Motherboard obtained an email sent between political operatives in 2009, that discussed Daniels' alleged admission to one consultant that Trump. Photos / AP, Getty Images
Motherboard obtained an email sent between political operatives in 2009, that discussed Daniels' alleged admission to one consultant that Trump. Photos / AP, Getty Images
More details have emerged in the controversy over whether adult film actor Stormy Daniels had an affair with President Donald Trump in 2006, shortly after the First Lady gave birth of his youngest son.
Motherboard obtained an email sent between political operatives in 2009, that discussed Daniels' alleged admission to one consultant that Trump "had her spank him with a Forbes magazine."
At the time, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, was considering running for US Senate in Louisiana and Trump's name came up as a potential donor for her campaign, according to the Daily Mail.
The issue over whether Trump and Daniels did, or did not, have an affair made headlines after the Wall Street Journal reported on January 12 that Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Trump, arranged a US$130,000 ($178,000) payment to Daniels to keep quiet over the alleged affair.
The payment was allegedly arranged one more before the 2016 presidential election.
In this latest development, a consultant, who asked Motherboard not to be named, told the site that he wrote an email to Andrea Dube, a Democratic political consultant based in New Orleans, informing Dube that Trump was a contact in Daniels' phone, and therefore a potential source of campaign contributions.
Dube, who confirmed she did exchange the emails in question, wrote back, "Donald Trump? In her cellphone?"
"Yep," the other consultant replied in the email chain.
"She says one time he made her sit with him for three hours watching shark week. Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine."
Democratic political consultant based in New Orleans, Andrea Dube, confirmed she exchanged the emails in question to Motherboard with another anonymous consultant.
The anonymous consultant told Motherboard that Daniels told him the magazine she used had Trump on the cover.
Trump was featured on the cover of an autumn 2006 issue of Forbes, pictured with two of his children, Donald jnr and Ivanka.
This latest detail comes out after In Touch released, on Wednesday, a previously unpublished interview with Daniels from 2011 where she reportedly describes her sexual encounters with Trump, which the article said happened in 2006.
Daniels took and passed a polygraph test in 2011 as she talked about her "textbook generic" sexual relations with a married Trump more than a decade ago, In Touch Weekly claimed.
"We had really good banter. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter," Daniels told the tabloid in a story that In Touch released this week, on the heels of other news reports about the president and the adult entertainer.
Her alleged affair with the future president began at the American Century celebrity golf tournament at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline, Nevada, in July 2006, several months after Trump's youngest son was born to his wife, Melania Trump.
The anonymous consultant told Motherboard that Daniels told him the magazine she used had Trump on the cover; Trump was featured on the cover of a Fall 2006 issue of Forbes (shown here). Photo / Ebay
The now 39-year-old adult actress described their initial sexual encounter with the billionaire businessman as 'nothing crazy' and admitted to the tabloid the two didn't use protection.
"It was one position, what you would expect someone his age to do," Daniels said.
"I actually don't even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, 'Please, don't try to pay me.' And then I remember thinking, 'But I bet if he did, it would be a lot,'" Daniels said.
Just before the In Touch story came out, a reporter for Slate detailed conversations he had with Daniels in 2016, during a time which he characterises as her uncertainty over whether Trump would pay her the promised hush money.
Jacob Weisberg, writing for the online publication Tuesday, explained that he had pursued the story between August and October of 2016, shortly before the presidential election, with Daniels personally confirming the rumour and setting Weisberg up with associates who corroborated Daniels' account as well.
She told the journalist that her lawyer Keith Davidson, with Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen, had worked out a six-figure fee, though the presidential candidate was dragging his feet on the final details, which is seemingly why she confirmed the relationship to a reporter, using it as an insurance policy.
Daniels also told Weisberg that she wanted money for her story, though Slate doesn't pay its sources.
The journalist said he tried convincing her to come forward anyway, but then she stopped talking to him.
"And then, about a week before the election, Daniels stopped responding to calls and text messages," Weisberg wrote. "A friend of hers told me Daniels had said she'd taken the money from Trump after all."
Weisberg never published what he knew from Daniels until today.
"I considered publishing the story without her co-operation," he said. "After all, she had never said anything was off the record. But if I did so, she would presumably disavow what she had told me, and the only people I had corroborating her story were sources Daniels herself had pointed me to."
Donald Trump and Melania Trump in 2009. Photo / Getty Images
"For the most important aspect of the story – the contract for her silence – I also lacked independent corroboration," the Slate writer said.
Weisberg said Daniels sent him a contract that referred to her as "Peggy Peterson" and to Trump as "David Dennison". Two other pseudonyms included the names "David Delucia" and "RCI", the Slate reporter wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Cohen set up a Delaware LLC in September 2016, called Resolutions Consultants, LLC a name that is rather similar to "RCI", the fourth pseudonym Weisberg cites in his piece for Slate.
That LLC was dissolved in October 2016, when Cohen created another company called Essential Consultants, LLC, for the purposes of transferring a US$130,000 payment to Daniels, the Wall Street Journal reported.
CNN also reported that Fox News had on-the-record statements from individuals confirming a relationship between Daniels and Trump, leading up to the 2016 election, but that editors "killed it".
