Adult film star Stormy Daniels said she was threatened to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with US President Donald Trump in 2006, telling her story in a highly anticipated interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Daniels said she was threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump, an incident that she said happened while she was with her young daughter.
She said in the interview that she had one encounter of consensual sex with Trump.
“He knows I’m telling the truth,” said Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.
She does not allege that she was coerced in her encounter with Trump, saying: “This is not a ‘Me too.’ I was not a victim.”
The adult film actress provided little new evidence of her alleged 2006 affair with Trump, but said she faced intimidation tactics aimed at ensuring her silence in 2011.
Daniels said that in the incident, in a parking lot, the man told her: “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.”
She said he then looked at her daughter and said: “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Daniels received a US$130,000 payment days before the 2016 US presidential election for her silence and has sought to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement.
Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, has said Trump never had an affair with Daniels.
Cohen has said he paid the US$130,000 out of his pocket.
Cohen has said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump team was a party to the transaction with Daniels.
However, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, told 60 Minutes that he has documents showing Cohen using his Trump Organization e-mail address in setting up the payment and that the nondisclosure agreement was sent by FedEx to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower.
In the interview, Daniels described a sexual encounter with Trump that began with him talking about himself and showing her an issue of a magazine with his picture on the cover.
Daniels said she asked Trump: “Does this ... does this normally work for you?”
He was taken aback, she said.
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