Donald Trump's recent arrest might have been a low point for him, but it appears to have benefited adult film actress Stormy Daniels, as searches for her videos on Pornhub reached an all-time high on the same day.
According to TMT, citing Pornhub, the day of Trump's arrest saw a significant surge in searches for Stormy's adult videos. The website revealed that users conducted more than 650,000 searches for "Stormy" on Tuesday. When compared to her daily search average for the first three months of the year, this represents a staggering 32,400% increase.
The public's curiosity about the alleged affair between Trump and Daniels seems to have fueled this spike in searches. As the day progressed and people awaited Trump's arrival at Manhattan Criminal Court, "Stormy" searches on Pornhub increased to six times their normal level by 1:00 PM ET – a time not typically associated with peak user activity.
Following his day in court, Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago on his private jet. However, the words "jail" and "prison" seem to have lingered on people's minds, as Pornhub reported that searches containing these keywords were more popular than usual this week.
Trump has been accused of paying Stormy Daniels $130,000 to remain silent about their alleged affair. As for the amount Stormy has earned from the recent surge in her video views, Pornhub has not provided any details.
Trump's Arrest Results in Record-High Stormy Daniels Searches on Pornhub
Trump Triumphs Over Stormy Daniels as Court Orders Additional $120,000 in Legal Fee Payments
Amid legal battles in New York, former President Donald Trump scored a significant win in a separate court case. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Trump in his quest to recover more legal fees from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who lost a defamation lawsuit against him.
The court ordered Daniels to pay over $120,000 in legal fees to Trump's attorneys. This comes in addition to the more than $500,000 she has already been ordered to pay in court-ordered payments to Trump's legal team.
Although the civil litigation is not directly connected to Trump's arrest and charges in New York, both cases involve Daniels, who was paid $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign as hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump (which he denies).
Daniels sued Trump in 2018 after he referred to her claim that an unknown man threatened her in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with him as a "total con job" in a tweet. District Judge S. James Otero dismissed the lawsuit in October 2018, stating that Trump's comment was protected by the First Amendment.
Judge Otero wrote at the time, "The Court agrees with Mr. Trump’s argument because the tweet in question constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States. The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement."
Otero later ordered Daniels to pay around $293,000 in legal fees and an additional $245,000 in fees after losing another appeal. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, requested that the appeals court reduce the award. However, the court denied her appeal.
The 9th Circuit filing stated, "Clifford’s argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well-founded." It added, "Trump’s attorneys reasonably spent the requested 183.35 hours preparing a motion to dismiss, a reply to the opposition to the motion, two extension motions, the answering brief, and the fee application."
Trump's attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, celebrated the ruling on Twitter, saying, "Congratulations to President Trump on this final attorney fee victory in his favor this morning. Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels."