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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maya Yang in New York

‘Good chance’ we’ll leave US if Trump acquitted, Stormy Daniels husband says

a woman with blonde hair gets into a black car
Stormy Daniels leaves Manhattan criminal court last week. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

The husband of Stormy Daniels said there is a “good chance” that the couple will leave the US if Donald Trump is acquitted in his criminal trial over paying hush-money payments to the adult film star.

“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,” Barrett Blade told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday.

“If he is found guilty, then she’s still got to deal with all the hate. I feel like she’s the reason that he’s guilty from all his followers, so I don’t see it as a win-win situation either way.”

Blade’s comments come after Daniels appeared in court last week to deliver powerful testimony on her alleged sexual affair with Trump nearly 20 years ago.

Among the questions she said Trump asked her was: “What about testing? Do you worry about STDs?”

Daniels also said Trump compared her to his daughter Ivanka, saying: “You remind me of my daughter. She is smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well.”

She testified that upon returning from using the bathroom in Trump’s hotel room, she found him on the bed, wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt. Daniels said she tried to leave but Trump stood between her and the door.

“He said, ‘I thought we were getting somewhere. I thought you were serious about what you wanted,’” Daniels recalled.

Daniels and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, are at the center of Trump’s historic criminal case. Prosecutors allege that Cohen allegedly worked alongside tabloid publisher David Pecker to bury unfavorable stories that would potentially affect Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, and that Cohen facilitated a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels shortly before the election.

Trump has been charged with falsifying business records. Prosecutors allege that the former president falsely listed his repayments to Cohen as legal service fees.

Trump’s defense team attempted to discredit Daniels, with lawyer Susan Necheles at one point saying: “You have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real.”

“That’s not how I would put it,” Daniels replied. “The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.”

In a more pointed question, Necheles asked, “You were looking to extort money from president Trump, right?”, to which Daniels responded: “False.”

Blade was asked on CNN about accusations that Daniels made up the affair. “I think she’s a brilliant writer,” Blade said. “So she would have written something way better than what she said about the Trump story.”

He went on: “She wants to move past this. We just want to do what … normal people would get to do in some aspects, but I don’t know if that ever will be, and it breaks my heart.

“Everybody has their agenda for her at this point, and I don’t see people fighting back for her.”

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