Former President Donald Trump this summer offered a financial incentive to adult film star Stormy Daniels if she agreed to keep quiet about Trump — including about the relationship that became the center of the hush money payments that ended up as the subject of a New York criminal trial — ahead of the election next month, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported Wednesday.
Daniels delivered blockbuster testimony this year about hush money payments she received from Trump before the 2016 election, in which she was paid to remain silent about an affair between the two, a relationship he has denied. The jury convicted Trump of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the payments.
In a case separate from the hush money trial, Daniels was ordered to pay for Trump’s legal fees after she lost a defamation suit she filed against him. About two months after the hush money trial, Trump’s lawyer told Daniels’ representative that Trump would agree to a lower payment if she agreed not to make any disparaging comments about Trump.
“We disagree that a payment of $620,000 would be in full satisfaction of the three judgments,” Trump’s lawyers said in a July letter Maddow obtained from Daniels’ lawyer.
“However, we can agree to settle these matters for $620,000, provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for President,” the letter continued.
Daniels’ lawyer declined the proposal, Maddow reported. Daniels’ lawyer told MSNBC that they ultimately settled on $627,500 but that she did not agree to remain silent.
In a statement to MSNBC, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung falsely asserted that the documents Maddow referred to “were attained as part of an illegal, foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team.”
“We are working with authorities to determine the legal repercussions for those likely committing federal offenses by posting and utilizing stolen material by terror regime adversaries,” he continued. “Ms. Daniels has been held to account by having to pay President Trump over and above the money she owes to him as a result of her wrongdoings.”
MSNBC obtained the documents from Daniels’ lawyer, not through a hack.
Trump’s historic conviction in May was the first time a former president has been found guilty of a crime.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made payments to Daniels in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump then reimbursed Cohen for the payments, listing them as legal expenses on business records. Trump is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
