Stormy Daniels has urged Melania Trump to leave her husband because he is now a convicted felon.
Trump became the first former US president to be criminally convicted after he was found unanimously guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Ms Daniels on Thursday.
Ms Daniels, with whom Trump allegedly cheated on his wife, has now urged the former first lady to leave him.
“I don’t know what their agreement may or may not be, but Melania needs to leave him,” she said in an interview with The Daily Mirror. “Not because of what he did with me or other women but because he is a convicted felon.
“It’s been proven he is abusive; he was found liable for sexual assault and tax fraud and is now a criminal. He’s neither Teflon Don nor Teflon Con anymore.”
Trump has maintained he is innocent and said he will appeal the verdict.
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Trump slams ‘rigged’ trial and ‘devil’ judge
Asked how his wife was doing during an interview on Fox & Friends, Trump said: “She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But it’s, you know, she has to read all this crap.”
Asked why she believed Ms Trump – and his eldest daughter Ivanka – did not attend the trial, Ms Daniels told the Mirror it was for family reasons.
‘He didn’t want to perjure himself’
“I would not want to expose my children to that dangerous environment,” she said. “And Melanie [Melania] and Ivanka are both parents, they’re mothers who have younger children, and that would be my reason.
“You know, if it was the other way around, even if I wanted to support my spouse or my family member, I would choose the safety and privacy of my child over attending court.”
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Ms Daniels also told the Mirror she believed Trump avoided taking to the stand because he feared it would have created a Monica Lewinsky moment.
She said: “To my mind, it’s very simple why he didn’t give evidence. He didn’t want to perjure himself. He would have committed perjury. The prosecution would have straight out asked him if Ms Daniels was lying. Did you have a sexual relationship with that woman?
“He couldn’t tell the truth, and he could not lie either, so he never gave evidence.”
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She added: “What happened between me and him wasn’t about the sex, it wasn’t about the hush money, it wasn’t about the NDA, it wasn’t about where he put his little thing. It wasn’t about any of that.
“It was about his falsifying of business documents. It wasn’t a hush-money trial. It wasn’t the Stormy Daniels trial. I was just the sensationalism angle.”
Trump is due to be sentenced on 11 July, days before the Republican Party is expected to confirm him as its nominee for the presidential election against Joe Biden in November.
The conviction does not stop Trump from running for president again.