Internal police emails leaked to a local news outlet in Ohio show that undercover cops planned the July 11 arrest of adult film star Stormy Daniels in advance and that the bust was not the byproduct of a long-running investigation into “human trafficking,” as police claimed, according to CNBC . Daniels’ high-profile lawyer, Michael Avenatti, responded to the leaked email release on Wednesday, calling the Daniels bust “politically motivated.”
“This is extremely disturbing,” Avenatti wrote on his Twitter account following the publication of the leaked police emails. “I intend on getting to the truth and the bottom of who ordered Stormy Daniels arrested and why. It appears that I was correct when I stated it was politically motivated.”
The emails were obtained by local online news outlet The Fayette Advocate . The site’s Interim Editor-In-Chief Derek Myers wrote that the emails were provided by “a whistleblower from inside the Columbus Police Department.”
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, suddenly became nationally famous in March when she filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, as the Inquisitr reported. In the suit, she said that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and that just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement preventing her from discussing the incident.
The emails, mainly from the work account of undercover vice squad officer Shana Keckley, show a fixation on Daniels dating to days before Daniels arrived in Columbus for her performance at a strip club there, Myers reported.
“It is clear that Keckley and her fellow officers were there because of Stormy and only because of Stormy,” the unnamed “whistleblower” told The Advocate . “The emails definitely show that the police lied about it being a prostitution and human trafficking mission.”
Prior to Daniels’ arrival in Columbus, the emails show “pictures of Daniels with President Trump, pictures of Daniels in lingerie, and a map to the club where she would be performing,” according to The Advocate . Keckley also emailed herself a video of Daniels performing, as well as numerous news clippings about Daniels.
Following the arrest, the leaked emails show the officer gloating about putting Daniels behind bars.
“We arrested Stormy this morning, she is in jail,” she writes in one email. And in another, she tells another officer, “You’re Welcome!!!!!….Thank me in person later.” In a third email, the officer boasts that word of Daniels’ arrest is “all over CNN.”
On the night that Daniels was arrested, as Inquisitr reported, Avenatti quickly expressed suspicion that the bust was motivated by politics. The performer was hit with three misdemeanor charges of breaking state law against touching of other individuals by nude or semi-nude performers, but those charges were dropped the following day.
Avenatti later posted links to the social media accounts of another officer involved in the arrest, Steve Rosser, containing several memes strongly supporting Trump, as the Inquisitr reported.
“In the event it is discovered that my client was targeted and arrested because of our opposition to Mr. Trump, the resulting lawsuit and action will be swift and devastating,” Avenatti wrote on his Twitter account. “That is not a threat. It is a promise.”
