American Bridge, a liberal political action committee founded by longtime Clinton ally David Brock, is launching a digital ad campaign to inquire about stories or tips from porn industry professionals about their interactions with President Donald Trump.
The ad buy will coincide with the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas over the weekend, BuzzFeed reported. It follows the Wall Street Journal report about Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly arranging a $130,000 settlement with an adult film actress, Stephanie Clifford — who performs as Stormy Daniels. The payment was allegedly made prior to the election to prevent her from publicly disclosing an affair she had with Trump back in 2006.
The ads will target porn industry professionals, asking about any interaction they might have had with Trump or Cohen, according to BuzzFeed.
One of the ads features a photo of Clifford and Trump at a July 2006 golf event in Lake Tahoe. "Have you ‘hung out’ with Donald Trump? Wanna chat?" reads the text superimposed over the photo.
Another ad pictures Cohen and asks if he tried to "pay you off."
The ads, which will appear on Facebook and Instagram during the AVN Awards, according to an American Bridge official, are the latest of in a long series of Democratic efforts over the past year that fall somewhere between research effort and publicity stunt.
"We're not convinced that Donald Trump's potentially illegal behavior is limited to his interactions with Stormy Daniels, so we are reaching out to a broad audience with the hope that people will come forward with credible information," Bradley Beychok, the president of American Bridge, said in a release.
Here fishy fishy.... in Vegas and need to phone or email a friend, @american_bridge is here for you. https://t.co/JMBAOcceCY
— Bradley Beychok (@beychok) January 26, 2018
The alleged settlement and encounter between Trump and Daniels has been surrounded by speculation in recent weeks. Another liberal group, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), sparked a viral conspiracy theory earlier this week. The group, which is also linked to Brock, tweeted that the December 2016 rent that the Trump presidential campaign paid to Trump Tower was almost exactly $130,000, the same amount that Cohen allegedly paid Daniels in October 2016.
CREW commented it was "probably just a coincidence," but the tweet raked up over 10,000 retweets and Trump critics like Hollywood director Judd Apatow and Democratic Rep. Don Beyer (Va.) took the tweet seriously. However, others were immediately skeptical of any connection. Journalists pointed out a number of reasons the connection was unlikely, including the fact that the Trump campaign's rent fluctuated during and after the election, and $130,000 fell well within the norm.
Cohen has said the story is "rumor" and the payment by Trump is "completely false."