Stormy Daniels: 5 Things About Porn Star In Trump Payoff Report

The Wall Street Journal said in a report Friday that one of President Trump’s lawyers paid an adult film star $130,000 a month before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter a decade earlier.

The payoff reportedly was made to Stephanie Clifford, who performed in the adult entertainment industry under the name of Stormy Daniels, in adult films.

But who is Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels? Here are five things to know:

A 2014 Adult Video News Hall of Fame inductee, she was described as “doubtlessly among the most colorful, and most beautiful, performers to work in the adult industry.” She signed a contract with Wicked Pictures in 2002, then made turned to directing in 2014. She now works as a director-screenwriter, targeting women with films like “Divorcees,” “Meant to Be” and “Wanderlust.”

You might have seen her in a regular movie theater in a couple of R-rated films. Her mainstream debut in the 2005 film “40-Year-Old Virgin” wasn’t a stretch — she played a porn star. She also appeared in the 2007 movie “Knocked Up,” where she played a lap dancer.

She once thought about running for the U.S. Senate in her home state of Louisiana against Republican David Vitter, who retired in 2016. Acquiescing in part to a “Draft Stormy” movement, she formed an exploratory committee in 2010, saying “too many in government ignore the voices of the people they claim to represent.” She acknowledged to MSNBC that it would be “naive” not to recognize that her profession might turn off some voters.

She was arrested in 2009 on domestic battery charges for allegedly punching her husband several times in their Tampa, Florida, home in a fight that started over the correct way to fold laundry. According to a police report at the time, Daniels’ then-husband, Michael Mosny, said she became upset, hit him several times and started throwing things around their home because she didn't like “the way the clothes had been done." As the fight escalated, she "got more upset about some bills that had not been paid."

Daniels and Trump are pictured together on the porn star’s MySpace account in 2006. As part of her contract with Wicked Pictures, she made an appearance as the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe, where Trump finished 62nd among 80 players, according to The Smoking Gun. According to that report, she had hoped to us the connection with Trump to land roles on “The Apprentice,” the reality television show Trump hosted for 14 years, and “Dancing With the Stars.”

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal report.

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images