The husband of adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Thursday said the guilty verdict in former President Trump’s case is a “big weight off her shoulders.”
Asked on CNN for Daniels’s reaction, husband Barrett Blade said she is still “processing” the news and feels a “little vindicated” over the outcome.
“This wasn’t her seeking justice for herself. She was standing up for herself early on and saying what was right, but this whole hush money trial has really … it’s not her story,” Blade told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
“I mean, it’s nice that the jury saw the facts and made the decision, and of course, we support that either way; if they saw it differently, we would have supported either way. But I think it does help with the fact that she feels, you know, a little vindicated that, you know, she was telling the truth,” he added.
Trump on Thursday was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first-ever former U.S. president to become a convicted felon. The charges center on reimbursements made to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment made to Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the former president.
“She’s still pretty stoic. I think she’s really … it’s a big weight off her shoulders at this point,” Blade said. “But … and like I said, I think it brings another weight upon her shoulders of what happens next? What is the next wave of … lack of a better word … crap that’s going to happen?” Blade said. “So, I guess we take it day by day.”
Daniels testified during the hush money trial, wearing a bulletproof vest up until she entered the courthouse earlier this month. Her lawyer told CNN Daniels was “paralyzed” with fear over what backlash she could face for her testimony.
She delivered somewhat risque testimony during her testimony, detailing the alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied the affair.
Trump will be sentenced on July 11, just four days before the 2024 Republican National Convention this summer in Milwaukee. The former president could face jail time, though first-time offenders on charges like Trump’s are rarely incarcerated.