Who is Stormy Daniels, the porn star behind Trump's indictment?

The 44-year-old Stormy Daniels, who is in the spotlight for causing the indictment of former US President Donald Trump on Thursday (March 30), has been in the adult film business for more than two decades and directs porn videos. She was also a former Playboy magazine model, who had done small roles in Hollywood movies.

She first met Trump in July 2006, when she was in her late twenties, during a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California. At that time, the actress, who described herself as a “little girl back in Baton Rouge (Louisana) just trying to survive”, had just made a brief appearance in the Judd Apatow film, ‘The 40-year-old Virgin’.

Trump invited her to have dinner in his room through one of his bodyguards. Daniels has said often in her interviews that she was no ‘victim’ and knew what she was getting into. And has pointed that they had consensual sex.

In the hotel suite, the 60-year-old Trump had asked about her and wanted to know if she would like to appear on his reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’. Describing that encounter, Daniels had told CBS, “He was like, ‘Wow, you – you are special. You remind me of my daughter.’

Also read: Donald Trump indicted by grand jury; first ex-US president to face criminal charge

“You know, he was like, ‘You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you.'”

She claims they went on to have what may have been the “least impressive sex” she had ever had. Trump, however, has hotly denied they had sexual relations, and slams Daniels accusing her of “extortion” and saying her claims are a “total con job”.

According to Daniels, a year later after that encounter in the hotel suite, they met at his request at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. Daniels claims Trump wanted to have sex with her again at the hotel but she declined.

This one-night stand returned to haunt Donald Trump when he was campaigning for the presidential election in 2016. According to a Guardian report, in the midst of trying to negotiate a deal to go public about her sexual encounter with Trump, Stormy Daniels  received from prosecutors $130,000, commonly referred to as ‘hush money’.

She was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement that was drawn up by Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer. The document included a spot for Trump’s signature, but he never signed it.

Two years later, in 2018, the Wall Street Journal published a report on the payment given to Daniels. But, Cohen issued a public statement stating that he paid Daniels using his own money and Trump had not directed him to do so. Trump completely denied the affair with Daniels, which he allegedly had while married to Melania. However, he admitted that the payment made to the adult film actress was done “to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her”.

Trump used to insult her calling her ‘horse face’. But, Stormy Daniels clad in her trademark pink suit and stilettos, has dealt with all the backlash from Trump’s team and the spotlight with aplomb.

Also read: Trump claims ‘no crime’ in fresh all-caps tirade over porn star payoff, likely arrest

Trump maintained this payment has nothing to do with his 2016 presidential campaign, which he won, and does not violate state campaign finance laws of falsified business records. Cohen however pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges relating to this payment.

Trump, who is running in the 2024 presidential race, called his indictment “a political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history”.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Daniels has taken on a Republican politician. Three years after her purported sexual encounter with Trump, Daniels considered running against David Vitter, an incumbent Republican US senator from Louisiana who was seeking re-election. It happened because Vitter had been exposed making calls to an escort service even as he was espousing family values.

As a way to mock and embarrass Vitter, Daniels threatened to run for the senator’s post and even went around meeting the voters but eventually dropped out.

Stormy Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, and according to reports, she was raised by a single mother who neglected her, in Louisana’s capital Baton Rouge. In her biography, she says she was sexually abused by an older man. However, she was a good student and was passionate about horses. She started working in strip clubs at high school to allegedly support herself financially. After which, she eventually began appearing in and directing pornographic films, using the pseudonym Storm.

Last year, Stormy, who has a daughter, married for the fourth time. She married a fellow porn actor Barret Blade.