The lead officer in the arrest of Stormy Daniels in a Columbus, Ohio, strip club on Wednesday night is allegedly a big fan of Donald Trump, according to social media posts uncovered by Twitter users and posted Thursday by Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti. A Twitter account allegedly belonging to Detective Steve Rosser follows only nine other accounts, for example — two of them belonging to Trump.
Daniels has filed two high-profile lawsuits against Trump, one over a “hush agreement” involving a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump for which she was paid $130,000—and a second for defamation. Avenatti has described the arrest as "politically motivated" and "a setup."
In addition to the @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump accounts, the account allegedly linked to Rosser also follows three prominent Trump supporters: Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, and right-wing former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke.
Three of the other accounts followed by the @SShaboykins Twitter account that allegedly belongs to Rosser belong to former porn performers who use the names Ava Taylor, Lucy Tyler and Stella May.
Avenatti also reposted Facebook memes and graphics from a Facebook page credited to “Stevo Shaboykins.” The memes were also pro-Trump, including a “Cops for Trump/Pence” logo. Another one of the pro-Trump memes can be viewed at this link.
“In the event it is discovered that my client was targeted and arrested because of our opposition to Mr. Trump, the resulting lawsuit and action will be swift and devastating. That is not a threat. It is a promise,” Avenatti wrote on his own Twitter feed.
Daniels was arrested on Wednesday by undercover police officers for allegedly violating an Ohio state law that prohibits nude or semi-nude nightclub performers from touching anyone who is not a family member, by “using her bare breasts to smack patrons,” according to one media account.
Another account, by the gossip site TMZ, said that Daniels had allowed a female undercover police officer, Mary Prather, to “motorboat” her breasts.
“According to police docs, Stormy put both hands on Officer Prather's butt and breasts,” TMZ wrote, “and then put her breasts in the cop's face.”
The charges against Daniels were dismissed on Thursday, but Avenatti said that the arrest raises “a serious entrapment issue,” according to NBC News. Avenatti said that female and male officers initiated the physical contact with Daniels and tried to persuade her to touch them.
But according to a 2015 report by The Columbus Dispatch, Rosser has faced accusations of entrapment before.
In the case, a judge said that Rosser had induced six employees of a local bar to serve alcohol to underage patrons. The employees faced trial on the charges but were found not guilty by the judge based on what he called Rosser’s entrapment of the bar employees, according to the Dispatch report.
Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said on Thursday that the arrest of Daniels was made “in error,” according to a BuzzFeed report.
Photos via Michael Avenatti Twitter, Gary/Wikimedia Commons
