Stormy Daniels Says Case Against Trump Not Worthy of Jail Time
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress at the center of former President Donald Trump’s indictment over alleged hush-money payments, doesn’t believe Trump deserves to go to jail if he is convicted.
“Specific to my case, I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration,” Daniels told “Fox Nation” on Thursday.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, added that she does, however, think Trump should “absolutely” go to jail if he’s found guilty of “the other things that he has done.”
“[If] he is found guilty, or the evidence suggests that he is, or whatever, and he doesn’t [go to jail], that is going to basically—it opens the door for other people to think they can get away with doing that, and worse,” the 44-year-old said.
Earlier this week, Trump pleaded not guilty in New York City to an unprecedented indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over allegations he orchestrated payments to Daniels before the 2016 presidential elections to suppress information about an alleged affair between the two more than a decade ago.
Daniels was allegedly paid $130,000 for signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) ahead of the presidential election so that she would not speak about the alleged one-night affair, which she claims took place in 2006. The NDA was facilitated by Trump’s then-attorney, Michael Cohen.
Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, has consistently denied the encounter took place, but acknowledged the payment on Truth Social, writing shortly after his arraignment hearing on Tuesday that it was a “totally legal $130,000 NDA.”
While much of the nation’s attention was on the courthouse in lower Manhattan this week, other investigations from Atlanta to Washington are pressing forward.
Trump is potentially facing charges in Washington over allegedly interfering with the transfer of power after the last presidential election, as well as alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump is also facing a separate probe in Georgia related to election interference in that state.
In the Daniels case, each count carries up to four years in prison if convicted, but some legal experts have said they don’t believe the case will even get to a jury.
Eager to Testify
Daniels said during Thursday’s 90-minute one-on-one interview that she’s eager to testify if called to give evidence should the case should go to trial, claiming that she’s “the only one that has been telling the truth” and that she has “nothing to hide.”
“It’s daunting, but I look forward to it,” she said.
Last week, Daniels revealed during an interview on Times Radio that she had “not officially been called” to testify while also noting that she’s not afraid of squaring off with Trump in court.
“Fingers crossed that I do,” she told the station when asked if she would like to take the stand in the prosecution of the former president. “I have nothing to hide. I look forward to telling everybody what I know,” she added.
Failed Defamation Suit
On April 4, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Daniels to pay Trump $121,972.56 in legal fees, stemming from a defamation lawsuit she filed in 2018 against Trump that was later dismissed.
The legal fees come on top of more than $500,000 Daniels was previously ordered to pay to cover the former president’s legal fees. That includes the $293,000 she was ordered to pay in March 2022 after a federal appeals court rejected her request to overturn a lower court decision regarding the 2018 defamation suit. Daniels was also ordered to pay $245,000 in fees after losing another appeal.
Daniels sued Trump for defamation after the then-president posted on Twitter a post that showed a photo of her and her ex-husband, adjacent to a composite sketch Daniels commissioned that showed a mystery man.
In 2011, Daniels claimed five years after the alleged affair with Trump during an interview with In Touch Magazine that she and her daughter were threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot by the mystery man, who told her to keep quiet about the alleged affair.
District Judge S. James Otero, dismissed Daniels’s defamation suit in October 2018. He ruled that Trump’s post was “rhetorical hyperbole” against a political adversary and was protected speech under the First Amendment.
The nearly $122,000 in legal fees are owed for work by lawyers at law firms Harder LLP and Dhillon Law Group, for a total of 183.35 hours of work the attorneys put in defending against the appeal and preparing the fee application.
Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
From NTD News
