The same U.S. president who spent more time tweeting, talking about and condemning the NFL more than just about every other topic in 2017 may have called upon an NFL quarterback for assistance after an alleged affair with a porn star six years ago.
In an exclusive 2011 interview with In Touch Magazine released this week, Stephanie "Stormy Daniels" Clifford says that she was, in fact, involved with Donald Trump while the former TV personality was married to Melania Trump.
And making an unexpected appearance in the In Touch story, which contrasts a statement from Clifford via Trump's lawyer following reports that the president paid $130,000 to silence talk of the affair, is Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Trump has said publicly that Roethlisberger is a friend. According to Clifford's 2011 interview, which recounts interactions she had with the president in 2006, the Steelers' longtime signal-caller was asked to walk the porn star to her hotel room the day after Trump and Clifford had allegedly first shared a private evening together.
I ended up leaving and the next night I saw him again at a party. It was in the downstairs of the hotel I was in and he was hanging out with Ben Roethlisberger. When I got there, he was already with him. He had Keith, his bodyguard, call me and ask me if I was coming. When I got there, I called Keith and he told me where he was sitting and he brought me over. And he was hanging out with Ben for a long time. A couple other people around, nobody famous. Mostly people trying to hang on to them. Ben had just won the Super Bowl that year. Donald excused himself. He had to leave, I don't remember why, and he made Ben promise to take care of me. I stayed another 15-20 minutes and Ben Roethlisberger actually walked me up to my room that night because Donald told him to. Yeah, he walked me all the way to my hotel room.
Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault in 2009 and again in 2010. Clifford's account of 2006 includes no such accusations, however.
There is no additional mention of Roethlisberger in the interview, which details Trump's allegedly repeated attempts to stay connected with Clifford and his hatred for sharks.