Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump before he became president, was arrested at a strip club in Columbus, Ohio, her lawyer said early Thursday.
According to New York Times, Ms. Clifford, had been scheduled to appear at Sirens Gentlemen’s Club in northeastern Columbus on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the club’s website.
She was arrested for allowing a customer to touch her “in a non sexual manner” while she was on stage, her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wrote on Twitter. He wrote that she was expected to be charged with a misdemeanor “for allowing ‘touching.’”
A man who answered the phone at Sirens early Thursday morning said, “We have no comment on that.” He declined to provide his name. The Columbus Police Department did not immediately return a phone call.
Since gaining nationwide prominence for her accusation against President Trump — and the $130,000 payment she received to originally keep quiet — Ms. Clifford has drawn crowds at strip clubs across the country, including in Greenville, S.C., Salem, Ore., and Des Moines, Iowa. They were mostly curiosities until her trip to Columbus.
Mr. Avenatti, an outspoken lawyer who has become a sharp critic of Mr. Trump, saw political machinations behind the arrest.
“This was a setup & politically motivated,” Mr. Avenatti wrote. “It reeks of desperation. We will fight all bogus charges.”
In Ohio, it is illegal for an employee who is “nude or seminude” at a sexually oriented business to be touched by a patron or to touch a patron, with the exception of an immediate family member. Depending on what body part is touched, the charge can be a first- or fourth-degree misdemeanor.
