The police department in Columbus, Ohio, has disciplined five officers involved in last year’s arrest of the adult film star Stormy Daniels outside a strip club, the department said Wednesday.
Those five officers were found to have violated police rules of conduct, according to the department, and they now face the possibility of punishment ranging from a reprimand to firings. According to the statement, those punished included a commander, a lieutenant, a sergeant, and two of the arresting officers.
The arrest was carried out in July 2018 at one of Daniels’ strip club performances after she had gone public with allegations she had an affair with President Donald Trump starting in 2006. The officers arrested Daniels and two other women on charges of inappropriately touching customers. Within hours of the arrest, the charges were dropped against Daniels. (They were soon dropped for the other women as well.)
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, argued that the arrest had been politically motivated. A later internal review of the arrest found that it was not illegal but that it was improper.
Of the officers disciplined Wednesday, three are named in a lawsuit Daniels filed against the city and the police department, alleging the arrest amounted to a political conspiracy. Daniels contended that the two other women were only arrested along with her to cover the political motivations, and her lawsuit has referenced communications among the officers that indicated some of the officers had gloated about the arrest and its publicity afterwards. The department has said it will not give any details on the punishment because of the lawsuit.
I have little respect for cops when they are in charge of being the morality police.