Stephanie Clifford, better known by her porn name, Stormy Daniels, told Anderson Cooper in her long-awaited “60 Minutes” interview that a mystery man in a Las Vegas parking lot threatened her to “leave Trump alone” in 2011.
Clifford said in the interview that her relationship with President Trump was entirely consensual, and that they had sex only once, in July 2006, in Lake Tahoe — during a dinner date in which she also spanked him with a magazine with his picture on the the cover. Trump’s team has denied any affair.
Clifford’s attorney said before the interview that she was physically threatened not to speak out about Trump. But until she spoke to “60 Minutes” interview, she has never described such a threat in detail.
She told Cooper that a man threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, after she first sold her story of an affair with Trump to a magazine.
“I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. Taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin’ all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’ And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”
She said she did not go to the police because she was scared, but that she could identify the Vegas mystery man if she saw him again today.
The spanking story isn’t new — Mother Jones magazine reported it in January, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Clifford signed a hush agreement in October 2016, in exchange for $130,000 paid by Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. But she elaborated on the spanking story under questioning from Cooper.
She said Trump invited her to dinner at his hotel suite after a celebrity golf tournament, and boasted about himself, showing her a magazine with his picture on the cover.
“And so I was like… ‘Does this normally work for you?’ And he looked very taken back, like, he didn’t really understand what I was saying. … And I was like, ‘Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it.’”
She said he looked surprised.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever spoken to him like that, especially, you know, a young woman who looked like me. And I said, you know, ‘Give me that,’ and I just remember him going, ‘You wouldn’t.’ ‘Hand it over.’ And — so he did, and I was like, turn around, drop ’em.’”
She said he was wearing underwear, and she “gave him a couple swats,” jokingly. After that, he “became like more appropriate,” she said. They had sex later that night, she added.
Clifford said she had no sexual attraction to Trump, and that they stayed in touch in part because he dangled the possibility of her appearing on “Celebrity Apprentice.” He asked her to meet to discuss the possibility a year after the July 2006 encounter. He made her sit through “Shark Week” with him, and indicated he wanted to have sex again — but she declined, she said.
She sold her story to a sister publication of In Touch magazine in 2011 for $15,000, she said. The magazine decided not to run the story because Cohen threatened to sue, two former employees told “60 Minutes.” But In Touch ran the interview this year after the Wall Street Journal reported on the $130,000 payment.
She said she believes some people have tried to use her story to further their own agendas.
“This is not a #MeToo. I was not a victim. I’ve never said I was a victim,” she told Cooper.
Clifford’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, acknowledged in the interview that she previously denied an affair with Trump, including when The Journal published the story on the payment.
“I think there’s no question that it calls into question her credibility. I also think that there’s no question that when the American people take all of the facts and evidence into consideration, that they are going to conclude that this woman is telling the truth,” Avenatti said.
The agreement with Trump requires her to turn over all images and messages involving Trump. Asked if she had done so, she told Cooper: “I can’t answer that right now… My attorney has recommended that I don’t discuss those things.”
Cohen has said that under the agreement, Clifford must pay $1 million every time she speaks about the affair, and could be forced to pay up to $20 million. Avenatti told “60 Minutes” that that threat was no different than the one in Vegas.
“60 Minutes” also interviewed Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission appointed by President George H.W. Bush, who said the $130,000 payment could violate campaign finance laws. That possibility has also been previously reported.