A third porn star just came forward to add a new layer to Trump’s latest scandal

President Trump has now been linked to three porn stars over the last two days, as allegations of extramarital affairs with two of them first made during the campaign have resurfaced in spectacular fashion.

On the morning of January 12th, the Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Cohen, a long time lawyer for the Trump Organization and Trump family, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she and Donald Trump had back in 2006 – a year after he married current wife and first lady, Melania Trump.

A second porn star, Alana Evans, corroborated the encounter later that day, when she confirmed that Trump and Daniels invited her to join them in a threesome.

Daniels has admitted to friends privately that the consensual encounter did indeed take place at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the Journal reported, but she did not go public.  In October of 2016, shortly after the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape threatened to sink Trump’s presidential hopes, Cohen negotiated a non-disclosure agreement with Daniels, which she signed, effectively silencing her before she had a chance to speak out.

Cohen pushed back against the Wall Street Journal report by forwarding a two paragraph statement said to be from, and signed by, Daniels.  The statement opened with “to whom it may concern” and went on to deny the affair ever happened.  Crucially, however, Cohen did not refute or otherwise explain the central accusation that he personally oversaw the payment of $130,000 in hush money to her.

The timing of both the alleged encounter in 2006, and of the signing of the non-disclosure agreement, suggests that there’s much more here than has so far been reported.

And then there’s the matter of Steve Bannon, who by pure coincidence popped up last week in Michael Wolff’s bombshell new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” and from a distance all but confirm both of these stories.

One of the lesser reported anecdotes in “Fire and Fury” is an exchange the author had with Bannon about how Trump’s lawyers “took care” of a hundred women in the run up to the election.

“Look, [Trump’s chief attorney] Kasowitz has known Trump for twenty-five years. Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams,” Bannon told Wolff.  “Kasowitz on the campaign — what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them.”

And now, the spotlight has shifted to a THIRD porn star, Jessica Drake.  Unlike Stormy Daniels, Jessica Drake went public during the campaign with her allegations of impropriety against then-candidate Trump.

At the same golf tournament that Stormy Daniels had her sexual encounter with him,  Trump made a pass at Drake, and invited her to his room.  Not comfortable being alone with Trump, she took a friend with her.  After some drinks and conversation they both left.  Trump called her room shortly thereafter and offered her $10,000 to come back and spend the night with him, she alleged.

Drake hired high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred and held a press conference to report the incident in October of 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape became public.  At the time, she was the 11th woman to accuse Trump of sexual impropriety.

But then something odd happened.  Drake stopped talking about the incident.  In the few interviews she gave, she avoided offering any details about her encounter with Trump, and referred further questions to her lawyer.

Late Friday evening, however, after the revelations of Cohen’s alleged payments to Stormy Daniels swirled for an entire news cycle, The Daily Beast confirmed that Jessica Drake is subject to a non-disclosure agreement negotiated with the president’s legal representatives, too.

“Jessica’s NDA blankets any and every mention of Trump, so she’s legally unable to comment,” her publicist told The Daily Beast. “Jessica signed a non-disclosure agreement after her allegations of misconduct, and she can’t do as much as peep his name publicly.”

So far, no allegations of hush money payments to Drake have been made like they have in the case of Stormy Daniels.  But the mere confirmation that non-disclosure agreements exists for both of them, with Drake signing her NDA after she made her allegations public, suggests that they have been silenced with money, or with threats of retribution – or both.

The president and his allies and enablers in the right wing media will no-doubt point to both the refusal of these women to speak out, as well as the suggestions that they have been bought off, as proof that their credibility is shot and their allegations are of no merit.

But in the middle of shaming these and other women, whose only crimes are telling their stories to the public, every supporter of the president’s needs to ask themselves one simple question: why have lawyers for the President of the United States worked so hard to secure non-disclosure agreements with these two women, and probably many others, in the first place?

If there was no impropriety to hide, if the president is somehow a victim here, then there should be no valid reason to spend so much time and energy – and possibly money in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars – to silence them and potentially others.

There is only one possible answer to this question, and it’s one that could finally end this presidency once and for all.

 

Peter Mellado

Peter Mellado is a writer, producer, and a branding and messaging specialist with over 15 years experience. He studied history at San Jose State University, and resides in Los Angeles.