Who is Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress central to Trump's arraignment in New York?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Adult actress Stormy Daniels is central to former President Donald Trump's historic arraignment Tuesday in New York, marking the first time a former president has ever faced criminal charges.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump Thursday in connection with the former president's alleged role in hush money payments made by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors say Cohen orchestrated the payments to Daniels and another woman; both claimed to have had sex with Trump and the money allegedly went toward paying for their silence before the 2016 election.
Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter
Daniels' role in Trump case
Daniels claims that Trump had consensual sex with her in 2006 – months after Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, had their son.
Cohen, Trump's attorney at that time, says he paid $130,000 in hush money to Daniels' attorney just before the 2016 election to silence claims that she had an affair with Trump. Daniels was considering going public with the scandal.
Trump indictment live updates: Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts in historic New York case
Trump indicted: Daniels' reaction
After Trump's indictment, Daniels' longtime lawyer Clark Brewster told USA TODAY that the actress was surprised and even felt bad about the news.
More: Stormy Daniels said she'd dance in the streets if Trump was indicted. Now she's sad it happened
"The fact is that she feels bad that the guy has been charged,” Brewster said. “But on the other hand, truly, she knew what the facts were and she wants him to deal with the truth as well. So from that perspective, there's a degree of feeling like the system is working.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday after he surrendered himself to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Contributing: Josh Meyer, Bart Jensen, Kevin Johnson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet Stormy Daniels: The woman central to Trump's hush money probe
