Stormy Daniels is the alias of the woman at the center of the criminal case for which former President Donald Trump was found guilty this Thursday in a historic trial held in Manhattan. Real name Stephanie Gregory Clifford, she is a former actress, screenwriter and director of pornographic films, and claims that in 2006 she had a sexual encounter with Trump, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania, something that he always denied. .
The New York court jury seems to have believed her, finding the former president guilty of 34 charges related to the falsification of accounting records to cover up a payment that Trump’s lawyer would have made to Clifford to buy his silence about the relationship and thus protect his 2016 election campaign.
Now the judge in the case has to impose the sentence, something that will happen on July 11. “I am a very innocent man,” Trump said as he left the courthouse, challenging citizens to the trial of the polls in the presidential elections on November 5.
Industry pioneer
Stephanie Gregory Clifford was born in Baton Rouge, in the southern state of Louisiana, in 1979, and is a horse lover.
As a child, her dream was to be a veterinarian, but after her parents’ divorce, when she was 4 years old, she was raised by her mother, who had a hard time supporting the family financially.
At the age of 17 she started working as a stripper in a club.
When she began to become better known, she decided to adopt a stage name. As a fan of the rock band Motley Crue, she decided to pay tribute to the daughter of her bassist from the group, whose name is Storm. The surname is in honor of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey brand.
In 2000 she began her career as an adult film actress with the production company Wicked Pictures, with which she had a prolific career. She also participated in Sin City Studios films.
In 2004 he began directing pornographic films for Wicked Pictures and would later also work as a screenwriter.
Adult film expert Kelly Roberts told the BBC that Stormy Daniels was a pioneer in that industry.
“At that time there were no women directors. He was unheard of. They were all men,” he noted.
For her work as a director, Daniels won several awards from Adult Video News (AVN) magazine, considered the porn industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.
And in 2014 his name was added to the halls of fame of AVN magazine and the X-Rated Critics Organization.
According to filmmaker Judd Apatow, who gave her roles in two of his films, Daniels is “not someone to underestimate.”
“She is a very serious business woman and a filmmaker who has taken the reins of her career,” Apatow assured The New York Times a few years ago.
“Gory” details in the trial
His name began to be known among the general public when in 2018 he gave an interview to the emblematic television program 60 minuteson CBS, in which she gave details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
These are the same details that he repeated when on May 7 he took the stand for the first time to testify in what was one of the most anticipated moments of Trump’s trial.
Before the jury, the former president and prosecutors, the actress said that she met Trump in a hotel suite in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
He said Trump was wearing silk pajamas and asked him several “business” questions about his family, his education and his work in the adult film industry.
At one point, the businessman told her that he found her similar to his daughter Ivanka, Daniels testified, telling her that people underestimated them both because they were beautiful.
“Ms. Daniels, please be brief in your answers,” Judge Juan Merchan told the witness.
In her testimony, the former porn actress provided details so gruesome that the former president’s lawyers asked for the trial to be annulled.
These included the claim that they didn’t use a condom or that he spanked him with a magazine, as well as the answers he allegedly got from the former president about his wife.
Judge Juan Merchan acknowledged that there were “some things that would have been better left unsaid” and asked prosecutors not to ask for specific details of the personal nature of the encounter.
According to Daniels, in 2016, after Trump launched his presidential campaign, he learned that the businessman and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen wanted to buy his silence.
The agreement would be beneficial to everyone, Daniels declared, because he did not want his then-partner to find out about his alleged meeting with Trump.
He also explained how the agreement was reached to receive the money. She claimed that she was first interested in selling her story when she learned that someone else was planning to do so.
“I would rather make money than have someone make money at my expense,” he said.
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