Stormy Daniels says her phone records are ‘gonna hurt’ Trump in hush money probe

Biographer says indictment would mean that ‘one of the slipperiest people at the highest level of business, whose devotion to abusing the system is so well established, is being caught’

Stormy Daniels has said that her phone records are “gonna hurt” former President Donald Trump in the hush money probe into the 2016 payment to the porn actor conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Ms Daniels said she provided her lawyer with the records on Wednesday. She’s in the middle of the possible indictment of Mr Trump, which would be the first occurrence of a US president being charged with a crime.

It is alleged that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen paid off Ms Daniels to remain silent during the 2016 campaign for the White House regarding an affair she claims took place a decade previously. Mr Trump has denied the allegation.

Mr Cohen spent time in prison and in home confinement on a campaign finance violation in relation to the payment. It’s been reported that Mr Trump may be in legal jeopardy on the basis of falsifying business records as the reimbursement to Mr Cohen was logged as a legal expense.

A Twitter user asked Ms Daniels on Wednesday: “Are you still laughing @StormyDaniels You seem to have stopped tweeting obsessively about Trump but I’m sure you’re having the last laugh.”

“I’m sure I will. I’ve been handing over phone records to my attorney today (they’re gonna hurt!) and planning spring break activities with my kid. It was a wonderful day,” Ms Daniels said.

The grand jury in the case is set to meet again on Monday 27 March.

Mr Trump’s legal team has argued that he’s the victim of extortion.

Biographer Michael D’Antonio told the AP that an indictment would be a “shocking event, both because of the fact that a former president is being indicted for the first time, but also because one of the slipperiest people at the highest level of business, whose devotion to abusing the system is so well established, is being caught”.

“Throughout his life, he has done things for which he could have been investigated and potentially prosecuted and learned from those experiences that he could act with impunity,” he added.

Former federal corruption prosecutor Noah Bookbinder told the news agency that “it makes accountability absolutely essential because we can’t have people in a functioning democracy operating in positions of power with total impunity where they can commit crimes and never have to face any consequences”.

Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Cohen, who has turned into a fierce critic of his former boss, writing on Truth Social on Wednesday night: “Cohen should be prosecuted for lying and all of the tumult and cost he put the D.A.’s Office through. Also, the case against ‘Trump’ should be dropped immediately, prior to a finding of Prosecutorial Misconduct.”

In another post on Wednesday, Mr Trump pushed the notion that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is connected to billionaire investor George Soros.

“How can a highly controversial, George Soros backed District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who presides over one of the most crime ridden, violent, and dangerous Cities in the U.S., with no retribution toward these heinous criminals, bring charges against the 45th, and quite possibly the 47th, President of the United States, who received more votes than any sitting President in history, over 75,000,000, and who is currently leading all candidates, by a lot, when there is NO CRIME OF ANY KIND???” Mr Trump wrote.

But the connection between Mr Bragg and Mr Soros is far from as close as Republicans would like it to appear.

The racial justice group Color of Change, to which Mr Soros donated $1m in 2021, works to influence government and corporate policy across the US.

The Open Society Policy Center, which is funded by Mr Soros, sent $7m to the group’s 501(c)(4) branch that same year.

But none of those funds was earmarked for the Bragg campaign or connected to attempts to influence him, CNBC notes.

A spokesperson for Mr Soros told CNBC that he “has never met or spoken to Alvin Bragg”.

Democrats and experts have often argued that the attacks on Mr Soros, who is Jewish, are anti-Semitic.

The president of Color of Change, Rashad Robinson, tweeted on 19 March: “Make no mistake, over the next couple of days as more news about potential consequences for Trump circulates, we will see a flood of anti-Black and anti-Semitic attacks from the former President and his supporters and enablers.”

“They will attack those of us fighting to end mass incarceration, working to hold police accountable & pushing to the day when the rich and powerful don’t live by a different set of rules. They will attack those of us doing the work like @ColorOfChange n allies & those funding it,” he added.