Why This Trump Accuser's Comments About Stormy Daniels Could Land Him In Hot Water

Stormy Daniels has a new voice in her corner, backing up one of the central claims she's made about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump. Fellow adult film star Jessica Drake corroborated Daniels' story of being threatened over the alleged relationship, publicly stating that Daniels told her about the incident back in 2011, years prior to the start of Trump's political career. Trump, for the record, continues to deny he ever had a sexual affair with Daniels.

If you watched Daniels' high-profile interview with 60 Minutes back in March, you might recall a pretty stark and alarming detail she gave. She described being in a parking lot in Las Vegas with her young child one day, when a man she didn't recognize approached her and threatened her to "leave Trump alone."

"And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom,'" Daniels told Anderson Cooper. "And then he was gone." When asked if she interpreted the comment as a threat, Daniels replied "absolutely."

Now, Drake ― who herself accused the then-candidate Trump of having inappropriately touched her in 2006 ― says she was also informed of this story, well before it became a matter of the public record. This sort of contemporaneous confirmation can be highly relevant in legal proceedings. Trump has denied all allegations of sexually predatory behavior against him, describing his many accusers as "horrible, horrible liars."

Drake chiming in to back Daniels' story is significant, because the details of that story may figure centrally in her current civil lawsuit against both Trump, and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Drake, for what it's worth, told The Washington Post that she wouldn't describe herself and Daniels as friends at this point, but it seems clear that she's willing to make these same statements under oath. Her attorney, Gloria Allred, reportedly told the Post that she'd be willing to testify that Daniels told her the story in court, if need be.

Daniels has not been shy about telling her story publicly over the past several months, nor has her attorney, Michael Avenatti, been shy about spending his time on cable news sets. The pair have mounted a robust effort to apply pressure to Cohen and to Trump, the latter of whom spoke Daniels' name aloud in public for the very first time during a lengthy appearance on Fox News' Fox and Friends in late April.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges that she had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006, and that the then-reality TV host attempted to entice her and string her along by suggesting he'd get her a spot on his NBC show, The Apprentice. That appearance never happened, needless to say, and in 2011, she told the story of the alleged affair to In Touch magazine, dishing some details about the experience.

Again, Trump and the White House continue to deny that an affair with Daniels ever took place. However, Trump has since acknowledged (in his financial disclosure filings) repaying Cohen the money that was used to strike a nondisclosure agreement with Daniels during the 2016 election.

It's still unclear just how far Daniels' lawsuit will go, and how long it'll take to play out. In late April, a Los Angeles federal judge delayed the suit, citing a possible federal indictment of Cohen as meriting the break. Thus far, that indictment has not occurred, although the delay in the case won't run out for about two more months; the judge delayed the suit by 90 days.