Adult film actress Stormy Daniels speaks outside federal court in New York. Picture: AP
Stormy Daniels, the pornography film actress, broke her silence after former US president Donald Trump’s conviction to say he should be jailed, in an interview published in British tabloid “The Mirror” at the weekend.
“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,” Daniels said in the interview, published late on Saturday.
A jury of 12 New Yorkers last week found Trump guilty on 34 counts of business fraud for trying to cover up hush money payments to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130000 to keep silent and prevent scandal from breaking ahead of the election, in which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
After years of exchanging insults with Trump on social media, Daniels now says she finally has been “vindicated”, but was “shocked” at how quickly the jury made a decision – one that made Trump the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.
Daniels also accused the White House hopeful of being “completely and utterly out of touch with reality” and compared him to a child.
The former pornography film actress and director helped bring Trump down in court with her gripping testimony, which included graphic descriptions of what she says was a casual sexual encounter in 2006.
She was glad it was proved that she had been “telling the truth the entire time”, she said.
“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.”
The 45-year-old had remained uncharacteristically quiet in the days following Thursday’s conviction.
Daniels’s husband Barrett Blade had previously said she was “still processing” the trial. He suggested that she could be threatened by Trump’s supporters.
“You know, all the MAGA idiots are going to be coming after her,” Blade said, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
Daniels also said she would never escape death threats from Trump’s supporters, The Mirror reported.
“It’s so vicious and threatening... from the standpoint of just the fear of what somebody might do,” Daniels’s lawyer Clark Brewster said of the atmosphere around the trial in an interview with a local ABC News channel.
Daniels rose from a difficult childhood through porn movies to become a successful businesswoman. In a recent documentary, she said she has been hurt by the insults from Trump supporters.
“In 2018 was ‘liar’, ‘slut’, ‘gold digger’,” she said in the film, Stormy.
“This time, it is direct threats, it is, ‘I’m going to come to your house and slit your throat’.”
Trump’s campaign on Friday said it had raised nearly $53million (R996m) in donations after the conviction.
Trump is due for sentencing on July 11 but is expected to appeal against the verdict.
Cape Times
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