Stormy Daniels says she was threatened in 2011 over Trump story

Image: Donald Trump
President Donald Trump at the White House on Sunday after returning from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Copyright Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
Copyright Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
By Adam Edelman with NBC News Politics
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The adult film star said that the threat left her "rattled" but that she didn't go to the police because she was scared.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels — who has saidin a lawsuit that she had an "intimate" relationship with Donald Trump a decade before he became president — said in an interview airing Sunday night that she was threatened in 2011 inside a Las Vegas parking garage with her infant daughter present and was told not to go public with her story.

In a wide-ranging interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said the threat came weeks after she'd agreed to tell her story to a sister publication of InTouch magazine — an interview that didn't run at the time.

"I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. Taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, getting all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,'" Clifford said, according to a transcript of the interview.

Stormy Daniels arrives to perform at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9 in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Stormy Daniels arrives to perform at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9 in Pompano Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle

"And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone," she added.

Clifford said that she interpreted the event as direct threat and that she was "rattled."

"I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna drop her," Clifford said.

Clifford said that she didn't go to the police because she was scared and that she never again saw the man who threatened her, but she said she'd "100 percent" be able to recognize him if she ever saw him again.

"Even now, all these years later. If he walked in this door right now, I would instantly know," she said.

Clifford's account of the threat is the most harrowing yet in the saga over her efforts to go public about her alleged affair with Trump.

Nine days ago, Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Clifford, repeatedly said in an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that his client had been threatened, but he wouldn't say by whom. He also declined to give details on the threats.

President Donald Trump at the White House on Sunday after returning from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
President Donald Trump at the White House on Sunday after returning from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.Pablo Martinez Monsivais

In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Cliffordsaid she had an "intimate" relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007 and struck a deal a decade later to keep quiet about it. Clifford signed the deal, a secrecy agreement facilitated by Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in exchange for $130,000 before the 2016 election.

She has contended, however, that the pact is void because Trump never signed the agreement.

The White House has denied that Trump had an affair with Clifford. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said this month that, as far as she knows, the president was not aware that Cohen paid Clifford the $130,000.

Cohen has previously said that he used his own money to facilitate the payment and that "neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

Clifford has offered to give back the money so she can speak freely about Trump and release any text messages, photos and videos she might have.

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