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Stormy Daniels: Adult actress says she is ‘free to talk’ after accusing Trump’s lawyer of breaching their contract

'Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story'

Andrew Buncombe
New York
Wednesday 14 February 2018 20:27 GMT
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Who is Stormy Daniels?

Adult actress Stormy Daniels believes she is now “free to talk” about her alleged relationship with the President after accusing Donald Trump’s personal lawyer of breaching a non-disclosure agreement.

A manager of the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said that lawyer Michael Cohn’s admission that he paid the actress $130,000 represented a breach of the contract they had. As a result, Ms Daniels, who has until now has neither confirmed or denied having a relationship with Mr Trump, believes she is free to speak.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” the actor’s manager, Gina Rodriguez, told the Associated Press.

Stormy Daniels obliquely denies having written statement on Trump affair

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ms Daniels had been paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to keep quiet about alleged relationship she had with Mr Trump in 2006 - a year after he got married.

Both Mr Trump and Ms Daniels denied there had been any relationship, even though she had provided details of the affair to In Touch magazine in 2011. That interview was only published recently.

In the wake of the Journal story, Ms Daniels issued a statement denying the affair ever took place. She also refused to confirm or deny a relationship when she appeared on prime time television on the night the President’s State of the Union address.

“The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2017 and again in 2018,” she said in a statement. “I am not denying this affair because I was paid “hush money” as has been reported in overseas-owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.”

Yet earlier this week, Mr Cohen told the New York Times he had paid the money to Ms Daniels and had done so using money from his own pocket. The statement was widely interpreted as an attempt to distance Mr Trump or his campaign from the payment.

“Neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Mr Cohen told the Times. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Ms Rodriguez said her client will soon announce how and when she will tell her story publicly.

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