Stormy Daniels was "truthful about having unprotected vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump in July 2006," according to a polygraph test report from 2011.
The report states that the "probability of deception was measured to be less than 1%." It was given to CNN by Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, and contains three pertinent questions: "Around July 2006, did you have vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump?," "Around July 2006, did you have unprotected sex with Donald Trump?" and "Did Trump say you would get on 'The Apprentice'?"
Daniels replied yes to all three questions. The first two were analyzed to be truthful and the third question was "inconclusive," according to the polygraph examiner, Ronald Slay.
The polygraph was performed at the request of Bauer Publishing, which owns Life & Style and InTouch magazines, according to the reporter who interviewed Daniels in 2011. Reporter Jordi Lippe-McGraw initially interviewed Daniels for Life & Style magazine. The interview was not published at the time, but Bauer Publishing released it in InTouch magazine earlier this year.
Avenatti confirmed to CNN that he purchased the video and file of the polygraph test for $25,000.
"We did so to ensure that it would be maintained and kept safely during the litigation and not be altered or destroyed," Avenatti said in a statement. "We did so after learning that various parties, including mainstream media organization, were attempting to acquire the video and the file and either destroy it or use it for nefarious means."
Daniels tweeted about the encounter Tuesday afternoon following the release of the polygraph, defending herself and saying she's "not going anywhere."
"Technically I didn't sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (ha..ha) and he was just a tiny goofy reality TV star (not just tiny hands but small ha..ha every where it counts). But I digress...People DO care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up, etc. And PS...I am NOT going anywhere. xo.xo.xo," she wrote.
Lippe-McGraw told CNN on Tuesday that Daniels passed the test in a broader sense. "Based off of the interview, we had her take the polygraph test to confirm the details of what she was telling us. There wasn't much in the way of physical evidence, per se," Lippe-McGraw said, adding that the big-picture question they wanted to confirm was that the affair happened, and that Daniels passed. Lippe-McGraw said that Daniels told her she had unprotected sex with Trump, because Daniels is allergic to latex and didn't have condoms at the time.
Earlier Tuesday, Avenatti tweeted out a photograph of Daniels being administered the test.
The Wall Street Journal first released the details of the polygraph questions and answers.
Also on Tuesday, Daniels' friend Alana Evans told CNN's Brooke Baldwin that she and Daniels have received threats over the allegations from people who had previously been in the adult industry.
"I have not been made aware that Cohen had physically threatened her. I know in the last few weeks, and the last couple of months, that Stormy and myself have received threats from people in the outside world completely trying to defend Trump and Cohen and calling us liars and threatening us with physical harm, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's stemming from there as well," Evans said.
Evans said this included threatening emails, threats to their families and their safety, and threats to release private information.
The White House has canceled all public events on Wednesday due to the spring snowstorm hitting the nation's capitol. Which means that President Donald Trump has nothing but time on his hands -- time to stew on the current morass (or, more accurately, morasses) in which he currently finds himself.
Consider:
* On Tuesday alone, three civil lawsuits brought against Trump by women with whom he allegedly carried on relationships or groped were in the news. Porn star Stormy Daniels' lawyer released a still photo and the results of a 2011 polygraph test in which she is judged to be telling the truth about engaging in vaginal sex with Trump. Former Playmate Karen McDougal sued the company that owns the National Enquirer for the right to be allowed out of her nondisclosure agreement regarding her alleged relationship with Trump. And a New York judge denied a request by Trump's lawyers to dismiss the defamation suit brought against former "Apprentice" candidate Summer Zervos.
* A phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday almost immediately leaked, with The Washington Post reporting that Trump had ignored talking points from his national security team to avoid congratulating Putin for his re-election win.
* Special counsel Bob Mueller's team met with White House lawyers late last week to go over potential areas of interest if/when Mueller sits down with Trump -- including the circumstances surrounding the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey last spring.
* Cambridge Analytica, a data firm employed by Trump during the 2016 campaign, has come under increased scrutiny for the manner in which they used Facebook data to obtain detailed information about its users. The company also suspended its CEO, Alexander Nix, after undercover videos showed him advocating the use of bribery and entrapment.
* Trump's legal team appears to be in a state of flux, having added conservative cable TV favorite Joe diGenova to the team and attempting, unsuccessfully, to bring on former Solicitor General Ted Olsen as well. While the White House insists they are more than happy with their current group of lawyers, those twin actions suggest that's not entirely accurate.
That would be a lot for a White House to deal with in a year. The Trump White House had dealt with it all in just the last week.
Adding to that toxic mix is the fact that all of the reporting coming out of the White House since the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson eight days ago suggests that Trump feels as though he is coming into his own as President -- a sentiment that has him more confident in trusting his gut (and ignoring the advice of so-called "experts") when it comes to decisions big and small that come to his desk.
And never forget that we have ample evidence that Trump is hugely mercurial -- prone to fits of rage, frustration and lashing out. And that he is at his angriest when he feels as though media coverage of his administration is unfairly negative.
We have all of those factors at the present moment. Not to mention the fact that the President suddenly has lots of time on his hands Wednesday thanks to the snow.
Now. Trump is someone who values chaos and even seems to revel in it. He has said publicly and privately that he believes that out of conflict and drama comes good ideas and progress. (The data on that so far in his presidency isn't hugely supportive of that supposition.)
But, this many stories, all at once and all bad for Trump is, at minimum, a distraction and, at maximum, blocking out all of the other priorities of this President and this White House.
Trump, despite his efforts to portray himself as immune to effects of pressure, is human just like the rest of us. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. It is literally impossible for him to not be affected by the swirl of stories, lawsuits and leaks around him right now.
The White House is always a pressure cooker for any president. But, rarely does a president operate under as much constant pressure as Trump has in his first 14 months in office. And there's little question that the events of the past week have turned the pressure up to brain-busting proportions.
What happens when the pressure gets too much to handle? You need a release. And what is Trump's release? Yes, Twitter. And, right on cue, we've had a series of tweets over the past few days in which Trump has begun a personal assault against Mueller -- insisting that the Russia probe should have never started and suggesting that Mueller has 13 Democrats on his team. (He doesn't.)
I've written before that the assault on Mueller is likely to only get worse. I'd expand that outward: Trump's lashing out at any and all of his perceived enemies is likely only to get worse.
The pressure inside the White House is surging. And that almost certainly means that the President is on the verge on a(nother) explosion.
President Donald Trump was infuriated after it quickly leaked that he had been directly instructed by his national security advisers in briefing materials not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his recent election victory during their call Tuesday morning, a source familiar with the President's thinking said.
Trump was fuming Tuesday night, asking his allies and outside advisers who they thought had leaked the information, noting that only a small group of staffers have access to those materials and would have known what guidance was included for the Putin call, the source said.
According to the source, the incident resurfaces his long-held belief there are individuals inside his administration -- especially in the national security realm -- who are actively working to undermine him.
White House chief of staff John Kelly also is furious that a confidential presidential briefing became public knowledge, a White House official said, and intends to address the matter Wednesday as aides try to figure out who disclosed the warning.
"If this story is accurate, that means someone leaked the President's briefing papers. Leaking such information is a fireable offense and likely illegal," another senior White House official told CNN Wednesday.
The Washington Post first reported Tuesday that Trump congratulated Putin despite warnings from multiple national security advisers and briefing materials that said "DO NOT CONGRATULATE." The White House declined to officially comment to CNN on the matter, with an official adding that they "cannot comment on alleged classified deliberative documents allegedly provided to the President."
The President often makes calls to foreign leaders while he is still in the residence during what has been dubbed "executive time." National security adviser H.R. McMaster has been known to join Trump in the residence during these calls, and was present during his Tuesday morning call with Putin. According to the public schedule released by the White House Tuesday, the President was not scheduled to be in the West Wing until noon, when he greeted the Saudi crown prince.
The leak, which one source said contributes to the ongoing atmosphere of paranoia in the West Wing, irked White House aides as well. Though the reaction has been described as "rattled," a White House official said it is more like anger and disappointment.
"This is unacceptable," the White House official said, speaking about the leak that some believe was an attempt to embarrass the President and McMaster. Another called it "ridiculous."
One of the White House officials described anger and disappointment in the West Wing over the leak.
It is still unclear if Trump actually read the guidance that was given to him by his advisers. Multiple officials have noted that he often follows his own path during his calls with world leaders. The substance of the call was not seen as a major deal by national security staffers, but the leak certainly was.
Another White House official didn't dispute to CNN Tuesday the language on the notes provided by members of Trump's National Security Council, but said Trump didn't read or see the notecard. The official added that Trump often disregards advice in calls with foreign leaders.
Trump's comments drew significant criticism among US politicians, including by Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, a noted Russia hawk, who said "an American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections."
The leak comes as McMaster's standing in the West Wing remains in question. After Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Twitter last week, speculation intensified that McMaster was next to be ousted. The White House denied last week that McMaster was on his way out.
There's a sentence in Olivia Nuzzi's terrific profile of Hope Hicks in New York magazine that tells you absolutely everything you need to know about not only President Donald Trump but also the group of people who orbit him.
It's this one:
"No matter how dead any of the eccentrics or maniacs or divas appeared to be, how far away from the president their status as fired or resigned or never-hired-in-the-first-place should have logically rendered them, nobody was ever truly gone."
Nuzzi goes on to tell the story of HIcks' decision to resign as White House communications director, a move prompted by a series of leaks about Hicks' personal life that, in the article's telling, appear to trace back to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
That episode is indicative of the broader portrait of the Trump White House that has emerged over this first year-plus in office: A constant swirl of "who's up, who's down" in which staffers are forever worried about their job status or closeness to Trump even as a motley crew of former Trump aides and hangers-on forever angle to win the President's affections.
It has all the makings of the reality show -- "The Apprentice" -- Trump helped to create alongside Mark Burnett in the 2000s. A series of aspirants all contending for "Mr. Trump's" approval. Personal rivalries galore -- all stoked by Trump. And, of course, twists and turns, like bringing back a contestant who was kicked off the show weeks ago!
One needs look only so far as Omarosa Manigault Newman to understand Trump's obsession with recycling his favorite characters. Omarosa "starred" in the first season of "The Apprentice" and the first season of the "Celebrity Apprentice." She was also featured in "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice."
She was fired each time.
That notwithstanding -- or perhaps because of it -- she was brought into Trump's campaign as the director of African American outreach. She parlayed that into a job as the spokeswoman for the Office of Public Liaison within the White House. She officially resigned from the White House in December 2017.
Of the firing, deputy press secretary Raj Shah said: "Omarosa was fired three times on 'The Apprentice,' and this was the fourth time we let her go. She had limited contact with the President while here. She has no contact now."
Omarosa then turned up on "Celebrity Big Brother," where she insisted that she had tried to be a moderating force on Trump and declared she would never vote for him again. (She was kicked out of the "Big Brother" house in late February.)
What a run! -- facilitated at every key juncture by Trump's unwillingness to simply banish Omarosa once and for all.
Because that's not what he does. He feuds. He rages. He bullies. He fires (or, at last, has someone else fire at his behest.) But, he never really abandons anyone. Or at least not anyone who has once shown the sort of loyalty to him Trump wants and needs.
That's why Lewandowski is somehow still in the mix. It's why Trump defends former national security adviser Michael Flynn despite the fact that Flynn had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. It's why, in announcing that Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser, was leaving the White House, Trump floated the idea that Cohn might be back. It's why Anthony Scaramucci is still in the Trump orbit despite a historic flameout of 10 days as the White House communications director.
No one is ever truly "dead" to Donald Trump. The only thing he loves more than conflict between and among those who work for him is a reconciliation among those people.
Remember, always, that Trump was reality TV before reality TV. He is in the business, even now, of keeping eyeballs on him. That means drama, conflict and resolution. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
ACVDN
