Leaked Emails from Columbus Police Department Reveal Stormy Daniels’ Arrest Was Planned
Photo by Drew Angerer/GettyAccording toleaked emails, Stormy Daniels’ arrest at an Ohio strip club earlier this month was pre-planned before she even stepped foot in Columbus. The emails between police officers involved in the arrest were leaked by a whistleblower inside the Columbus Police Department.
Daniels is involved in an ongoing court case after reportedly having an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. The Trump and Daniels scandal is ever growing and involves an investigation into alleged hush money given to Daniels before the 2016 election. On July 12, Daniels was arrested at a strip club in Columbus while traveling the country performing her act “Make America Horny Again.” Daniels was arrested for touching people in the audience, including undercover VICE officers. The charges against Daniels were dropped hours later and Police Chief Kim Jacobs apologized, calling the arrest a “mistake.”
Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, claimed the arrest was “a setup and politically motivated,” and he was right. A whistleblower at the Columbus Police Department released emails to local news outlet the Advocate which revealed that police officers planned the arrest before Daniels arrived in town. The email correspondence took place between high ranking Columbus police detectives and VICE officers. Detective Shana Keckley, who was one of the lead undercover officers at the strip club on the night of the arrest, was also involved in the majority of the email exchanges.
Two days before the arrest, Keckley emailed herself a video of Daniels in West Hollywood and a NBC 4 Columbus story about Daniels upcoming appearance in Columbus. Shortly after, Keckley uses her personal email to send a series of emails to her work email that are filled with photos of Trump with Daniels, Daniels posing in lingerie and a map to the strip club where Daniels was set to perform.
Following Daniels’ arrest, Keckley emailed other police officers. The first one read, “I got the elements….we arrested Stormy this morning, she is in jail.” At 3:50 A.M. on July 12 she sends another email to her peers that read, “You’re Welcome!!!!!….Thank me in person later.” Keckley went on to send an email to her husband Shane Keckley which read, “It is all over CNN. I wanted you to know before everyone contacts you.”
According to the whistleblower, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office also has the emails in their position. The whistleblower said, “Mayor Ginther’s office is pissed that people are critical of the police over this.” However, Ginther’s communications director Robin Davis said she was not aware of the emails but would look into them.
“These emails are very disturbing,” Avenatti said by phone while in Los Angeles. “We will get to the bottom of this one way or the other.” He went on to tweet the story and once again vow to “get to the bottom” of the pre-planned arrest.
This is extremely disturbing. I intend on getting to truth and the bottom of who ordered @StormyDaniels arrested and why. It appears that I was correct when I stated it was politically motivated. #Bastahttps://t.co/Y95E5bxNG4
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) July 25, 2018
The Columbus Police Department has not responded to requests for a comment on the situation but proceed to re-tweet the original apology following Daniels’ arrest.