Stephanie Clifford should just go on and change her stage name from Stormy Daniels to Hester Prynne. It is beyond clear that prudish forces of America will seek to shame her at every opportunity, all the while giving a pass to the man she (is it still technically “alleged” even?) had an affair with. Donald Trump still gets to be treated like a pillar of the community. Clifford gets arrested while trying to put in a solid day’s work.

Clifford was arrested last night in Columbus, Ohio, after her performance at Sirens Gentlemen’s Club. Apparently, multiple undercover officers were at the strip club… they claim they were there as part of a “long-term investigation into allegations of human trafficking, prostitution, and other vice related violations.”

But what they did was arrest Clifford for a violation of Ohio’s Community Defense Act.

I don’t buy the human tracking angle for one second. Believing the cops here is like believing that the stripper really loves you and wants to start a new life with you.

No, this was a set-up. They heard Clifford was coming to town and the hatched a plan to get her. Just look at the law that Clifford allegedly violated, and tell me how many strippers in Ohio violated the statute last night:

No employee who regularly appears nude or seminude on the premises of a sexually oriented business, while on the premises of that sexually oriented business and while nude or seminude, shall knowingly touch a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or the clothing of a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or allow a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family to touch the employee or the clothing of the employee.

This is one of those laws that is so obviously unenforceable that whenever it is enforced you know the cops have ulterior motives. Ohio’s “no lap dances unless you’re her father” law might appeal to Donald Trump, but it’s not really a thing that legitimate undercover agents — agents looking for signs of HUMAN TRAFFICKING, remember — would BLOW THEIR COVER to make an arrest for.

This was a set-up. Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, went on TV and called it a set-up. And now, the very next day after the arrest, the charges have been dropped.

Columbus police just harassed a stripper, because she has angered their dear leader, Donald Trump. Anybody with half a brain can see what they did there. That town needs an enema.

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.