Donald J Trump And The Porn Star (AND THE PITTSBURGH CONNECTION)

On Weekend Update this weekend, Colin Jost said of the current Trump/pornstar story:

Let me just say what a thrill it is to be alive a time when ‘Porn star blackmails president’ is, like, the fourth biggest story of the week.

Like it or not, we live in interesting times, don't we?

Anyway, the Wall Street Journal broke the story a few days ago:

A lawyer for President Donald Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. (subscription required)

The film star's name is Stephanie Clifford and she's known professionally as Stormy Daniels.

For the record, both Trump and Daniels deny this story.

And as the WSJ is behind a pay wall, we have to look elsewhere for details. From this article in USAToday, we learn:

According to The Journal, Clifford has privately alleged the encounter took place after the two met at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. That's a year after Trump married his third wife, Melania. The Journal previously reported that Clifford had been in talks with Good Morning America in the fall of 2016 about an appearance to discuss Trump, also citing people familiar with the matter.

Donald and Melania were married in January, 2005 and  Donald and Melania Trump's son, Barron, was born in March, 2006. Just to put this into a clearer context.

But can we find a more specific date for this tournament?

Yes, we can - it's the American Century Celebrity Championship tornament and it's held in the second full week of July every year at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Nevada.

Look who else was there:

Yep, that's Ben Roethlisberger, just 5 months after his first Super Bowl win. He came in 47th, by the way, 50 strokes behind the winner, actor Jack Wagner. But that's not a big deal in itself as far as a Pittsburgh connection goes.  Looking at the results we see that both Kordell Stewart (who came in 44th) and Tommy Maddox (who came in 7th) were also there. Lotsa people were.

Donald Trump, by the way, came in 62nd.

Here's the thing: See that sign over there on the right hand side of the picture?  This blog post will explain it:

Today is the final round of the American Century Championship (televised on NBC). Ben Roethlisberger will be paired with Paul O'Neill and Donald Trump, while former Steelers QB Tommy Maddox will be playing with Marshall Faulk and Vince Coleman. As of Sunday morning, Maddox is on the leaderboard and has a legitimate chance of winning the event.

So that was the last of three rounds. Were they paired in any of the other two?

Well, there's this from The Smoking Gun:

During one round, Trump’s threesome included NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and skier Bode Miller.

So that would mean that for two out of the three rounds, Trump and Roethlisberger golfed together, right? But here's the money shot, also from the Smoking Gun:

At the time Clifford met Trump, she was between marriages and living with Michael Mosny, who later became her second husband. In a series of interviews, Mosny recalled that after Clifford met Trump at the Nevada golf tournament--where she had dinner one night with the mogul and Roethlisberger--she maintained contact with the businessman. [Emphasis added.]

Ok, so where are we? All legal denials aside, this story is about a six-figure payoff in exchange for silence regarding an extra-marital affair Donald Trump had with a porn star in 2006. The payoff was made weeks before the 2016 Presidential election. Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger both golfed with Donald Trump (twice, it seems) and had dinner with Trump and Stephanie Clifford during the week of that golf tournament.

Given the seriousness of this story (blackmail? payoffs for silence weeks before a presidential election?),

SHOULDN'T SOMEONE ASK BEN ROETHLISBERGER WHAT HE KNOWS ABOUT THIS?