Stormy Daniels claims she took hush money deal so Trump ‘couldn’t have me killed’

Adult film star Stormy Daniels has claimed that she took Donald Trump’s hush money deal just before the 2016 election so that the former president “couldn’t have me killed”.

Ms Daniels was allegedly paid for her silence over an alleged affair she claims she had with Mr Trump at Lake Tahoe in 2006. Mr Trump has continually denied that the affair took place.

Ms Daniels spoke out about the deal – a deal which is now at the centre of Mr Trump’s criminal case in New York – in the new documentary Stormy now airing on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.

“My friend was like, ‘You might actually have a problem. I don't want to scare you, but based on the things you've told me now, you're the whole Republican Party's problem. And they like to make their problems go away,’” she says in the documentary.

Ms Daniels says she was then “very relieved” to get the “the chance to keep it quiet” when then-Trump-fixer-turned staunch critic Michael Cohen offered her a $130,000 hush money payment in October 2016.

“I was f****** terrified. I mean, people had been suspiciously killed for political reasons,” Ms Daniels says.

“It was really about two things, trying to keep the story from coming out so that it would not hurt my husband and my daughter and I wouldn’t lose my life.”

She adds: “And that there would be a paper trail and money trail linking me to Donald Trump so that he could not have me killed. All I had to do was sign this piece of paper and collect $130,000.”

In a statement to The Independent, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to the claims made in the documentary.

“The only thing Stormy Daniels can be relied upon is to change her story when there’s money to be made,” he said.

“She has already lost massively in