Adult film star Stormy Daniels made her much-anticipated appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The focus of the interview was complicated by the release of an alleged statement from Daniels circulated among journalists in the hours leading up to the show, in which Daniels appears to deny having a 2006 romantic relationship with Donald Trump.
“I am not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids,” the supposed Daniels letter reads. “I am denying this affair because it never happened.” The affair was recently brought into the spotlight again thanks to a detailed and candid transcript of a 2011 interview with Daniels published by In Touch last month.
The concept of “hush money” was actually reported outside of the “tabloids”: A January Wall Street Journal article stated that, just prior to the election, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen negotiated a $130,000 settlement with Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged tryst with Trump. Cohen sent a similar “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN” statement at that time, allegedly signed by Daniels, to the WSJ, saying that reports of her having a romantic relationship with Trump and were “completely false.” “If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book,” the statement continued.
In last night’s interview, Kimmel pressed Daniels’ on the veracity of the new statement attributed to her. He also referenced the pronounced difference between Daniels’ signature on the two statements, demonstrating that the penmanship on the original WSJ statement looked more similar to previous versions of her signature (see below).
Which Stormy Daniels signature is the fake? January 10 or January 30? pic.twitter.com/JEFsqZ5oSJ
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) January 30, 2018
When asked if she had signed the new statement, Daniels responded, in an affected tone: “I don’t know, did I? That does not look like my signature, does it?” After refusing to answer whether it had been released without her permission, Daniels said that she “did not know where [the letter] came from…It came from the Internet. I also work for the FBI and I’m a man, according to the Internet today.” (Later, Daniels would also say that she considered herself to be “a victim” of “the Internet.”)
Later, Kimmel asked Daniels if she had a non-disclosure agreement, to which Daniels again responded: “Do I?”
“But if you did not have a nondisclosure agreement, you most certainly could say that you did not have a nondisclosure agreement,” Kimmel averred.
“You’re so smart, Jimmy,” Daniels responded.
She also said that the 2011 In-Touch interview was not true “as it was written,” though she added that she’s been “too scared” to read the full transcript.
Daniels, as far back as 2009 and as recently as 2016, has claimed to various reporters that the affair did occur.
In the end, then, we still don’t know whether Trump really did ask Daniels to spank him with a copy of Forbes. Watch the full Kimmel interview below.
Interesting
1. Signed statement from Stormy sent by Michael Cohen when story first surfaced
2. BuzzFeed obtained this signed statement today. We don’t know who sent it in.
3. Stormy’s autograph.
Look at the difference. The BuzzFeed obtained one looks very different. pic.twitter.com/aUklu9QUZ1
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 30, 2018
