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On 16 January 2019, the junk news site AmericanNewsNow.us posted a disturbing story falsely reporting that adult film actress Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) had committed suicide after leaving a note admitting she never had an affair with U.S. President Donald Trump:
Clifford's death is something that you should have heard about on the liberal-run mainstream media, but there's a reason they're not saying a peep — her suicide note."
"I deeply regret all the pain I have caused President Trump," the note found with her body reads. "The truth is that I lied, that Michael Avenatti encouraged me to lie. I have never had sexual relations with our President."
Falsely reporting deaths of celebrities and other public figures is a long-standing type of internet hoax, and this instance was no different — Daniels, 40, was alive and well. As of this writing, her most recent public appearance was at a 16 June 2019 block party in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, where she posed for photographs and donated proceeds to the New Orleans Abortion Fund.
Daniels rose to prominence when she filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump related to a non-disclosure agreement in which she was to be paid $130,000 in "hush money" to remain silent about an alleged affair between the two. Daniels has since become an outspoken Trump critic, all of which has inevitably drawn the ire of the president's supporters.
The AmericanNewsNow story ended with a threatening note: "Apparently, the only honest Democrat is a dead Democrat." The site appears to no longer be live.