Trump’s trial begins, how Nevada is tied to case

Disclaimer: Readers may find some of the material in the article offensive as it is of a sexual nature.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Monday marked day one of former president Donald Trump’s criminal trial. Trump’s alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels reportedly began 17 years ago at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament.

8 News Now Chief Investigator George Knapp obtained exclusive details about how and why the story started in Las Vegas.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels was 27 years old when she met then-60-year-old Trump at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006. According to Daniels, she and Trump had a brief sexual tryst in his hotel room. She met him two more times, once in New York and again in Beverly Hills. The fling fizzled, she claimed, after Trump informed her that she would not be appearing on his hit TV show The Apprentice.

The Daniels/Trump scandal started in Nevada

Rumors about the affair percolated to the surface multiple times over the ensuing years. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was living at a home in North Las Vegas in 2011 when a magazine publisher interviewed her and planned to reveal the sordid details.

To bolster Daniels’ claim, the publisher asked her to undergo a polygraph. Las Vegas polygraph examiner Ron Slay, who has conducted more than 27,000 lie detector tests, some involving high-profile figures, was given the job. Daniels met Slay at his office on Maryland Parkway in May 2011.

Slay made a video recording of the nearly four-hour exam. Although only a single frame from that video has been made public, 8 News now was able to view the entire video back in 2018. The publisher had submitted 17 questions for Daniels to answer. Slay whittled that down to three central issues.

• Did you have intercourse with Donald Trump? Daniels: Yes.

• Did you have unprotected sex with Donald Trump? Daniels: Yes.

• Did Trump say he would get you on (the NBC TV show) The Apprentice? Daniels: Yes.

In a confidential report 8 News Now Investigators obtained, Slay wrote the probability of deception was less than 1%, although he listed the third question as inconclusive.
However, the publisher did not release the story. Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen had threatened to sue both the magazine and Daniels. Years later, Daniels told 60 Minutes that after taking the polygraph, she was threatened by an unknown man as she parked her car outside a Las Vegas health club.

Daniels spent a lot of time in Las Vegas. She not only lived there for a year, but was a red carpet fixture at the annual adult video expo, and has made special appearances at local adult clubs. During the 2016 presidential campaign, as Trump won primary after primary, her fears grew more pronounced, she said.

Near the end of the 2016 campaign, multiple media outlets were working on potential news stories about her tryst with Trump. The stories were quashed after fixer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 for the rights. As for the video of the polygraph exam, those rights were purchased by Daniels’ former attorney Michael Avenetti, who is currently serving a 14-year prison term. Cohen likewise went to federal prison on charges related to the payment of hush money to both Daniels and another woman.

Trump was questioned aboard Air Force One about the payments to Daniels. He deferred to Cohen. Both Cohen and Daniels have reportedly spoken with New York prosecutors in recent months as criminal charges against Trump were being crafted. The story that started out as a rumor 17 years ago in Nevada has now become a front-burner issue in presidential politics.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is expected to include testimony from witnesses including Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, and former White House staffers Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway.
The trial will likely run through early June.

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