Trump Attorney Paid Adult Film Star $130,000 To Keep Quiet About Affair: Report
A lawyer for Donald Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to an ex adult-film star a month before the 2016 election so she’d keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday.
Michael Cohen, a longtime lawyer for the Trump Organization, allegedly arranged the payment to Stephanie Clifford, who went by the name Stormy Daniels after her attorney negotiated a nondisclosure agreement with Cohen, the WSJ reports.
Clifford alleged that she had the rendezvous with Trump in July 2006 after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, according to the WSJ. This was a year after Trump had married his third wife, Melania, in 2005.
The White House denied the allegation, with an official telling the newspaper: “These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election.”
The White House official would not answer questions from WSJ about an agreement with Clifford, according to the report.
White House representatives and Cohen did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Attempts to reach Clifford have been unsuccessful.
In a statement to the WSJ, Cohen did not talk about the $130,000 payment but said, “President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.”
More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
Trump has denied all allegations against him, tweeting in 2016 that the accusations are “100% fabricated and made-up charges.” He also called the charges “false allegations and outright lies” while on the campaign trail.
Cohen also said in the statement to WSJ: “This is now the second time that you are raising outlandish allegations against my client. You have attempted to perpetuate this false narrative for over a year; a narrative that has been consistently denied by all parties since at least 2011.”
In November of 2016, the paper reported that Clifford, 38, had been in talks with ABC’s Good Morning America about an appearance to discuss Trump.
The New York Times reports it received a statement from Cohen signed by Clifford which said the allegations “I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Mr. Trump many, many, many years ago” were “completely false.”
“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” the statement concluded.
He called his words “locker-room” banter. In the weeks after the tape surfaced, numerous women came forward to describe being sexually harassed or assaulted by Trump.
Clifford was considered among the porn industry’s top stars when the then-27-year-old met Trump at the American Century Championship in 2006 at Edgewood Tahoe golf course in Nevada, according to the report.
Another adult-film star, Jessica Drake, alleged in an October 2016 press conference that Trump had tightly hugged and kissed her without her permission at the same golf tournament.
Drake also said in the press conference that the then-reality star asked her to his suite, but when she declined he allegedly tried to offer her $10,000, as well as his jet, in exchange for spending the night with him.
She told The Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement this week that she never signed a nondisclosure agreement nor “received any money for coming forward.”
