Storm returns to Columbus police, lawsuit filed for conspiring to protect Trump

Though the charges against adult film star Stormy Daniels were dropped within hours of her arrest at a central Ohio strip club this past summer, the Columbus Police Department has not heard the last of her.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has filed a federal lawsuit against four Columbus Vice officers who made the arrest at Siren’s Gentlemen’s Club in July 2018, accusing them of conspiring to protect President Donald Trump, reports NBC.

Daniels claims to have had an affair with Trump more than 10 years ago and is suing him to end a non-disclosure agreement.

“Defendant Officers believed that Ms. Clifford was damaging President Trump and they thereafter entered into a conspiracy to arrest her during her performance in Columbus in retaliation for the public statements she had made regarding President Trump,” reads the lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court in Ohio, per NBC.

Daniels was charged with three misdemeanor sex offenses for allegedly inappropriately touching a female undercover officer under a seldom-enforced law.

This law applies only to regular strip club performers and since Daniels was a guest performer, the charges against her were dropped.

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The Fayette Advocate reports that after Daniels was let off, a whistleblower came forward with emails exchanges between several high-ranking detectives prior to the raid that included news clippings about Daniels’ planned appearances in Columbus, pictures of Daniels with President Donald Trump, videos of her dancing, and even a map to Sirens where she was going to perform.

Many of these emails provided by the whistleblower were allegedly from the email account of Detective Shana Keckley, who was one of the lead-arresting officers at Sirens and also one of the four officers Daniels is suing.

The other three are Lt. Whitney Lancaster, Det. Mary Praither and Det. Steven Ratner.

“Defendant Officers also arrested Ms. Clifford because they believed that doing so would damage her credibility in relation to any statements she had make or might in the future make against President Trump. Damaging Ms. Clifford’s credibility in this way was another purpose of Defendant Officers’ conspiracy,” reads the lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court in Ohio, per NBC.

A spokeswoman for the Columbus Division of Police released the following statement regarding Daniels’ lawsuit.

“We’ve been made aware of the lawsuit filed by Stephanie Clifford,” said spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis. “The Columbus Division of Police internal affairs bureau continues its investigation. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on this matter at this time.”

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