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With all the news about the "alleged" affair Donald J. Trump had with the porn star Stormy Daniels cheating on his wife one has to wonder.....

Disclaimer: Donald Trump strongly denies all allegations.

Question

Donald Trump always has strong denial of any wrongdoing of any kind ever, and in terms of "credibility" this would seem important if he was caught lying.

So would a sex tape video of Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels be of any significance to the Mueller investigation?

The 'Bernie Sanders' Party
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2 Answers2

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FiveThirtyEight had a podcast on the topic and they made one very important non-partisan point:

If the affair was a secret (which is just a theory, we don't know without reading the mind of his wife - such marriages often are built on the French model rather than Puritanical one), that secret would have a security implication, in that anyone with such a secret is a potential target of blackmail. The assertion made - which I don't have enough facts to doubt - that this is a general concern with US Government, not specific to Trump or even Presidency in general.

Whether this is relevant to Mueller is not clear even if it would be the case, unless there's actual evidence that there was blackmail on the topic. Given the magnitude of such a revelation, I suspect that isn't the case, or we'd have already known.

GGMG-he-him
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user4012
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    I'm not sure why you would expect blackmail to be known, all it takes is convincing the victim that the threat is real once. Also approved a snip of off topic rhetoric. –  Mar 28 '18 at 16:08
  • @notstoreboughtdirt - I meant known from Mueller probe (leaks or official PR) – user4012 Mar 28 '18 at 16:13
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    @notstoreboughtdirt - not that I mind too much, but why is it always OK to prepend "but that is a right wing source" when talking about right wing sources, but somehow an objectionable offtopic and flag/downvote magnet when same thing is done about left wing sources? In this case, it's highly relevant, because 538 site has a well deserved reputation for objectivity and lack of overt bias, whereas their podcast does NOT possess the same qualities (I listened to every eposide for many months), and people unfamiliar with podcast episodes would assume that site brand transfers to podcast. – user4012 Mar 28 '18 at 16:15
  • On the investigation: all it would take is a mention at any of thousands of meetings, I'd like to say I respect the federal powers of investigation, but I'm pretty sure they can't certainly rule out a discreet note or private word over a decade. –  Mar 28 '18 at 16:26
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    @user4012 I flag it where I see it. Your answer holds perfectly well if you're being truthful that the podcast made a bipartisan point, as an outside observer unfamiliar with the podcast it doesn't matter to me whether it's left-leaning or right-leaning if the point is explicitly bipartisan. – GGMG-he-him Mar 28 '18 at 16:27
  • @notstoreboughtdirt - sorry, I probably am still not being clear. My assertion is "if Mueller knows about it, we would know. Since we don't know, Mueller probably doesn't either". That says nothing about whether it happened, merely about whether - if it happened - Mueller knows of it. I completely agree that, even if it happened, chances of Mueller finding out about it aren't high. – user4012 Mar 28 '18 at 16:30
  • on the edit: I imagine a line between noting the slant of a source and applying epitaphs (echo chamber) to it. Like GGMG says I consider the important point that you consider the one provided point they made reasonable rather than the others you don't bother with being silly. If we overstepped you can just roll it back. –  Mar 28 '18 at 17:24
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There is no evidence that Trump's alleged sexual affairs have any direct significance or impact to the alleged Collusion. It is also known that similar scandals occur here and there, and this includes even top politicians.

However, this may reduce Trump's support received from prominent Republican leaders. Here's the reason:

Many Republicans are known for their declared support of Christian Values.
Eighty percent of white evangelical voters voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
There is also evidence that many prominent Republicans embrace Trump and what he's doing by the principle "He is a Bastard, but he is our Bastard" (a quote mis-attributed to Roosevelt about Somoza).

If a blatant, demonstrative violation of Family and Christian Values get confirmed, this may repel the Conservative Christian politicians from supporting Trump and may encourage them for a more active collaboration with the Mueller investigation.

Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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    Forgiveness and redemption are Christian values. – grovkin Mar 28 '18 at 06:25
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    @grovkin calling "christian values" into play can lead to all sorts of problems, starting from double standards in application. I would leave them out of the equation. – Federico Mar 28 '18 at 08:15
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    "this may repel the Conservative Christian politicians from supporting Trump" - Meh, that ship sailed before he even got elected. Remember "grab them by the pussy"... – Denis de Bernardy Mar 28 '18 at 09:55
  • @DenisdeBernardy, true. But "grab'em" nicely fits into the "Strict Father" and "Biconceptuals" logic. Please take a look at George Lakoff's "Understanding Trump", I was truly amazed with his idea of what he calls "the central metaphor" and the depth of analysis possible using his approach. – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine Mar 28 '18 at 10:45
  • they basically care about only one thing: is he for or against abortion? nothing else matters much... – dandavis Mar 28 '18 at 10:56
  • I think only the first paragraph answers the question. The rest of the answer lies in the assumption that either: A) there is people that is lying because they think that it is worth to protect Trump because they believe he is pious or B) there is people that will lie to attack Trump because now they believe he is impious. That in turn implies that these people truly believed Trump was pious (LOL) and now have realized that he was not, and were close enough to Trump to have any credibility in the issue... – SJuan76 Mar 28 '18 at 11:43
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    "this may repel the Conservative Christian politicians from supporting" - is there any polling evidence to back up that hypothesis? – user4012 Mar 28 '18 at 13:21
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    @user4012, I'm afraid only speculations exist. In the linked article: "Author Stephen Mansfield […] argues that religious conservatives knew Trump was flawed but took a chance on him anyway." — quite naturally (to me), if such support is tentative, it may cancel at a certain point. – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine Mar 28 '18 at 13:43