Stormy Daniels book summary: Adult film star gives Full Disclosure on alleged Trump affair
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Your support makes all the difference.Stormy Daniels has promised to tell the full story of her alleged affair with Donald Trump. And now that story — sometimes shocking, sometimes tragic — is finally here.
Titled Full Disclosure, the book promises to be an account of how Stormy Daniels came to be one of the central figures in the story of Donald Trump's presidency, and perhaps even its end — apparently to her surprise, as much as to anyone else's.
"I know that the deck has always been stacked against me, and there is absolutely no reason for me to have made it to where I am, right here talking to you," she writes. "Except that maybe the universe loves an underdog as much as I do. I own my story and the choices I made. They may not be the ones you would have made, but I stand by them."
Just as with the other bombshell books of the Trump presidency, such as Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, we'll be going through that story and those choices, live.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
And here's the third important part of Stormy's story: the non-disclosure agreement that she says was never signed by Trump and never went into effect.
She was told that she would be offered $130,000 not to sell her story, she says. That would get her out of having to tell her husband, stop the threats, and bring an end to everything.
So she agreed to it, and says she was sent the money. This is the deal that would become a central dispute between Trump and Stormy, as well as part of the cause of Michael Cohen's downfall.
Everything gets very woolly and confusing here. There are statements denying the affair that Stormy claims she was forced to sign. Her life is falling apart. And she's right in the public eye, being spoofed on SNL and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel.
At the same time, thngs are getting difficult for Trump, too. Michael Cohen, who had made the NDA happen, was selling his book.
Stormy describes herself as being stuck: unable to talk, but obviously lying. She wants to be free of the association but can't.
And into this walks Michael Avenatti, her lawyer and the person quoted at the beginning of the book. This is where it gets extra tough for Trump.
Michael Avenatti — perhaps unsurprisingly as contributor to this book and Stormy Daniels' lawyer — is getting very flattered.
"Neither of us expected the other to look so good... Let's just say it: he is gorgeous. He walked over to us with his hand out, super charming."
He sets up the now infamous interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, where Stormy revealed everything that happened. And that kicks off further drama, driving her from her husband and causing yet more legal problems.
There's a nice little bit where Stormy Daniels reveals that she finally got to appear on her favourite show, Saturday Night Live. She's clearly very pleased, and at this point it's hard not to feel bad for her given what she has clearly been through since the news became public.
And here we reach our end: with a very melancholy note that she is now separated from her husband and details about the toll everything has taken on her life. It is not a positive story — it's a book written before the end, really, since much of the legal action is ongoing — but it's certainly one that makes Stormy Daniels look better than people have spoken about her.
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