Stormy Daniels Denies She Had an Affair With Donald Trump

In an enviably timed about-face, adult film star Stormy Daniels issued a statement on Tuesday denying that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump in 2006, which would have constituted an extramarital affair on his part.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that a month before the 2016 election Michael Cohen, an attorney for Donald Trump, arranged to pay Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about the alleged affair. A few days later, InTouch published the full transcript of an interview it conducted with Daniels in 2011, at which point she attested to many salacious (or just quietly upsetting?) details of an alleged hook-up with Trump. For instance:

IT: Was the sex romantic?

Stormy: It was textbook generic. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God, I love you.” He wasn’t like Fabio or anything. He wasn’t trying to have, like, porn sex.

IT: Did he say anything to you during?

Stormy: Nothing freaky. Like, “Oh yeah, that feels good. That’s amazing.” You know. It was one position, what you would expect someone his age to do. It wasn’t bad. Don’t get me wrong.

Daniels wrote in a new and much briefer statement on Tuesday:

“Over the past few weeks I have been asked countless times to comment on reports of an alleged sexual relationship I had with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2016, 2017 and now again in 2018. I am not denying the affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.”

Daniels said she had “no further comment” on the matter, but we shall see. Her interview wth Jimmy Kimmel airs just after Trump’s Sate of the Union address this evening.

It kind of feels less like a totally earnest, thoughtful denial and more like an advertisement for the SOTU, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Stormy Daniels’ Instagram all rolled into one.