Who is Stormy Daniels and why is she the key figure in a court case against Donald Trump?

(CNN Spanish) — Stephanie Clifford, adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, is one of the central figures in a court case involving former US President Donald Trump.

Trump is under investigation for his role in a hush-pay scheme to Daniels: In late October 2016, days before that year’s presidential election, Trump’s then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, made a payment of US$ 130,000 to Clifford to prevent him from going public with an alleged affair with the former president a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

In 2018, Daniels published a book in which he explicitly described the alleged affair with Trump. The adult film star’s then-lawyer said the book was intended to prove that her story about having sex with Trump is true.

However, Daniels’ post also gave details about his life. Here are some of them to learn more about it.

Who is Stormy Daniels?

Stephanie Clifford was born in Louisiana, a state in the southern US. In her book, she revealed that she had a difficult childhood amid poverty and constant sexual abuse.

As a teenager, she moved to California to dabble in adult entertainment. In this industry, where she became known as Stormy Daniels, she Clifford has worked as an exotic dancer, actress, director and producer of pornographic films.

Clifford recounts that in 2006 he met Donald Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. According to her, Trump’s bodyguard took her to her room, where she hoped to have dinner with him, but then there was an intimate relationship.

Stormy Daniels assured that Trump promised to include her in his television program The newbie and that is why he agreed to have relations with him, until the then businessman confirmed to him in 2018 that he could not participate.

In an interview with CBS, Daniels revealed that in 2011 he negotiated to tell the magazine about his relationship with Trump. InTouch in exchange for $15,000, but that the deal fell through because Michael Cohen threatened to sue the publication.

Payment to Stormy Daniels

In 2016, in the midst of the presidential campaign, Cohen negotiated an agreement that included paying $130,000 to guarantee Daniels’ silence. The attorney made the payment from his own funds and later received a refund that Donald Trump claimed was from his money and not from the presidential campaign.

Stormy Daniels broke the silence agreement in 2018 with an interview for “60 Minutes”, where she claimed to have received threats not to comment on the relationship.

Clifford sued Trump seeking to void the hush agreement, but the suit was dismissed and the judge ordered Daniels to pay nearly $300,000 in legal costs incurred by Trump.

With information from CNN’s Juan Carlos López and Sara Sidner.