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Pence denies Trump had affair with adult film actor in 2006. A lot of evidence suggests he’s lying.

The VP wants you to believe reports about the affair are "baseless."

IMAGE CREDIT: Diana Ofosu
IMAGE CREDIT: Diana Ofosu

During an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence characterized reports that Donald Trump engaged in an affair with an adult film actor as “baseless.”

Asked about the relationship between Trump and Stephanie Clifford — aka Stormy Daniels — Pence told the AP he is “not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president.”

It’s unclear if Pence discussed his alleged relationship with Daniels with the president. But there is quite a bit of evidence in the public record suggesting Trump and Daniels were involved.

Last Friday, InTouch magazine published a lengthy 2011 interview with Daniels in which she details how her affair with Trump unfolded — an account corroborated by some of Trump’s tweets from years gone by. Earlier last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s private lawyer, Michael Cohen, used a private Delaware company and pseudonyms to pay $130,000 in hush money to Daniels just weeks before the 2016 presidential election. At the time, Trump was being accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women.

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In a statement sent to the WSJ, Cohen didn’t deny making a payment to Daniels. And it seems far-fetched to believe that Daniels would have concocted a such a detailed story about her relationship with Trump years before he decided to run for president. According to In Touch, Daniels also passed a polygraph test.

During an appearance at a strip club in Greenville, South Carolina on Saturday, Daniels didn’t deny that she had an affair with Trump.

Nonetheless, the White House’s strategy is to simply deny. It’s the same approach administration officials have taken when the topic of the sexual assault allegations that have been made against Trump comes up — staunchly insist all of the accusers are lying.

Regardless of what exactly happened between Trump and Daniels, the hush money the Trump camp allegedly paid her may be problematic in and of itself. On Monday, Common Cause filed a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging that the $130,000 payments from Essential Consultants LLC to Clifford “violated reporting requirements and contribution limits and restrictions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)” because “the funds were paid for the purpose of influence the 2016 presidential general election — in violating [of] campaign finance reporting requirements.”