Stormy Daniels: the adult star who could put Trump behind bars

You probably heard her name at some point in the past years: Stormy Daniels. Her scandalous exchange with former president Donald Trump might get him into great legal problems, including the possibility of jail. Meanwhile, Stormy's life as an entertainer has taken a radical turn. Read all about it here!

Stormy Daniels is the professional name of Stephanie Gregory Clifford, a woman born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1979.

She began working as an exotic dancer at the age of 17. Her first job was at the Gold Club in Baton Rouge.

Her stage name comes from her admiration for the band Mötley Crüe. Its bass player (Nikki Sixx) named his daughter Stormy.

Over the years, Stormy expanded her repertoire in the entertainment industry. Apart from exotic dancing, she has also acted, directed, and produced adult films.

Within the field, she was considered a star long before a businessman called Donald Trump crossed her path.

In the image, she's promoting comedian Dane Cook's latest DVD in Hollywood in 2005.

Stormy and Donald met in Lake Tahoe, Nevada at a golf tournament in 2006. According to CNN, she said that a Trump bodyguard escorted her to his room where they had dinner and intimate relations afterward.

The sexual encounter between Stormy and Trump happened before the tycoon ran for president. At the time, he was the host of the show 'The Apprentice.'

Trump took advantage of his position to offer Stormy a spot on the entrepreneurial game show. However, he never made good on his promise.

Even though she was not a real estate agent or stockbroker, Stormy considered herself an excellent businesswoman. As she told CBS's '60 Minutes,' Stormy thought she'd be a good contestant for 'The Apprentice.' It felt like a betrayal that Trump had led her on while asking for sexual favors.

The actress and Donald Trump met one more time in 2007 before it became clear that he would not invite her onto the show. After that, she did not want to see the tycoon anymore.

According to CBS, Stormy tried to sell her story to InTouch for $15,000 in 2011. It was never published, however, because Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen threatened to sue her and the publication.

Before and during Trump's political career, his lawyer Michael Cohen would do a number of 'dirty' legal jobs for him. In 2018, Cohen would be convicted of fraud, lying to Congress, and violating campaign-finance laws, among other offenses.

It was the campaign finance charge that involved Stormy Daniels. Cohen insisted that the adult star stay silent about her meetings with Donald Trump in 2006 and 2007. To take the demand a step further, Cohen offered her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The hush money for Stormy allegedly came out of campaign funds - and that is prohibited. According to the New York Times, Cohen admitted that he violated campaign-finance laws at the direction of Trump and "for the principal purpose of influencing" the 2016 presidential election.

The payment of $130,000 was made in exchange for Daniels signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Although she took the money, Stormy would end up breaking that agreement when she recounted the events in an interview for '60 Minutes.'

After she spoke out in 2018, the actress and Trump got into a series of legal battles. Among the things they fought about in court was the question of whether Stormy Daniels was allowed to speak about her relationship with Trump and whether the NDA was a valid document.

In addition, Stormy said that Trump's team was harassing her to keep her mouth shut - both by filing expensive lawsuits and by contacting her directly. According to NBC, she reported having been approached by a man in Las Vegas while she was out with her young daughter.

The man had allegedly told her to "leave Trump alone" and then, as if they were in a mobster movie, he had looked at her daughter and said: "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

Trump, meanwhile, has denied everything about the Stormy Daniels affair. "As I have stated many times throughout the years, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I ever have wanted to," he said in 2022 according to NBC.

As the government investigated the $130,000 hush money payment, Trump walked back some of his comments. On a 'Fox & Friends' broadcast in 2018, he said that perhaps, indeed, money had been paid to the actress. But if it were so, he insisted, it had come directly from his pocket and not from the campaign.

Trump has held on to these remarks, according to the BBC and other media, because, if proven, the use of campaign money to buy off Stormy Daniels could be a cause for him to go to jail. In fact, the US Attorney for the District of New York is on the case right now and could warrant an arrest for the ex-president.

While the investigation has been ongoing, Stormy has capitalized on her new notoriety. In 2018, she immediately came into action and turned her story into a living. For one, she went on tour with the 'Making America H o r n y Again Tour' - a play on Trump's slogan of 'Making America Great Again.'

During her 'MAHA' tour, the actress visited several strip clubs across the US with the intention of promoting... herself of course!

It did not all go smoothly. In July 2018, she was arrested for violating an Ohio state law by allegedly touching three undercover detectives at a strip club in Columbus.

Yet, in October 2018, Stormy Daniels published her book 'Full Disclosure,' in which she recounts various aspects of her life and describes in detail her problems with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen spent roughly a year in jail and then 1.5 more years under home arrest for his illegal acts with the Trump organization. He was also disbarred. Cohen decided to make lemonade from the lemons in his life and produced the podcast 'Mea Culpa.' Strikingly, one of his guests was Stormy Daniels! In 2021, she appeared on his show as a gesture of reconciliation between the two.

On Michael Cohen's show, Daniels said the scandal had made her world-famous and opened new doors for her. Yet, she admitted: "If I could just wave a magic wand and make everything go back to the way it was before," she would do it.

...to make as much of the situation as possible. She regularly promotes her own merchandise in a campaign she has tagged #TeamStormy on Instagram. In March 2023, Stormy wrote to her followers: "Had so many orders come in today! Thank you for the support."