Adult film star Stormy Daniels is at the center of a case that would make Donald Trump the first former US president to face criminal charges, Reuters reports.

In 2023, a 34-count indictment accused Trump of falsifying tax returns to conceal a $130,000 payment to Daniels to buy her silence, all before the 2016 election that made him president.

On Thursday, a judge in New York set a court hearing for March 25.

Reuters gives us some facts about Daniels and her alleged relationship with Trump.

Stormy Daniels, adult film star

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is 44 years old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has been a household name in the adult film industry for over two decades, acting in and directing numerous films.

• On the same topic: VIDEO Trump will be tried from March 25 in New York in the case of Stormy Daniels. The first ever criminal trial against a former US president

What does Daniels say about Trump?

She said she had sex with Trump in 2006, a year after he married his wife, Melania, and more than a decade before he became president.

She received $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for her public silence about the alleged meeting.

Trump, while denying any such relationship, said the payment was made to stop her “false and extortionate allegations.”

In 2023, Daniels said he did not believe Trump should go to prison if convicted in the case.

What meeting did Daniels describe?

Daniels said she was introduced to Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. She said he invited her to dinner and they ate in his hotel room, where he showed her a copy of a golf magazine with his picture on the cover.

“And I said, ‘Somebody’s got to take this magazine and slap you,'” Daniels told CBS’ 60 Minutes in 2018.

“So he came back and dropped his pants a little bit,” Daniels said. He was wearing his underwear, Daniels added, “and I hit him several times.”

Daniels said Trump asked her about her and whether she wanted to appear on his television show, “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“He said, ‘Wow, you’re special. You remind me of my daughter. You know, he said, “You’re smart and beautiful, you’re a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you.” I like you,” Daniels said.

The actress said that at one point she excused herself to go to the bathroom, and when she returned, Trump was “perched” on the edge of the bed.

“I understood exactly what I got into. And I was like, ‘Ah, here we go,'” Daniels told 60 Minutes. “And I felt like maybe … I deserved it because I made the wrong decision because I went into someone’s room by myself.”

According to her, they both had consensual sex.

Daniels said Trump called her the following year and met with him again at his request in July 2007 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles to discuss her possible appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice.

She said he wanted to have sex again at the hotel but refused. The XXX actress claims Trump called her a month later to say he couldn’t schedule her on The Celebrity Apprentice.

Payment and Privacy Agreement / How It Happened

According to documents filed in federal court in Los Angeles, on October 28, 2016, days before the presidential election in which Trump won, Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement, agreeing not to discuss her relationship with him publicly in exchange for a payment of 130,000 dollars.

The agreement was signed by Keith Davidson, her lawyer at the time, and Michael Cohen, at the time Trump’s personal and close lawyer. The document had space for Trump’s signature, but he never signed it.

In 2018, after the Wall Street Journal reported the payment to Daniels, Cohen said publicly that he had paid with his own money and that Trump had not ordered him to do so.

Cohen said in court that Trump ordered him to make the payment

In August 2018, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to other charges related to federal crimes related to companies he owns, bank fraud and cooperation with the Donald Trump campaign team.

A former lawyer has admitted to violating finance laws during the 2016 election by paying several women who had affairs with the US president to keep quiet.

In an interview with Fox News, Rudy Giuliani said Trump personally reimbursed Michael Cohen for $130,000 paid on his behalf to actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence days before the 2016 election.

This information coincides with a statement last month by Donald Trump, who denied a relationship with Stormy Daniels.

Daniels sued Trump and Cohen, seeking to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement. Trump’s lawyers later admitted that the billionaire had not signed the agreement and would not try to fulfill it. The judge dismissed his claim because the case had been settled.

Defamation lawsuit

In 2018, Daniels filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in federal court over a tweet in which he accused her of being a “fraud” after she said she had been threatened for going public with her account of the alleged sexual contact.

In 2018, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Trump’s remarks were not defamatory and protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. The judge’s decision was upheld on appeal. In 2021, the US Supreme Court refused to consider the issue.

Daniels said an unknown man approached her and her young daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 and threatened them after she agreed to speak to the media about his relationship with Trump.

In 2018, she published a robot portrait of a man. Trump responded on Twitter to the posting of the robot’s portrait, writing: “Sketch of a non-existent person years later. Total fraud that makes the fake news media look stupid (but they know it)!”