3/8/2018

ETHICS/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “There is pervasive anxiety inside the walls of the White House over the fallout around allegations leveled against President Donald Trump by porn actress Stormy Daniels, multiple sources tell CNN, with some officials worried that the salacious accusations and tangled legal fight could dwarf past controversies.
The story of the pair’s alleged 2006 relationship blends the scandalous details of an affair, a bungled attempt to silence the porn actress and the President’s penchant for a larger-than-life lifestyle before he entered the White House, a combination that seems too combustible not to further entangle the Trump administration.
For weeks, top White House aides — with the help of Trump’s longtime attorney — have fought to keep the scandal around the President and Daniels outside the walls of the West Wing. Until Wednesday, the President’s aides had shut down any questions about Daniels, denying the allegations against Trump and distancing the White House from any litigation.
That became untenable by Thursday [3-8-18], a day after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tacitly acknowledged that Trump was party to a suit involving Daniels, repeatedly telling reporters that ‘the arbitration was won in the President’s favor.’ The admission drew the men and women running the White House fully into the controversy around Trump’s alleged affair with Daniels months after his wife, Melania, had given birth to their son.”

-Dan Merica and Jeff Zeleny, “Anxiety over Stormy Daniels pervasive inside the White House,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Mar. 8, 2018 07:31pm