Trump Trial: This Isn’t the Same Stormy Daniels

For months, Stormy Daniels’s life had been in a state of suspended animation as she prepared to be called as a witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan. “She’s just been waiting to testify,” a person close to her said. “Her mind-set is that this is a justice system that hasn’t protected her, and yet she’s here spending her money, her own time, and taking time off work and risking her safety to show up for a legal system that didn’t show up for her.” Daniels arrived at the courthouse accompanied by her longtime bodyguard, Travis. “She was concerned about having government-appointed security,” the person close to her continued, “because she doesn’t trust the government anymore. She doesn’t trust that they’re going to protect her. She doesn’t trust that the legal system is going to protect her after everything that she’s been through.” At a social event earlier this spring, Daniels was “anxious, nervous, and talking fast” in the same manner that she would address the court, the person close to her recalled. “It’s very, very stressful for her.”

Join us for Dinner Party, a lively evening newsletter about everything that just happened. Sign up to get it every weeknight.