Porn star Stormy Daniels has blasted how she was treated in court, accusing Donald Trump's female defence lawyer of "slut shaming" her.
As the adult actress rebuilds her life away from the courtroom in which she helped bring down the world ’s once most powerful man, today she reflects on her gruelling time on the stand. Stormy tells how she was appalled by her treatment at the hands of Trump attorney Susan Necheles, who tried to use her X-rated career to argue that she fabricated her vivid story of sex with the former president.
"How bad to have a woman get up there and try to slut shame a woman," she says. "I can't imagine that anyone else would say otherwise. She actually had the nerve to argue because what I do makes my testimony less valuable. It was both insulting and demeaning."
Stormy Daniels leaving the court in New York (Getty Images)Stormy was paid £102,000 by Trump's then-lawyer at his boss's behest in the lead-up to the 2016 election. It was made to prevent her from revealing devastating allegations that the president slept with her behind his wife, Melania's back, in 2006.
During Stormy's evidence, Necheles worked on painting her as driven by hatred and a desire for money, with their exchanges growing increasingly heated. Trump's lawyer accused the porn star of trying to extort her client through the hush-money deal.
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"False," Stormy replied. "That's what you did, right?" Necheles snapped. "False," she again repeated. At one point, Necheles asked Stormy about her history of making porn movies. "You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real," Necheles said.
"Wow," Stormy replied with a pause. "That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room." Today, Stormy says she struggles with how many people still believe it was her case against Trump. She says: "I wasn't the prosecution.
"I can't tell you how many tweets I got a day telling me that I should drop the case. It was not my case to drop. New York State brought it, not me. Like I have no control over this?"
Trump with attorney Susan Necheles in court on March 25 (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)During the six-week trial, when Stormy, 45, took the stand, she provided graphic details of the night she allegedly spent with Trump after a 2006 celebrity golf tournament. She delivered some of the most explosive testimony exposing him for his alleged extramarital sex, which helped lead to him last week being convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
At the heart of his downfall was the $130,000 (£102,000) payment made to Stormy by the property mogul's then-lawyer, Cohen. Cohen and Trump, 77, later concocted an illegal scheme to falsify business records to cover up the reimbursement of the payment to the lawyer, which now sees him face up to four years in prison when sentenced on July 11.
But, as Stormy spends time back on her ranch reunited with her family and her beloved horse Leo, she has taken immense comfort from the evidence she gave despite how tough it was. She tells me: "My life now is my husband, daughter and competing with my horse, Leo.
"I'd like to bid for mainstream acting success, and I'm filming a thriller movie and a comedy series. It is thankfully a world away from the courtroom. It was so intimidating being in front of the jurors and lawyers all looking at me, but I'm glad the stuff I wanted came out in court. I wanted to prove I'd been telling the truth the entire time.
Stormy Daniels spoke to The Mirror following the conclusion of Trump's trial (James Breeden for The Mirror)"I was telling the truth that I was not paid for sex. It was not a prostitution job. I was not an escort. I was not a prostitute. It was consensual.
"That was one of the biggest things for me, that I'm not a liar. All I did was give the REAL truth to the questions I was asked. Think about that for a moment. You had to hear me talk about it. I had to live it."
Despite facing constant daily abuse while on the stand - even wearing a built-proof vest to attend court - defiant Stormy refuses to back down. "First of all, it was my duty to relay the facts of the case because I was subpoenaed, and I was asked to tell the truth," she says.
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"I was the only one that was. I felt like it was my way of making up for anyone who could have come after me and got harmed because I didn't come forward sooner because I didn't say no to Trump.
"I get asked a lot like if you could go back and do it again, would I? And I say how far back because if I go all the way back, I would not have gone to his hotel room. I get asked if it was worth it to speak out and stand up to being bullied and to clear my name, and most of the time, I say 'yes'."
Trump was found guilty this week (Getty Images)However, despite her determination to give evidence and help bring Trump justice, it has come at a heavy cost. Ever since her allegations emerged in the days leading up to the 2016 US election, which Trump won, she has had to live with daily death threats from his MAGA mob of supporters.
"Every day, it is nonstop, and there's no middle ground," she explains. "There's no person who doesn't have an extremely strong opinion either way. Like if I open my Twitter right now and read it, it'd be like, 'you're the hottest woman ever', 'You're my hero', 'You saved the world', then 'whore', 'set yourself on fire ' 'your daughter should be euthanised', 'I know where you live.'
"The most horrific ones talk about breaking into my house and raping all of my family in front of me before they slit my throat. And then the very next one would be, 'Love you, Goddess, marry me.' It is nonstop.
"Despite all the nasty trolling, I also get marriage proposals and messages calling me a goddess - I divide opinion. But despite that, my life is all about looking over my shoulder wherever I go."
Stormy singled out trial Judge Juan Merchan for his conduct in the case but also expressed her fears for him, given what she has suffered for so long. "He has the patience of a saint," she says. "He's brave, but he has my condolences. I know what his life is going to be like, at least in the immediate future. It scares me, and I fear for the jurors as well.
Donald Trump with his lawyer Todd Blanche at the Supreme Court of the State of New York (Julia Nikhinson/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)"I could not believe that they weren't sequestered." She is crystal clear about who she thinks is responsible. "I blame Donald Trump," she adds. "He has divided this country, its people and the world in a way I just didn't think was possible."
Since the verdict last week, the abuse has taken on a new twist. Stormy has been accused of stoking tensions so high in the States that her actions could lead to violence not seen since 1861.
"I received one message the other day that said, 'How does it feel to know that you're the cause of the Civil War?'". However, she has taken heart from how quickly the jury saw through his defence team's evidence, vindicating her even further. "I didn't think the verdict was going to be so fast. I really didn't," she adds.
"Both of my phones started going off so quickly, like rapid-fire, that it reminded me of when the indictment happened. My phone just started going crazy. And I was like, 'Either someone I know is dead, or the verdict is back'. I started getting alerts, and we ran inside, and we were watching it.
Stormy said she hopes Trump is locked up when he is sentenced on July 11 (James Breeden for The Mirror)"I heard the first, second, third one and then lost it. My daughter was sitting next to me, and I just was like I collapsed. I was sobbing in her lap. It was her looking after me."
Today, Stormy told the Sunday Mirror that she hopes Trump is locked up when he is sentenced on July 11. "You have to find the punishment," she adds, "that not only matches the crime but is fair and just and impacts that particular person.
"Locking him up isn't the same as locking up anybody else. It's not like he's going to suffer the same way. And we already know he loves orange. Orange is the new orange."
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