After Trump lawyer claim, Stormy Daniels 'free to talk'

Adult film star Stormy Daniels, who once claimed she had an affair with US President Donald Trump more than a decade ago, is now free to tell her story, according to her manager.

Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez said that after a private lawyer for Trump revealed that he had paid US$130,000 of his own money to the porn star, there was in violation of a non-disclosure agreement with Daniels about the matter. As a result, Daniels believes she can now talk about it publicly.

The payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was made during the 2016 presidential election campaign but the lawyer,Michael Cohen, said he was working alone and that it was not a campaign expense.

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“The payment to MsClifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen said, calling it “a private transaction.”

Cohen’s statement that he paid Daniels $130,000 from his own resources — or at least financed the payment — raised the question of whether campaign finance laws governing disclosure requirements and how much individuals may contribute to campaigns could have been violated, a watchdog group said.

"Neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.

Cohen pushed back against charges that the payout should have counted as a campaign contribution, but experts were split on his argument. His comments about the payment “strongly suggests he’s not doing it on his own accord” and, instead, seeking to benefit Trump, said Karl Sandstrom, a former commissioner with the Federal Election Commission.

"Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Trump,"Cohen said, adding that he would not comment further.

Stephanie Clifford, spoke to an online magazine called Slate multiple times in 2016 before breaking off contact a week before the election, Jacob Weisberg, chairman, and editor in chief of the Slate Group, wrote in an article.

In the story, Clifford is described as having “worked out an agreement for the presidential candidate to pay her a six-figure sum to keep quiet.” This document would have shielded the names of the parties involved, the article added.

“Daniels said she was talking to me and sharing these details because Trump was stalling on finalizing the confidentiality agreement and paying her,” Weisberg wrote. “Given her experience with Trump, she suspected he would stall her until after the election, and then refuse to sign or pay up.”

Daniels was quoted as saying in a 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly that she had an affair with Trump after they met at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

As per reports, Trump and Clifford had the encounter in Lake Tahoe, California, in 2006, a year after he married his third wife, Melania. Clifford was 27 at the time and had come to represent the adult film studio Wicked, which made her films.