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Trump hush money case: Who is Stormy Daniels, adult film star involved in the scandal?
Donald Trump's charges stemmed from a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter between them.
Donald Trump on Friday, January 10, was sentenced for his crimes in the New York "hush money" case. The president-elect was released with no restrictions as he appeared in court virtually from his Mar-a-Lago home. Justice Juan Merchan kept his promise to give Trump a sentence of unconditional discharge, which neither includes jail term nor any other restriction that could impede the president-elect’s inauguration.
Trump was sentenced in connection to a scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels. His charges stemmed from a hush money payment to the adult film actress and the case centres around Trump allegedly falsifying business records to conceal the payment.
Who is Stormy Daniels?
Daniels, 45, is a Louisiana-born adult film star and director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. She also made appearances in mainstream Hollywood films, including 2000s comedies The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
Daniels graduated from Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1997 and reportedly considered becoming a journalist in her earlier days. She once detailed how she grew up, saying she "came from an average, lower-income household… there [were] days without electricity.” She said she came from a "really bad neighborhood.”
What is the hush money case?
Daniels claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter in July 2006 when they met at the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. She claimed in court that she accepted $130,000 from Trump’s former lawyer before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about the sexual encounter.
Michael Cohen, the lawyer, was jailed on several charges later. The allegations surfaced in 2018, but Trump denied any sexual involvement with Daniels.
Daniels said Cohen paid her $130,000 in "hush-money" for her to keep quiet about the incident, and stressed that she accepted the money because she was worried about the safety of her family. She said that she had been legally and physically threatened to stay silent. Daniels said that on one occasion, after she agreed to give an interview to In Touch magazine about her encounter with Trump, an unknown man had approached her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot and asked her to "leave Trump alone.”
During the sentencing on Friday, Merchan said he was granting this sentence to Trump because he believed it was the only legal option. Trump called the trial "a very terrible experience" and "a tremendous setback for New York."
