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A GoFundMe campaign for Stormy Daniels has raised more than $800,000 in the eight days since it launched in order to help the adult film star deal with the fallout of speaking out against Donald Trump.
Daniels – real name Stephanie Clifford – was the star witness at the Republican presidential candidate’s hush money trial this spring, which ended with Trump being convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to hide a $130,000 payment to silence her in the days before the 2016 election about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.
Trump is set to be sentenced by Judge Juan Merchan on September 18, after he was granted a delay as he seeks to overturn his conviction in in light of the Supreme Court’s recent immunity ruling.
In a new interview on MSNBC this week, Daniels revealed she has received numerous threats from Trump supporters since testifying against him in the Manhattan trial, including on Facebook “from people in my own community” and from strangers warning “they were going to rape everybody in my family, including my young daughter, before they killed them”.
“Trump is trying to make, I believe, trying to make an example out of me,” Daniels told Rachel Maddow.
She warned that all Americans should fear a belated second Trump administration and revealed that she is still fighting a defamation lawsuit from him that has so far cost her $500,000 in lawyers’ fees since 2018 – a total she said she currently has no prospect of being able to meet.
In response to her financial woes, Maddow mentioned the “I Stand with Stormy Daniels” crowdfunding page.
The GoFundMe was launched by the star’s former manager Dwayne Crawford in late June with the aim of raising $1m to help her to move to a more secure location for her family’s protection due to the ongoing threats.
“We have had front-row seats to the parts of this story that don’t fit neatly into click-bait headlines,” Crawford wrote on the page, adding that he and other friends of Daniels have witnessed the consequences of her speaking out against the former president, including her “not knowing whether or not her family will have a home come August”.
“It’s become unsafe for her family and her pets,” Crawford continued.
“Her horses have been shot twice now by protesters and even mainstream media paparazzi trying to provoke her out of her home. As if that’s not bad enough, Trump is still tangling her up in lawsuits in an effort to bleed her dry financially because his cult of minions will foot the bill for him to do so.
“Stormy needs help to relocate her family to somewhere they can feel safe and live life on their terms. She needs assistance to be able to continue to pay the mounting court fees so that Trump doesn’t just win because his pocketbook seems endless.”
The allusion to the account on Maddow’s show inspired a groundswell of support and caused donations to flood in, with many taking to social media to express their support.
Among the supporters was the writer E Jean Carroll, who was awarded a total of $88m from Trump in two civil trials accusing him first of sexual assault and then defamation, who posted on Tuesday: “I’d be happy to help!!”
Less sympathetic was Daniels’ jailed former attorney Michael Avenatti, who wrote: “Stormy Daniels is not now, nor has she ever been, a ‘victim’ of President Trump. Her new claims, made as part of her GoFundMe grift, are complete bulls***.
“Daniels has made MILLIONS over the last 8 years based on Trump. But instead of paying her bills, she blew the money on trips to Europe, private jets, etc. (check her posts), all while hiding income from her creditors. Now she wants others to bail her out. Trump is not threatening or harassing her daughter. Daniels has simply been ordered to answer basic questions on a form about her income & child support/custody like every other judgment.”
Social media users were quick to accuse him of seeking a pardon from Trump in the event that the former president returns to the White House.
