Opportunist with a press agent

THE EDITOR, Madam:

In the normal scheme of things, a trial dealing with accusations of falsifying accounts could be expected to have a list of witnesses such as cunningly-creative accountants, buttoned-downed book-keepers and various other piously-puritanical pen-pushers.

However, what currently transpires in Courtroom 1530 on the 15th floor of the New York County Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan is anything but normal. The participants are an editorial cartoonist’s delight with a voluptuous — most probably thanks to silicone-enhanced cosmetic surgery — pornographic-movie actress and former stripper in the witness box for several hours; giving most explicit details about a consensual sexual encounter at a golf tournament in 2006 with the accused, whom she referred to in court as “The Orange Turd”.

The witness is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, and the accused is former US President Donald J. Trump, better known as Donnie-Boy. The trial has taken on a life of its own in global media, as both these entertainers try desperately to depict themselves as victims; when neither has ever been a paragon of truthfulness, good taste, honesty, or any other virtue.

Both these unsavoury, but fascinating, characters have strayed from the truth and changed their stories concerning each other so many times in the past few years, that the jury has a mammoth task to deliver a verdict based on what either one of them says.

To choose just one tiny portion of Stormy’s story while under oath, she testified that her press-agent had suggested she seek a monetary settlement from Donnie-Boy, when he first ran for US president back in 2016.

She wanted hush-money to keep quiet about their alleged brief one-night-stand, and that was eventually paid through contacts with Donnie-Boy’s lawyer. To ordinary schmucks that sounds like extortion or blackmail, but apparently completely legal under US law; despite a signed-and-sealed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), everything became public knowledge over time.

When reading that little tid-bit about Stormy’s press-agent during her court testimony, my mind went directly to Frank Sinatra, who had led quite a stormy life himself; had a few brushes with the law, and with many people trying to extort money from him under very similar circumstances. A favourite quote from Old Blue Eyes sums up this entire case in Manhattan: “ Hell hath no fury like an opportunist with a press agent.”

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada