'I HAVE TO SEE YOU AGAIN’: How Trump’s alleged affair with a porn star spilled into public view
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/08/trump-stormy-daniels-affair-timeline/
Their first meeting was in Lake Tahoe, at a golf tournament in the summer of 2006. He invited her to dinner, she says. But when she got to his hotel room, it was clear he didn't plan to go out.
"He was wearing pajama pants," Stormy Daniels told InTouch magazine in 2011, describing what she said was a consensual sexual encounter with Donald Trump five years before. Trump has denied it ever happened.
In Daniels's description, this was an unremarkable hookup between two people in the outer orbits of Hollywood fame. Daniels was a star of adult movies. Trump 's reality show, " The Apprentice," was slumping. At this Lake Tahoe celebrity tournament, the organizers had given him only fifth billing, listing the real estate developer two spots below Ray Romano in their lineup of stars.
Now, that casual night — and the connection it allegedly created between a future president and a porn star — has altered the course of Daniels's life and threatens to alter the course of Trump 's presidency.
Days before the 2016 election, Daniels agreed to remain silent about the alleged encounter in exchange for a $130,000 payment arranged by Trump 's longtime attorney Michael Cohen, according to a court filing.
But in recent weeks, her story started leaking out. Last week, Cohen obtained a temporary restraining order from an arbitration judge barring Daniels from talking about the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
In response, Daniels sued the president, alleging that Trump and Cohen had tried to force her into silence with an invalid "hush agreement."
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated Trump 's denial of an affair.
" The president has addressed these [allegations] directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true," she said.
Back on the night that started it all, Daniels has recalled, Trump didn't say anything about keeping their encounter a secret.
"He didn't seem worried about it," she told InTouch. "It did occur to me, 'That's a really stupid move on your part.' "
At the time of the golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Trump had been married to his third wife, Melania, for a year and a half. Their son, Barron, was about 4 months old.
Trump turned 60 that summer. He spent much of it in California, where one of his favored haunts was the Beverly Hills Hotel, a pink stucco landmark, and the private bungalows on its lush grounds, according to people familiar with his visits.
Some people come to Hollywood to start their TV careers: Trump had come to reboot his. " The Apprentice" had made him world famous, but after five seasons, its audience had declined. The show had shifted its location from New York's Trump Tower to Beverly Hills as part of a broader reboot.
Later, several women alleged that Trump made advances on them during this period — some of them unwanted.
Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, told The New Yorker that she began an affair with Trump when he was in Los Angeles around this time, recalling his repeated meals of steak and potatoes in his Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow. Another woman, Summer Zervos, has alleged in a lawsuit that Trump kissed and groped her in a 2007 encounter in a bungalow at the same hotel.
In July 2006, Trump traveled to Lake Tahoe for the American Century Championship, a tournament dominated by former athletes and TV stars. "Grab the shades with heavy UV because the star power is blinding: Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Ray Romano, Charles Barkley, Donald Trump ," the organizers announced.
Trump was there for golf.
Daniels was there for work.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was 27. She had appeared in more than two dozen adult films and had begun to direct some herself. She told InTouch that a company she was working for, Wicked Pictures, had been paid to bring porn actresses to the golf tournament. Trump offered her a ride on his golf cart.
"That was actually my first time on a golf course," Daniels told Adult Video News, a trade publication for the pornography industry, in August 2006. "And when you're riding around with Donald Trump in an Escalade golf cart during your first time out on a course, I'd say I was doing all right."
Daniels has said that Trump invited her to his room, where she met a bodyguard named Keith. (Keith Schiller is the name of Trump 's longtime bodyguard, who later joined him for a period in the White House.) Inside the room, she said, she and Trump talked for a while before having sex. She said she wondered whether he would pay her, thinking to herself: "Please don't try to pay me."
"And then I remember thinking, 'But I bet if he did, it would be a lot,' " she told InTouch.
Afterward, she said, he told her he would get her a slot on " The Apprentice."
"I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna call you. I have to see you again. You're amazing. We have to get you on," she recalled Trump saying.
Another actress for Wicked Pictures, Jessica Drake, has also said Trump made advances on her that weekend. In an October 2016 news conference, Drake said that Trump invited her and two other women to his suite, where they found him wearing pajamas. He kissed the women each in turn, without their permission, Drake said.
According to Drake, the group left Trump 's suite, but then a man called her and asked her to return alone. When she declined, Drake said, she was then called by Trump , who asked to her to come to his suite for dinner and a party. "What do you want?" she said he asked. "How much?"
Later, she said Trump , or a man calling on his behalf, called again and offered $10,000 and the use of his private jet if she would come back. She said she declined again.
In response to Drake's allegations, Trump 's campaign issued a statement calling her account "totally false and ridiculous."
Drake and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, declined to comment for this story.
As for Daniels, she said she kept in touch with Trump and saw him several more times, though she said they never again had sex. In one instance, she recalled visiting him at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Trump watched the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" and spoke of his fear of sharks.
Their relationship faded to a few phone calls and meetups at parties, Daniels told InTouch, and then faded away entirely sometime in 2009 or 2010.
She never got her shot on " The Apprentice."
"He broke the news to me that it almost went through but there's somebody that had a problem and it got vetoed and blah blah blah," she told InTouch. "I was like, 'I told you you couldn't make it happen.' "
In the years after that, Daniels turned to directing, with dozens more credits to her name. In 2009, she contemplated a U.S. Senate bid in her home state of Louisiana but didn't go forward.
In May 2011, Daniels gave her interview to InTouch.
But it didn't run at the time. InTouch has not commented about why the story was held. The Associated Press reported that it had spoken to former InTouch staffers, who said that Trump 's attorneys had threatened to sue.
However, news of the alleged encounter appeared on a website called The Dirty in late 2011, prompting a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney for Daniels.
After that, silence.
Daniels said she kept the secret through Trump 's raucous, polarizing debut as a presidential candidate. But then, in the months before the election, she was in touch with reporters, including Jacob Weisberg, editor in chief of the Slate Group, seeking to tell her story.
Daniels had a lawyer, Keith Davidson, who was known for "pre-litigation" agreements, settlements intended to be sure that damaging allegations never see the light of day, according to people familiar with his work.
Cohen, Trump 's longtime attorney, presented Davidson with a proposed agreement. He offered $130,000, she said, in exchange for her agreement to be silent again. (Cohen later acknowledged he "facilitated" the payment but declined to say what it was for.)
Daniels took it, 11 days before the election.
Then Trump won.
Despite the agreement, the story burst into public view in recent weeks. First, the Wall Street Journal broke news of the payment to Daniels. Then, InTouch belatedly published its seven-year-old interview with the porn star. Daniels embarked on a tour of strip clubs around the country, capitalizing on her newfound fame.
But she said little about what actually happened back in the Lake Tahoe hotel room.
Then, in recent days, two things changed.
Cohen sought to pull Daniels into arbitration last week, arguing she had violated the terms of the 2016 agreement.
Daniels's new lawyer — an experienced litigator named Michael Avenatti — sued Trump on Tuesday, detailing some of Daniels's claims in public court filings. The lawsuit laid out some details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump and argued that the agreement meant to buy her silence was null because Trump had not signed it.
Lawrence Rosen, an attorney for Cohen, said in a statement that he plans to fight the lawsuit and continues to "categorically refute the claims alleged by Ms. Clifford and her counsel."
Daniels's lawsuit hints that she has more to reveal. And it raises the question: Did Trump know about the agreement to buy Daniels's silence, days before the election?
"Not that I'm aware of ," Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday.
In an interview, Avenatti said he believes there's no question that Trump knew.
"Any suggestion that an attorney like Michael Cohen with his level of education and experience would pursue such an agreement, negotiate such an agreement, make the payment, and then proceed in this matter without his client's knowledge is absurd," Avenatti said. "As they say down South, that dog won't hunt."
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
The sad fact is, had she not taken the agreement and went public before the election, it probably would not have deterred the deplorables. It might have even emboldened them.
In 2018 , and with Trump as the perp, this sort of thing doesn't seem like that big of a deal anymore.
Her lawyer says they want Trump to have to face the music in front of the media the same way other politicians have had to. Edwards and Mark Sanford would be two of the most recent ones.
That seems like the least that can be done to resolve this.
I think Melania should stand by her man while it happens. Talk about ratings!
In 2018 , and with Trump as the perp, this sort of thing doesn't seem like that big of a deal anymore.
You're right, no one cares about a president's personal sex life in these enlightened times. Bubba Billy really lowered the bar on that one, with Hildabeast's enablement. All this liberal sexual abusers in the news lately have lowered even further.
There is a very real possibility that this scandal could have more serious consequences for the president than the never-ending Russia investigation.
A watchdog group called Common Cause recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the payment, which Cohen once claimed to have made with his own money without consulting then-candidate Trump, was an undisclosed election-related expenditure and thus a violation of federal campaign finance laws. Cohen's reported subsequent complaint about not being reimbursed and now Daniels' lawsuit certainly bolsters that case. Trump's refusal to sign the agreement looks very much like an attempt to avoid being charged with what the Common Cause believes he is guilty of.
That Trump could face prosecution is not beyond the bounds of possibility. In 2011, former senator and presidential primary candidate John Edwards was indicted by a grand jury on six felony charges after it was revealed that the chairman of his campaign, Fred Baron (yes!) had made payments to Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter. As it happens Edwards was found not guilty on one charge, while the jury was unable to reach a decision concerning the other five. But even a trial would be a disaster for a sitting president in a way it was not for Edwards, who was by then a (not very) private citizen.
It would seem very fitting if an attempt to bury a sordid affair, rather than a lengthy and expensive special counsel investigation or the antics of congressional Democrats or even a re-election defeat by a fellow television star , proved to be Trump's undoing. Far more so than the remote possibility of Russian collusion, the Daniels mess speaks to the essence of the man and his personality. Trump may not be Vladimir Putin's handpicked agent in the new Cold War, but he is vulgar, perverted, indifferent to the consequences of his worst decisions, addicted to pointless conspiracies, a liar, and, of course, a cheapskate who would try to get away with not paying his craven associate even if there were not important legal reasons preventing him from doing so.
Even now it's not entirely clear why he might have bothered asking Cohen to arrange the non-disclosure agreement, even at the height of the campaign. What exactly is Daniels sitting on? Lewd messages? We already knew about that sort of thing from the Billy Bush tapes. Pornographic images or videos of the former Apprentice host? Maybe. But how many votes at the margin would the release of a blurry photo of a hulking blood-orange mass of naked flesh have cost him? Trump should have let the photos come out. He could have denied that it was him in the pictures. He could even have invented a new character to take credit for them. Very few sensible people would be persuaded that it was actually Larry Platypus or Bill Stumper in whatever state of undress Daniels claims to have captured our 45th president, but it might have been enough to appease the conscience of a Franklin Graham or a Tony Perkins.
Trump being laid low by a scandal involving pornography, adultery, a sleazy Manhattan lawyer, hush money, and the use of at least one ridiculous-sounding alias is the poetic justice America deserves.
Imagine, sleazy, no good piece of trash brought down by a woman.
Well, she is the Queen of Anal and trump is one of the biggest assholes on the planet.
It would seem that we might even get to see another Trump come out of this, in addition to suing for the right to speak Ms. Daniels is suing for "paternity", you don't do that unless there is a kid involved.
Your story fails to live up to the headline - IT DOES NOT TELL US HOW THIS CAME TO HAPPEN!
How did a woman who was paid not to talk about something suddenly decide to talk about it?
Does any one recall that the story was leaked a few weeks ago when she wasn't talking?
Somebody found out about this agreement, somebody who wants to smear Trump, as the Mueller case continues to fizzle, somebody who is part of the resistance. Now they got to Daniels and her stupid lawyer. I don't know what they told her, but she is in violation of her agreement. It is an agreement with severe penalties for Daniels.
Not sure how you conclude that. The last half of the article is largely about how and why it became public. Maybe you should try reading it again.
You mean Jacob Weisburg of Slate? It dosen't say how he convinced them to do it? I already told you why - Slate is part of the resistance, but how do you convince somebody to violate an agreement like that?
And evangelicals will give him a pass because, as a group, they are 100% amoral.
As an aside, I'd hit it.
With a condom of course ... unlike our clueless (germaphobe) 'leader' did.
I wouldn't hit it (I don't like fake boobs (is that shallow of me?)). The one my wife keeps pointing out to me that she feels the most sorry for and the Donald the least Damn about is Barron, though it not obvious that has ever given a damn about any of his children except for a very odd and twisted relationship with Ivanka. I can agree with her. I mean I don't think I have ever seen more then 1 or 2 pictures of him where he actually looks happy and even then not much. And in the rest he always looks like Daddy Asshole is trying to dress him up like Don Jr and whatever Daddy did to Don Jr when he snuck into his bedroom after midnight he seems to be doing the same to Barron.
At least whatever it was Ivanka didn't seem to mind:
You know, I used to be a staunch all natural guy, but eventually I realized that tits are tits, and great tits are great no matter how a woman gets them. At this point, fake or real, I love'em regardless.
Are you Mr Giggles in disguise?
Honestly, I do no know who you are talking about. Wish I did, cuz I'd love to keep this bit going, but I just can't
.
He says he doesn't care if the boobs are fake or not, either.
I have to assume that "he" is you. Regardless, we are in agreement.
Mr Giggles is my long suffering spouse of 28 years.
Did you think I was a mister?
Hah, yes I did, my mistake! I try my best not to make sex determinations based upon people's comments because, you never know. But... I am only human, I still do it. My apologies Mrs. Giggles.
I fucked up, and I am owning it.
No problem.
This comment and accompanying pictures go over the line.
This comment and accompanying pictures go over the line.
I know, right??? What a sick pig Donald Trump is to provide that kind of fodder.
I've got two daughters and those pictures make me want to vomit. Even if they were done as some kind of joke, it would be entirely in the category of "bent, twisted, perverted and ICK!!"
That's rich coming from you who posted probably the most racist comment in NT history.
Most of the other pictures of her and daddy would probably be considered kiddie porn.
Anytime!
And yet you feel that Trump's conduct doesn't.
Why?
Comment removed for CoC violation [ph]
Donald hasn't used the oval office as his private sex den as Bubba Clinton did.
Your boy is going down....
Is that after Ivanka moved her office next to his...to keep herself available so he would stay away from the grand daughters? Or did she have to give in on that too?
shame...shame...shame
I am damn near ashamed of myself. Not quite...but damned near....lol
And you know this how? Did Ivanka invite you over there for one of her "Daddy and me" parties?
Of course maybe Ivanka has become a little old for him now and he needs that younger stuff like she used to be when she still got him hot? Anyone check on the Grandkids lately?
I'm sure most of the details will come out in her tell all that will be published shortly after daddy and hubby go to the pen for money laundering and their bogus financial empires collapse.
Not as far as we know---yet (if we've learned nothing so far is that that whenever one thinks one's heard the worst about him there's always something worse just around the corner) but your Shitbag is making more like an open latrine.
Donald hasn't used the oval office as his private sex den as Bubba Clinton did.
(See comment #1.4.19, above)
I bet trumps wife is so happy that her upstanding and moral christian husband was nice enough to pay the nice porn star 130k to keep her mouth shut... Melania must just be beaming with pride!
I wonder how much Melania is paying him to get to keep her mouth closed?
Lol you know she hates him.
Not sure who got the best deal, Stormy for a few date nights (130K)
or Hope who got twice that but was around the POTUS almost 24/7 for 2 years.........
Stormy only had to blow him once
Not sure, the "contact" stipulates that all video, audio and photographic material, texts, emails and other communications
had to be turned over to "EC" for "DD" in exchange for the same "created by DD" ?
And we all "know" she received her $130.
So, WTH?
The contract also mentions that Stormy is forbidden from discussing or mentioning "paternity" ?
The story I read was that they only had sex one time. I don't know if she blew him more than once that during that one time, but if she said they never had sex again, I believe her.
And now there may be a kid in the picture??? That warrants a holy shit!
I firmly believe that anything that keeps him out of her bedroom is more than fine with her.
Actually, I don't think Melania gives a fuck. She probably knows damn well Donald screws other women and is possibly even happy about it. AT least she doesn't have to screw the bloated sweating pig then!