In an act that definitely wasn’t a coincidence, porn star Stormy Daniels put out a statement denying that she had an affair with Trump right before his first State Of The Union.

Read the biggest developments from Michael Cohen's testimony.

Here is the Daniels statement:

Stormy Daniels doesn’t deny sex with Trump, just an affair

Daniels’ denial makes no sense on about a million different levels. If nothing happened, why did Trump $130,000 to keep quiet? As a candidate, Trump called the dozens of women who accused him of sexual harassment and sexual assault liars. It stands to reason that if nothing happened, the campaign would have allowed Daniels to talk and then called her a liar. That’s how Trump operates.

The Daniels’ statement doesn’t say that she never had sex with Trump or wasn’t paid for sex, just that she never had an affair. Affairs are different from paying for sex. The denial is carefully worded and dances around the allegation.

Lastly, Daniels is trying to whip up media attention because she is going to be on ABC’s The Jimmy Kimmel Show tonight. She’s pulling a page out of the Trump playbook and issuing a denial to create intrigue about her appearance.

If this were any other president, the paid hush money to a porn star would be dominating the news, but Trump has set the bar really high with his potentials crimes to win an election. Stormy Daniels barely registers a blip in the media coverage, so one should treat her denial as a stupid publicity stunt that is meant to keep the attention on her as more press Russia news is getting the headlines.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association