The woman whose hush money payment sparked the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump called his indictment “poetic” but “bittersweet” in her first comments since the district attorney’s office announced the decision Thursday.
Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006. While Trump denies the alleged affair, he paid her $130,000 through his lawyer for her silence before the 2016 election. A leading theory is that charges could be because the payment was improperly filed and constitutes a campaign expense.
“Trump is no longer untouchable,” Daniels told The Times. “A person in power is not exempt from the law. And no matter what your job is, or what your bank account says, you’re held accountable for the things you’ve said and done, and justice is served.”
While specific charges against the former president — a first — have not been revealed, he is expected to give himself up to Manhattan authorities this week. If he does not surrender, he will likely be arrested and extradited to New York.
“It’s vindication,” Daniels said. “But it’s bittersweet. He’s done so much worse that he should have been taken down [for] before. I am fully aware of the insanity of it being a porn star. But it’s also poetic; this pussy grabbed back.”
Trump’s pending arrest is expected to result in widespread protests, especially in New York. The New York Police Department asked every officer to report in uniform Friday at 7 a.m. following the news.
Earlier this month, Trump incorrectly predicted that he would be arrested last week. In that message, he called for massive protests, invoking language similar to that used before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Whatever the outcome is, it’s going to cause violence, and there’s going to be injuries and death,” Daniels said. “There’s the potential for a lot of good to come from this. But either way, a lot of bad is going to come from it, too.”
She said that she has received a large amount of threats because of the indictment.
“The number and the intensity is the same as it was the first time around, but this time it’s straight-up violent,” she said. “The first time it was ‘gold digger’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘liar’ whatever. And this time it’s ‘I’m gonna murder you’. They’re way more violent and graphic.”
The Manhattan District Attorney is also investigating a second hush money payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal. McDougal also claims to have had an affair with Trump, and was paid $150,000 for her silence.
Trump is facing three other criminal investigations, one in Georgia over claims that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election there, and two in Washington D.C. regarding his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and his handling of classified documents.