• US Trump, charged with bribing porn actress Stormy Daniels

Stormy Daniels will go down in history as the woman behind the scandal that led to the indictment of former President Donald Trump, in a case of payment of black money in exchange for the silence of the pornographic actress who had been kicking for years and who has just written her most significant chapter. Along the way, an endless crossroads of accusations and insults, threats, forged signatures and two lawyers sent to prison, Trump's confidant, Michael Cohen, and Daniels' legal representative, Michael Avenatti, who stole his client $ 300,000 from an advance payment for her memoirs.

The soap opera dates back to the summer of 2016. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, met Trump at a golf tournament in July 2006. The interpreter who is now 44, out of a "very bad neighborhood" of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, explained that they had relations at the former president's hotel in Lake Tahoe, a vacation area that is usually frequented by the great fortunes of Silicon Valley. But Trump didn't seem too worried about the porn actress airing their encounter.

"He was rather arrogant," Daniels said, confident that his wife, Melania Trump, who was not at the tournament, would find out. However, a few months later, on the verge of the presidential elections, there was the payment of $ 130,000 to guarantee his silence, a crime that constitutes a violation of electoral laws and that ended with the conviction of Cohen.

The former right hand man of Trump and responsible for some of his companies, lied at first to exonerate his boss, but ended up pointing directly to the man he idolized. Cohen was convicted of violating campaign finance rules, as well as tax and bank fraud, collaborating with justice from prison and a key figure in understanding the case. It was he who took care of the payment to the actress, recording it as "legal expenses", and who advanced the money.

Daniels, who flirted for a few months with the prospect of getting into politics — emulating Cicciolina in Italy — says she accepted the $130,000 out of fear after receiving threats to her and her family. In 2011, after deciding to give an interview and tell what happened, a man approached her in Las Vegas and told her to leave Trump alone if she did not want something to happen to her young daughter.

The alleged sexual encounter between the porn star and the former president came about three months after the former First Lady gave birth to her son Barron. Since then, the Slovenian has remained silent, although close sources say she remains "furious" about her husband's affair. His strategy has been to look the other way, enjoy the luxuries offered by the Mar-A-Lago mansion where he lives and surround himself with people who are very careful to refer to the thorny issue.

Presumably not that or all of the above, because Trump's history of sexual abuse, grabbing, groping, misogynistic comments, forced kisses on the mouth of complete strangers, and even accusations of rape is as extensive as the list of his real estate domains. There are documented cases dating back to the 80s. Jessica Leeds, a businesswoman who was 38 when she crossed paths with the Republican, describes him "like an octopus" who had his hands everywhere. "It was an assault."

His ex-wife, Ivana Trump, was raped during an argument, according to Harry Hurt III's book, Lost Tycoon. Trump was angry that his first wife's cosmetic surgeon had done a bad job covering a bald head and vented his anger with the Czech, who tore off her clothes and forcibly penetrated her. And so a litany of cases of a good number of women who denounced the former president for exceeding them.

That particular speech, that of believing himself entitled to touch any woman at will, was later recorded in the clumsy statements to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, which threatened to torpedo his presidential options in October 2016. "I just start kissing them," he told Bush. "It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, even grab them by the pussy." Trump defended himself by saying that it was "wardrobe jargon" and a large part of the electorate preferred to ignore the incident, giving him the key to the White House. He has now been arrested.

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  • United States
  • Donald Trump
  • Stormy Daniels