President Donald Trump’s nightmare could come true, adult film star Stormy Daniels explained to the British outlet the Mirror this week. Her case against the president has rocketed back to the front of the national political conversation thanks to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign finance law violations involving the $130,000 in hush money he gave her prior to the 2016 election. Now, Daniels says that as the scandal proceeds, she’s willing to testify under oath to Congress to prove her story.
‘If Donald Trump has done things he shouldn’t have during his campaign, he should be impeached. If he has broken the law, he should be arrested and treated like anyone else. I’ll happily testify under oath and prove my story is true.’
She could testify under oath in any number of contexts, including a Trump impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate and a general Congressional hearing. The possibility that either option manifests jumps significantly should Democrats take control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections later this year, and a number of prominent interests — including the president himself — have addressed the now looming possibility of a Trump impeachment.
There’s already been talk about the likely vastly increased oversight of the Trump administration that would likely ensue following such a change. Axios obtained a spreadsheet that’s circulated among Republican Congressional circles featuring a whopping 100 possible lines of inquiry Democrats could pursue post-midterms. All of the cataloged questions are probes Democrats have already sought to kickstart but would have roadblocks removed in the case of increased Democratic control.
Imagine what Democrats would want to add to the list if they took back one or both houses of Congress.
Daniels is hardly the only one to raise concerns about Trump having possibly broken the law in the context of her particular case.
Cohen, when pleading guilty to the aforementioned campaign finance law violations, implicated the president, insisting that he worked at his direction. Besides the $130,000 in hush money Cohen paid Daniels covering a brief affair they had, he also helped orchestrate a deal to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal for $150,000. That arrangement went through the Trump-aligned American Media, Inc., whose head David Pecker was granted immunity as part of authorities’ inquiry into Cohen.
Neither deal held — obviously, since here we are. In connection to the revelation of Daniels’ relationship with the man who is now president, she’s received death threats — and ended up as a metaphorical shoulder to lean on for women who have experienced sexual harassment and assault. Although she reiterates that her interactions with Donald Trump were consensual, she insists that if some other women’s stories about their own interactions with him are true, he should be in jail.
In light of her role in the ongoing scandal and its concurrent developments, Daniels explains:
‘I have always said that the truth is the most important thing and that is why I spoke out in the first place — so I can look my daughter in the eye and know I was honest. Now the truth is coming out and justice must be done.’
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