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Stormy Daniels says Trump indictment will cause ‘injuries and death’

Ms Daniels says threats made against her have become increasingly violent

Abe Asher
Friday 31 March 2023 20:10 BST
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Stormy Daniels said Friday she believes the indictment of former President Donald Trump will cause “injuries and deaths,” even as she celebrated the notion of Mr Trump being held accountable for his actions.

In an interview granted to The Times from an undisclosed location in the United States, Ms Daniels, 44, said she believes the indictment will “continue to divide people” as the US deals with an ongoing rise in political violence.

“Whatever the outcome is, it’s going to cause violence, and there’s going to be injuries and death,” Ms Daniels said. “There’s the potential for a lot of good to come from this. But either way, a lot of bad is going to come from it, too.”

Ms Daniels is in a good position to understand how fans of the former president’s are taking the news of his criminal indictment in New York. She said since news of the indictment broke on Thursday, she has recieved threats of violence on her social media accounts, phone, and email.

“The number and the intensity is the same as it was the first time around, but this time it’s straight-up violent,” Ms Daniels told the newspaper. “The first time it was ‘gold digger’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘liar’ whatever. And this time it’s ‘I’m gonna murder you’. They’re way more violent and graphic.”

Ms Daniels noted that Mr Trump has “already gotten away with inciting a riot, and causing death and destruction,” referring to his incitement of the riot at the US Capitol that has been characterised by experts as an attempted self-coup. Mr Trump was impeached for his role in the Capitol riot, but acquitted by the US Senate. He has not faced any criminal charges related to the riot and is currently running for president again.

Mr Trump allegedly had an affair with Ms Daniels in 2006, shortly after marrying his current wife Melania. Shortly before the 2016 presidential election, Mr Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen facilitated a payment of $130,000 to Ms Daniels in exchange for her silence regarding the alleged affair. Mr Cohen claims that Mr Trump told him to make the hush money payment. Mr Trump has long denied the affair.

Despite her fear for her safety and the well-being of the country, Ms Daniels overall celebrated news of Mr Trump’s indictment — tweeting on Thursday night that she was enjoying champagne to mark the occasion.

“It’s vindication,” Ms Daniels said of the indictment. “But it’s bittersweet. He’s done so much worse that he should have been taken down [for] before. I am fully aware of the insanity of it being a porn star. But it’s also poetic; this p**** grabbed back.”

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