STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Is an image of Stormy Daniels wearing a blue dress with mushrooms an authentic picture of her going to court in April 2024? No, that's not true: The image has been doctored, with mushrooms added to the dress. Daniels was photographed wearing that same plain blue dress to an appearance on "The View" on April 17, 2018, as video and photos from that day show. Daniels may be called as a witness in the New York state criminal "hush money" trial against former President Donald Trump, but she has not been in court as of April 24, 2024. She wrote on her verified X account on April 24, 2024, that she was not in New York City.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads on April 22, 2024. It opened:
Stormy Daniels chose to wear this dress today to court. I can't imagine why. 🤣
This is how the post appeared on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Wed Apr 24 15:20:21 2024 UTC)
The image of Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in a blue dress with a mushroom pattern is not authentic. Daniels wore the dress to an appearance on "The View" on April 17, 2018, as video from the Washington Post YouTube channel shows:
This screenshot from YouTube shows Daniels wearing the blue dress with ribbons across the chest:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Wed Apr 24 15:28:36 2024 UTC)
Similar photographs of Daniels wearing the same blue dress and carrying the same Louis Vuitton purse are available on the Reuters website (archived here) with the caption:
DOCUMENT DATE:
April 17, 2018
Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, arrives at ABC studios with her attorney Michael Avenatti (2nd L) to appear on The View talk show in New York City, New York, U.S. April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar
In her book, "Full Disclosure," Daniels described Trump's penis by comparing it to a mushroom, as a report on the book in The Guardian noted (archived here).
As of April 24 2024, Daniels has not been called to testify (archived here) in the criminal trial known as the "hush money" trial against Trump, which involves 34 felony counts that Trump falsified business records to cover up payments to Daniels so that their relationship would not become public during his campaign for president in 2016.
Public records chronicling key developments in the criminal case IND-71543-23/001 are available via the New York State Unified Court System.
Daniels posted a message on her official X account on April 24, 2024, noting that the dress is from her appearance on "The View" in 2018, that the dress design was altered and that she is not in New York City:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Apr 24 23:251:36 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Donald Trump can be found here, and those concerning Stormy Daniels can be found here.
Updates:
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2024-04-25T00:31:13Z 2024-04-25T00:31:13Z Adds X post by Stormy Daniels.
