Stormy Daniels Thinks Trump Shouldn't Be Jailed in Hush Money Case

Stormy Daniels, a former adult-film actress and star witness of the investigation that led to former President Donald Trump's indictment last week, said she doesn't think Trump's crimes specific to her "are worthy of incarceration."

Trump became the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges following Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation of alleged hush money payments made to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in 2016. Daniels received a $130,000 payment from the former president's attorney, Michael Cohen. The indictment includes 34 felony counts related to falsification of business records.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, says she was paid the money in 2016 to keep quiet about her affair with Trump while he was running for the White House against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has repeatedly denied ever having sexual relations with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts against him in Manhattan court on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Daniels sat down with British broadcaster Piers Morgan on his Piers Morgan Uncensored show to discuss Trump's indictment and how coming forward about the payment has impacted her life. During the nearly 90-minute interview posted to YouTube, Morgan asks Daniels if she wanted to see Trump "jailed" for his crimes, even if it is not specifically over the hush money charges.

"Specific to my case, I don't think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration," Daniels said. "I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely, because a bigger problem is if ... he is found guilty, or the evidence suggests that he is, and he doesn't [face incarceration] ... I mean, it opens the door for other people to think they can get away with doing that and worse."

All of Trump's charges are Class E felonies, which could carry a four-year prison sentence apiece.

Aside from Bragg's investigation, the former president is also facing probes from the Department of Justice in relation to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the classified documents found in Florida at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating whether Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, and New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump last year for $250 million, accusing him of misstating the value of his business assets to scam investors.

Daniels continued her interview with Morgan discussing the accusations from several Republicans that Bragg's investigation of Trump is politicized or targeted. The Manhattan district attorney is facing an oversight investigation led by chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio with close connections to Trump.

Morgan said that Trump's alleged affairs have not been treated the same way as scandals involving past presidents, such as former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat who admitted to having sexual relations with former White House employee, Monica Lewinsky, in the 1990s.

Daniels answered that while "one way of looking at" the accusations against Trump could be to say there is political bias against the most recent Republican to sit in the Oval Office, another way to frame Trump's investigation is that "we have made progress in our justice system and our country, and for women."

"If those other presidents had done today what happened then, would it be treated the same, or is it specifically just people screaming, 'this is a vendetta against Trump.'" Daniels continues.

"People just trashed Ms. Lewinsky, and all the way back through history," she added. "I would like to believe if those things happened now, that it would be different."

Following the interview being posted, Daniels tweeted a "thank you" for the support she's received for her discussion with Morgan.

"I think it was the most extensive one I've ever done and it laid to rest a lot of misinformation," she added.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's press team via email for comment.

While it's unclear when a trial date will be set for Trump's case in New York City, a California judge gave the former president some good news earlier this week in a different case involving Daniels.

She filed a defamation suit against the former president, focusing on a tweet from Trump assailing her account of getting threatened by someone in 2011 to stay mum about her experiences with Trump. The judge presiding over the lawsuit ultimately found that Trump was merely expressing his opinion when he tweeted against Daniels' story, ordering her to pay him $300,000 in legal fees.

On Tuesday, following Trump's arraignment in Manhattan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Daniels was required to pay Trump roughly $122,000 in additional attorney fees. Daniels has previously said that she "will go to jail before I pay a penny" of the court-ordered fees.