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.
Trump met Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the name Stormy Daniels in films, at a golf event in 2006 a year after Trump’s marriage to his wife, Melania.
Clifford, 27 years old at that time, was already well known as a porn actress after only two years in the industry. Trump, then 60 years old, was still busy with his luxury property, hotel, casino and golf businesses.
The encounter with Clifford happened a year after Trump and Billy Bush were recorded in a conversation where Trump bragged about forcibly kissing and groping women.
“I don’t even wait,” Trump was recorded as saying. “When you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything … grab them by the pussy.”
According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, Clifford began talking with ABC News in the fall of 2016 for a story involving an alleged relationship with Trump.
But she reached an agreement with Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen for a nondisclosure agreement, amounting to $130,000, through Clifford’s lawyer, Keith Davidson, the Journal reported.
Davidson also represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who sold exclusive rights to her story about an affair she claimed to have had with Trump to the company that owns the National Enquirer, the Journal reported shortly before the presidential election.
Clifford had also been in discussions with the online magazine Slate, The New York Times reported on Friday.
Jacob Weisberg, editor in chief of the Slate Group, told the Times that Clifford had told him she had an affair with Trump.
In a statement to the Journal, Cohen did not address his role in negotiating the supposed payment but said Trump denies any such relationship with Clifford.
Clifford has previously denied an alleged relationship with Trump. Cohen also sent the Journal a statement signed by “Stormy Daniels” in which the actress denied receiving “hush money” from Trump.
On Friday afternoon, the White House issued a statement calling the Journal’s story “old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election.”
Cohen also accused the Journal of perpetuating “a false narrative for over a year.”
