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Having testified against Donald Trump in his criminal hush money trial, Stormy Daniels says she believes there is a “strong possibility” that the former president will have her tried for treason if he is re-elected in November.
Daniels, the adult film star, director, equestrian, and stand-up comic, spoke with Rolling Stone about her life since the trial that saw Trump convicted on 34 counts of concealing hush money payments to her.
Indeed, it was testimony from Daniels that likely helped convince a New York jury to find the former president guilty of falsifying business records and other charges.
Her story emerged into the public realm in 2018 when she came forward with an allegation that she had been in a romantic extramarital relationship with the president in 2006, after which she was threatened and later bribed to stay silent.
However, 18 years after their first encounter at a celebrity golf tournament, and six years after coming forward with her story, Daniels took the stand, having arrived at court in a bulletproof vest. Less than a month later, Trump became the first criminally indicted, then convicted, former president in US history.
But what happened to Daniels next?
According to her attorney, she was “very emotional” after the verdict. Later, speaking to the Sunday Mirror, she said: “I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate or being the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter.”
She, who has recieved countless death threats since the verdict, added: “It’s not over for me. It’s never going to be over for me. Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy.”
Daniels and her family had to flee their home after a photo of her house was published by a tabloid. She believes this was the result of Trump’s defense team displaying an unredacted document during the trial.
She now lives in an RV as she tours the country doing stand-up and encouraging people to register to vote.A GoFundMe set up by her former manager and friend, Dwayne Crawford, raised more than $1m in little over a month
The proceeds will go toward paying off the $600,000 in Trump’s legal fees that she owes the former president after a court dismissed her 2018 defamation case against him. The remainder is being used to keep her family safe.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, she explains that her feelings about Trump after all of this are somewhat complex.
“I don’t think he necessarily hates me,” she says. “I think he hates the situation [I’ve put him in].”
Further, she believes that he never wanted to be president and is only running because his ego won’t let him acknowledge failure.
Beyond that, Daniels understands the threat of a possible second Trump term. She tells the magazine: “He doesn’t want to be president. He wants to be king … He wants to sit on his gold toilet throne and wear a f***in’ — I don’t know. I do hate him, in that way.”
Amid touring and speaking out against the former president and contending with threats against her life, she feels there is a “strong possibility” that he will have her tried for treason.
She told Rolling Stone: “[Either way], there will be chaos.”
Trump’s sentencing in the hush money case is set for November 26 — three weeks after election day.
A full timeline of the build-up to the case is available here for those who need a refresher, as well as Daniels’s testimony, and the final verdict.
