Why the Stormy Daniels Case Matters
By
David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief
Important national
security, political and other issues are embedded in the lawsuit that a porn
actress filed against the president this week.
Treating it as mere
entertainment would be a serious mistake.
Further, the inept and
dishonest way the White House and Trump’s personal lawyer have handled the
matter underlines the many facts that establish this administration is a kakistocracy,
a government of the venal, the corrupt and the incompetent.
Instead of the best
and the brightest, the Trump administration draws on the worst and the dullest.
The porn star Stormy
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is just one of many people who
know dark secrets about Trump.
Like Clifford, these
people have solid evidence—photographs, text messages, outtakes from Trump’s
Celebrity Apprentice and other evidence.
The secrets Clifford knows are for
sure not the darkest.
The rest cannot speak
out because their silence has been obtained through cash, coercion or both.
The
result is that the public does not have anywhere near a full appreciation of
what Trump has done, who he had done it to, how much he has paid in hush money
and how vulnerable he is to blackmail and leverage.
Virtually everyone who
has worked for Trump since the late 1980s has been required to sign a
nondisclosure agreement, or NDA, as a condition of working for him.
The Senate has approved legislation introduced by Sen.
V. Susan Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, South Kingstown, New Shoreham), that would require each
public institution of postsecondary education to establish a plan for
addressing the mental health needs of its students.
