As AVN.com reported earlier this month, Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit seeking to release her from a confidentiality agreement over her alleged affair with Donald Trump contained a brief allegation that Daniels suffered “injury to her person,” as a result of Trump’s “alleged actions against her.”
On Friday, Daniel’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, confirmed at least that Daniels was “physically threatened” by Trump or someone working on behalf of Trump—and that the AVN Hall of Famer will go into detail abut what actually happened in her upcoming interview with CBS 60 Minutes, which she recorded on March 8.
The interview is now scheduled for broadcast on the program’s March 25 edition, according to a report by CNN.
"The fact is that my client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump,” Avenatti said in a CNN interview Friday morning, adding that in the interview Daniels would "provide very specific details about what happened here."
In another Friday interview on the MSNBC cable news network, Avenatti also confirmed that Daniels was “physically threatened.” But Avenatti did not offer any details of the threats either to CNN or MSNBC.
Daniels was paid $130,000 by Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen as part of what Daniels’ lawsuit call a “hush agreement,” just days before the 2016 presidential election. That lawsuit may be read in full at this link. The suit claims that the “hush agreement” is not legally binding because Daniels’ affair was with Trump himself — and Trump never signed the agreement.
While White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said that Trump denies that the affair with Daniels took place, Trump himself has remained silent about the allegation—refraining even from posting about Daniels or her lawsuit on his Twitter account, which he frequently uses to insult his critics, political opponents and personal enemies.
“It is striking that there are two people in the world [Trump] has never criticized: Vladimir Putin and Stormy Daniels,” former Obama administration press secretary Josh Ernest said on MSNBC Friday afternoon. “And those are two people who may have something over him.”
But according to a CNN report earlier this week, Trump is worried about the Daniels story and has consulted members of his inner circle on how he should respond.
While Trump reportedly sweats over the Daniels story, there are at least two interested groups that have been thrilled by Daniels’ willingness to confront Trump on the public stage: the porn industry, and the women who have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
According to a report Thursday by the entertainment business site The Wrap, porn industry insiders have been following the Daniels case with great enthusiasm.
“Daniels’ defiant confrontation with [Trump] seems to have struck a decidedly personal chord among many in the adult film industry, who for years have felt shunned and ignored by both Hollywood and Washington elites,” wrote Wrap reporter Itay Hod.
“Her vagina might have the power to put history back in the right direction,” Joanna Angel, also an AVN Hall of Famer, told The Wrap—adding that Daniels’ name had been mentioned in the same TV news segment as North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. “I don’t think that’s ever happened in the history of porn or the world.”
“Whether she wanted it or not, she’s a major celebrity at this point,” said AVN’s own senior editor Mark Kernes. “The feeling among the industry is ‘You go girl!'”
While the adult entertainment industry is enjoying the blitz of positive publicity generated by the Daniels lawsuit, some of the 19 women who have publicly accused Trump of sexual assault of harassment say they are also firmly in Daniels’ corner, according to a report on People.com.
“Let’s just say that all week I’ve been envisioning her as TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’ come December,” said Natasha Stoynoff, a former People Magazine reporter who interviewed Trump in 2005—only to have him sexually attack her during the interview, according to her account. “I’m cheering her on! She’s got a lot of guts and like many women, I trust she’s had enough of his lies. Here’s hoping she puts an end to them once and for all for the sake of country.”
Another of Trump’s sexual assault accusers, who has now ceased using her name in public after getting threats, also said that she was cheering on Daniels’ legal crusade against Trump.
“I am sure she is telling the truth, I think she is brave to do it and the more women who come forward the better,” the woman told People. “I am grateful she’s trying to talk because it shows what type of man he is, for the proof of it.”
