Charges Dropped In Stormy Daniels Strip Club Arrest

Less than 24 hours after being busted at a strip club in what her attorney called a “setup,” the charges of illegal sexual activity against Stormy Daniels were dropped. The vice officers who arrested her are under internal review, according to the police chief of Columbus, Ohio.

Questions about the motivation behind the charges and their legitimacy erupted immediately on social media Thursday, with her lawyer Michael Avenatti criticizing the arrest as "politiclaly motivated."

Others questioned why four undercover detectives would be working at a strip club in a city where, according to the New York Times, murders drastically increased last year.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was charged for allegedly rubbing her breasts against three female officers, a form of sexual touching that is illegal in Ohio strip clubs. Prosecutors argued the charges should be dropped because of a technicality in the law that requires performers to “regularly” work at the club where the illegal touching happens.

Because Daniels wasn’t a regular at Sirens Gentlemen’s Club where she was performing, a judge dropped the charges.

Charges against two other women at the club were not dismissed, which Daniels lamented on Twitter.

She was set to perform at another club in Columbus on Thursday night and promised to donate her tips to their legal fees. “Come support the working women of this city,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, Columbus’s police chief Kim Jacobs justified her officers' action but also made an apology.

“Officers were well within their area of responsibility when taking enforcement action,” she wrote in a statement. But, she acknowledged, “one element of the law was missed in error.”

“A mistake was made, and I accept full responsibility,” the statement said. Jacobs added that the motivation behind the vice officers’ actions “will be reviewed internally.”

[Photo: Getty Images]