On 12 January 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that in the run–up to the 2016 US presidential election, lawyer Michael Cohen (acting on behalf of presidential candidate Donald Trump) had paid $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) to stop her disclosing an affair that she'd allegedly had with Trump in 2006. Cohen initially denied making the payment and that the affair had taken place, but a month later he admitted having made the payment.
This raised questions about possible violation of campaign finance laws. Cohen said he'd made the payment out of his own pocket, and Trump denied having had any knowledge of it. However, on April 26 2018 Trump admitted for the first time that Cohen represented him in "the Stormy Daniels deal"; and six days later Trump's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the payment.
In August 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to eight criminal charges, including violating campaign finance regulations.
Clifford subsequently filed three lawsuits against Trump and/or Cohen. She won one (arguing that the non–disclosure agreeement that she'd signed in 2016 had been invalid), lost one (claiming defamation), and a third (claiming that Cohen had colluded against her with her former lawyer) was settled out of court. Trump was ordered to pay her legal fees for the case she won ($44,100) but for the one she lost she was ordered to pay almost $300,000 in legal fees and court costs.
© Haydn Thompson 2023