Stormy Daniels remained strangely quiet.
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress and director, has never been shy about her public battles with Donald Trump.
But since his starring role in the New York trial that made him the first former US president to be a criminal, she hasn’t said a word.
It’s a relationship that could come from the pages of a bad romance novel – the billionaire playboy who wanted to be president and the porn star who says they had a brief fling before she was sucked into illegal machinations designed to keep her quiet during an election.
A jury of 12 ordinary New Yorkers found Trump guilty of 34 counts of corporate fraud for trying to cover up a secret payment to Daniels on the eve of the tight 2016 election – which the Republican went on to win against Hillary Clinton.
After years of exchanging insults with Trump on social media, including during his four years in the White House, Stormy Daniels – whose real name is Stephanie Clifford – suddenly discovered that she was the one with the power.
Her testimony, including graphic descriptions of what she says was a casual sex session in 2006, was crucial in the prosecution’s case, which needed to show that Trump feared that any escape from the story would doom his campaign.
In the aftermath, however, the 45-year-old remained strangely quiet.
Her husband, Barrett Blade, told CNN that “she is still processing it.”
He suggested there might be more to his silence.
“You know, all the MAGA idiots are going to come after her,” he said, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
In a deeply divided country, these fears may not be far-fetched.
Daniels wore a bulletproof vest when he went to court in New York, his lawyer Clark Brewster confirmed in an interview with local channel ABC News.
“It’s so cruel and threatening, so I just think about it from the standpoint of fear of what someone might do,” he said of the atmosphere for Daniels.
“It was really fear.”
Asked whether this apprehension increased in the wake of Trump’s guilty verdict, Brewster said: “That would be a logical conclusion.”
– ‘Weight on shoulders’ –
Despite the emotional impact, Daniels feels “a little vindicated knowing that she was telling the truth,” Blade said.
He said Daniels did not attempt to face Trump in court in a case brought by Manhattan prosecutors.
The end of the trial is a relief – “a huge weight lifted off your shoulders” – Blade said.
The stress, however, is hardly over.
“It brings another weight on your shoulders about what happens next,” Blade said. “We take it day by day.”
Daniels is a self-made woman who rose from a difficult childhood and through the challenging world of adult films to become a successful businesswoman.
But in a recent documentary, she revealed that behind her outwardly tough and good-natured social media persona, she has been hurt by the constant insults from Trump and his supporters.
“In 2018, that was something like ‘liar,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘gold digger,’” she said in the film “Stormy.”
“This time, it’s very different. It’s direct threats, it’s: ‘I’m going to come to your house and slit your throat’, ‘your daughter should be sacrificed’.”
On the other hand, the prosecution’s other main witness in the trial, former Trump mediator Michael Cohen, has been eagerly telling his story after the trial.
The disgraced lawyer, who testified he was at the center of the former president’s scheme to silence Daniels, has appeared on MSNBC and other major media outlets.
“It was emotionally draining,” Cohen told ABC News, adding that he was glad he got through the ordeal.
“I want people to also remember, I take responsibility for what I did,” he said. “I accepted it and partly went to prison for it.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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