Stormy Daniels talks about Trump’s accusation in Piers Morgan interview : NPR

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Stormy Daniels, pictured here at a film premiere in Los Angeles in May 2022, spoke with TalkTV’s Piers Morgan for her first interview since news of Donald Trump’s impeachment broke. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

Stormy Daniels, pictured here at a film premiere in Los Angeles in May 2022, spoke with TalkTV’s Piers Morgan for her first interview since news of Donald Trump’s impeachment broke.

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

In her first interview since breaking news of Donald Trump’s criminal case, Stormy Daniels said she’s still searching for a sense of vindication but admitted the feeling may never come.

The former president pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business records. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Trump hid the reimbursements for the hush money payments as part of a “catch and kill” scheme to suppress allegations of the affair.

Daniels, the adult film actress behind a string of those allegations, spoke with TalkTV’s Piers Morgan for a wide-ranging, 90-minute interview, touching on everything from her troubled relationship with his parents until his reaction to the news that week. The conversation aired Thursday on Morgan’s show, Uncensored.

Stormy Daniels appeared on Uncensored with Piers Morgan on Thursday.

Piers Morgan uncensored YouTube

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said she was riding her horse, aptly named Redemption, when her phone lit up with notifications telling her of Trump’s indictment. Although initially excited to see the case move forward, the next day felt “kind of anti-climactic,” he said. “I thought I’d be excited and vindicated.”

Seeing Trump convicted “would certainly be a big step closer in that direction but I don’t think it will be 100%” because so many people “don’t want to admit that they’re wrong or that he’s lying,” said he.

Daniels said she’s not sure if that will change if Trump receives prison time.

“I don’t think his crimes against me deserve jail time,” Daniels said, but later added: “The other things he did if he’s found guilty, then absolutely.”

Trump faces separate criminal investigations for allegedly pressuring Georgia to overturn the 2020 election results, interfering with the transition of power and mishandling classified documents.

Daniels said he was willing to testify in the Manhattan grand jury probe but was never asked. He said he welcomes the prospect of testifying if the case goes to trial, which it likely will, but not until late winter or spring 2024.

“It’s scary, but I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m not hiding anything. I’m just telling the truth. You can’t embarrass me anymore.”

“You can’t really embarrass someone who has been seen naked anywhere,” he added. “Like what are you gonna do? Let me go naked? Please do.”

Daniels was thrust into the political spotlight after The Wall Street Journal broke the story of the hush money payments in 2018.

Trump has consistently denied Daniels’ claim that they had sex at a Texas hotel in 2006. But he later admitted he paid Cohen $130,000 in hush money payments.

The Manhattan DA’s case hinges on the way the Trump organization records those payments. However, Daniels said, the news of Trump’s arraignment only increased the frequency and tone of hateful messages he personally receives.

“They really feel like it’s my fault that, you know, I made America a laughing stock or I’m the one who brought down democracy. I wish I had that kind of power,” he said, confirming later in the interview that he’s still a registered Republican.

Trump and his allies have dismissed the allegations as an act of political persecution, saying the DA’s office used its power to undermine the GOP’s chances of regaining the presidency.

When asked if he was trying to derail Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Daniels laughed. “He doesn’t need my help for that. He’ll do it on his own,” she quipped.

One particular threat against Daniels is at the center of another pending legal matter, a failed defamation lawsuit that left Daniels with a bill for hundreds of thousands in Trump’s legal fees.

As Daniels tells it, she reluctantly agreed to sell her affair story to In Touch magazine in 2011 because one of the “hundreds or so” people she told threatened to tell first.

Months later, a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot and told her to “leave Donald Trump alone.”

Daniels’ then-lawyer Michael Avenatti released a sketch of the man publicly in 2018, and Trump responded on Twitter, calling it a “con job, playing the Fake News Media.”

Avenatti then filed a defamation suit against Daniels’ wishes, he said. He eventually lost the case, with the judge ruling that Trump’s tweet was political rhetoric protected by the first amendment.

Asked in an interview Thursday if he plans to pay the legal fees as ordered, Daniels said he would go to jail first.

“I didn’t come all this way to back out and give him money,” she said. “I didn’t do anything wrong but stand up to him and prove that I’m not lying.”

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