Trump trial: Stormy Daniels says she’s ‘ready to testify’

Stormy Daniels is “ready to testify” at former President Donald Trump’s secret trial in Manhattan, scheduled for March. The former adult film actress spoke about this on her podcast “Beyond the Normal,” published Sunday night, on the eve of the Iowa caucus, which opened the Republican primaries. “Obviously things have gotten completely crazy as I prepare to testify in March (obviously this could change at any moment) in a bribery case,” said Stephanie Clifford, her real name.

A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the prosecution, declined to comment. There is no indication that Bragg will want Stormy Daniels to testify in the bribery case, the first in which courts have criminally charged a former president.

In April, Trump pleaded not guilty in New York to a criminal charge accusing him of falsifying business records in connection with a secret payment to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. had sexual relations with an actress and director.

Daniels said she and Trump had consensual sexual relations in 2006 and remained in contact for several months. In 2016, in an effort to remove anything that could harm his candidacy (at the time of his relationship with Daniels, Trump had been married for a year to Melania), Trump sent his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to negotiate a confidentiality agreement with Daniels. exchanged for $130,000 to hide this betrayal from a sometimes very puritanical America. The Wall Street Journal will report the existence of this agreement in January 2018. If Donald Trump firmly denies that he had a relationship with Stormy Daniels, resorting to not so nice words, it reveals very intimate anatomical details about the president.

Battles and violence that seem to occur only in the United States are multiplying. Backed into a corner, Michael Cohen lets his friend Trump go. He agrees to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence (three years in prison) and pleads guilty to tax evasion and violating campaign finance laws. And if Trump reimbursed him $130,000, then the documents were falsified by withdrawing them from the accounts of one of his companies, the Trump Organization. Thus, the qualification of a bribe is added to the qualification of a violation of the legislation on the financing of elections.

The trial date is set for March 25, but it could be moved to avoid conflicts with other criminal cases involving Trump. The former president and the new Republican nominee face 91 charges, some of which could lead to prison time in Georgia.