It's not every day that the New York Times reports on an In Touch article about a porn star, but here we are. In a follow-up to last week's Wall Street Journal article that alleged an adult film actress was paid $130,000 in 2016 to stay mum on a consensual sexual encounter with a then-married Donald Trump in 2006 comes the In Touch article, published Wednesday. It is based on a 2011 interview with Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, and describes her meeting Trump at a 2006 golf tournament and having "textbook generic" sex that night. Among the more salacious details: that the encounter allegedly happened four months after Melania Trump gave birth, and that Trump told Clifford she was beautiful "like his daughter." Per the article, the two met up on future occasions, with the Times quoting it as saying Trump last called Clifford in late 2009 or early 2010.
The In Touch article says it backed up Clifford's claims via a polygraph and corroboration from an adult-film colleague and her ex-husband. Clifford has since denied the affair, and Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, again disputed the account to the Times, calling it the recirculation of "an old and debunked story." As far as recirculation goes, Slate Group editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg also elaborated on his conversations with Clifford in August and October of 2016 (no story was published at the time) in a piece for Slate, writing, "The worst Trump had done, she said, was break promises she’d never believed he would fulfill." Like the In Touch article, Weisberg says Clifford told her Trump had promised her a slot on The Apprentice. The story has gotten the late-night treatment, too: Stephen Colbert discussed it Wednesday, quipping, "Wow, maybe In Touch magazine should lead the Russia investigation." (More President Trump stories.)
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