Michael Cohen Claimed Trump Said Stormy Daniels Preferred Former President Over This NFL Player

According to the former attorney, former President Donald Trump boasted to Michael Cohen that Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, chose him over former NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

In his testimony on Monday in the former president's hush money trial, Cohen referenced a 2016 conversation in which Trump talked about his 2006 meeting with Daniels.

In his testimony, Cohen recounted a conversation from 2016 in which Trump described meeting Daniels back in 2006. He said, “He [Trump] told me that he was playing golf with Big Ben Roethlisberger…and they had met Stormy Daniels and others there." During the meet-up, Trump claimed that “Women prefer him even over someone like Big Ben.” Roethlisberger's name, also came up last Tuesday when Daniels mentioned him under oath, as reported by the Daily Mail. She stated that the quarterback was present with Trump during one of their initial encounters.

In her 2018 book, Full Disclosure, Daniels delved into her unsettling encounter with Roethlisberger. She recounted feeling fearful when Trump requested that Roethlisberger accompany her back to her hotel room. She alleged that the NFL star asked for a goodnight kiss, which she declined. Despite her refusal, Roethlisberger allegedly lingered outside her door, persistently knocking for several minutes. This incident aligns with other previous accusations. In 2010, a woman in Georgia made sexual assault allegations against Roethlisberger. However, the district attorney chose not to pursue charges against the star footballer.

In Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg's criminal trial against Trump, the former president is facing 34 felony charges. Back in 2016, Daniels sought to make details of her affair with Trump public. During his testimony on Monday, Cohen remembered rushing to Trump's office as soon as he learned about this. He then recounted Trump instructing him to "take care of it." Cohen, the prosecution's 20th witness, had previously asserted that Trump directed him to make the payment to Daniels and he was sentenced to three years for offenses linked to that payment.

Cohen had also testified earlier that Trump warned him of the potential fallout if Daniels' account of Trump's infidelity were to become public. He claimed that the former president described it as a 'complete disaster,' to which he responded, “Women will hate me. Guys may think this is cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign," the New York Post reported. During the six-hour-long testimony, Cohen also claimed that Donald "...wasn't thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign..." He testified under oath that Donald told him to 'get control' of any negative stories, which put into action the 'catch and kill' scheme to bury damaging reports.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on May 14, 2024. It has since been updated.