with wife Melania. Trump has always denied that he slept with Daniels.
The adult star claims that he invited her to dinner after being introduced to him at the event and she met him at his hotel suite.
She claims that during the night he quickly changed his demeanor - after she told him to take his pants down so she could spank him with a copy of a magazine, that had his face on the cover.
She told Cooper: 'He talked about himself and bragged about his photo on the cover of a magazine.'
'Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it,' Daniel claims she told Trump.
He said: 'You wouldn't.' She replied: 'Hand it over.'
'So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little—you know had underwear on and stuff—and I just gave him a couple swats,' Daniels told Cooper.
After the 'spanking' Daniels describe how Trump 'quit talking about himself.
Stormy Daniels first discussed the allegations of payment from Trump to keep quiet on 60 Minutes
She said: 'He asked me things and I asked him things and it just became like you know more appropriate.'
'He was like, 'Wow, you— you are special. You remind me of my daughter,''' she said.
'He was like, 'You're smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.'''
Trump then mentioned to her that she could be on Celebrity Apprentice, but she was concerned NBC would have doubts over the appearance of a porn star.
'He goes, 'Got an idea, honeybunch. Would you ever consider going on and - and being a contestant?' And I laughed and - and said, 'NBC's never gonna let, you know, an adult film star be on.' It's, you know, he goes, 'No, no,' he goes, 'That's why I want you. You're gonna shock a lotta people, you're smart and they won't know what to expect'
Daniels claims that Trump invited her to dinner after being introduced to him at a golf event and she met him at his hotel suite
Daniels wrote a memoir, Full Disclosure, that published in 2018
Daniels said they had unprotected sex not long after.
Her descriptions of Trump in bed, in an interview with Vogue, range from 'just normal-people sex' to 'maybe' lasting two minutes. In The Guardian, she described the encounter as 'textbook generic.'
She writes in her book Full Disclosure: 'He knows he has an unusual penis. It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool.'
She says she and Trump stayed in touch after their night together in 2006.
She says he invited her to a Trump Vodka launch party in California, as well as to his office in Trump Tower in New York, but was never asked to keep their links a secret.
In 2007, a year after they met, Trump invited Daniels to his private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
He wanted to discuss a development regarding her possible appearance on Celebrity Apprentice.
'I remember arriving, and he was watching Shark Week. He made me sit and watch an entire documentary about shark attacks,' Daniels said.
She insists they didn't have sex again, but claims Trump wanted to.
'He came and sat next to me and, you know, touched my hair, and put his hand on my leg, and referenced back to how great it was the last time'.
Daniels said Trump called her the following month to say he'd not been able to get her a spot on Celebrity Apprentice. She never saw him again.
Claims of affair first emerge - and explode when Trump runs for president
In 2011, she decided to try and sell a story about their relationship to In Touch weekly.
Two employees alleged that Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, threatened to sue the magazine if the interview ran. The story was killed and Daniels says she was never paid.
Even though Daniels never got the $15,000, but she was still approached by the man in the parking lot.
Describing the moment she was threatened, the Louisiana native said on Sunday night the man approached her in a parking lot in Las Vegas on the way to a fitness class.
In 2011, Daniels decided to try and sell a story about their relationship to In Touch weekly
Two employees alleged that Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, threatened to sue the magazine if the interview ran. The story was killed and Daniels says she was never paid
