Back in 2018, adult film star and director Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump because of his constant denials of their affair. He also bad-mouthed her constantly.
So, you know, exactly what E. Jean Carroll just won more than $80 million for.
But unlike Carroll, whose defamation suit against the former president came only after he’d been adjudicated guilty of raping her, Daniels tried to sue before it was proven in court that he had paid her hush money.
So when the judge dismissed her case back then, she was ordered to pay $600,000 in Trump’s legal fees.
Now, it could be that there’s another lawsuit from her down the road, now that he’s a felon x 34 for exactly what she accused him of. But in the short term, there’s still those legal fees.
So she started a fundraiser with the popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe [1].
Well, she herself didn’t start the fundraiser. Her friend and former manager Dwayne Crawford did, and titled it “I Stand With Stormy Daniels.” And so far, it’s raised more than a million dollars.
“For over 6 years, I have been fighting to speak the truth…and paying the price for it,” she said on the page. “I refused to back down or give a penny for telling the truth. Thank you will never be enough but…THANK YOU!”
Why such relief and joy?
For years since the accusations became public, she has suffered at the hand of the media and Trump’s cult-like followers. They have treated her like a common sex worker, trying to make a buck off a famous guy.
But Trump didn’t pay her to sleep with him. He paid her to be quiet about it.
His fans and the media know that, of course. But that hasn’t stopped them from lionizing him and referring to her as a “porn star,” as though it’s not a legitimate industry. If people didn’t watch adult films, you wouldn’t even know her name.
Now, the fundraiser is already past the bare minimum necessary to pay the legal fees. but they set a goal of $1.25 million, so she can move herself and her family to somewhere safe, after the countless death threats she’s gotten since Trump’s guilty verdict after her testimony.
Tabloid rag the New York Post even doxed her, releasing her home address. Her horses have already been shot twice.
Crawford publicly announced a message from Stormy, thanking her supporters.
“I really can’t believe the outpouring of support and donations,” she said. I, for one, can. The testimony she provided in the felony case against Trump is easily what did him in. She gave excruciatingly disgusting details, including that he’d told her she reminded him of his daughter. Any court hearing that, and remembering that Trump once publicly said that if Ivanka weren’t his daughter, he might be dating her, would know she was telling the truth.
These aren’t giant donations from rich benefactors. This is money from people who want to see justice served.