Trump tries again to silence Stormy Daniels before election: report

Donald Trump, convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, again tried to silence the porn actress and suppress any unfavorable comments she might make ahead of Election Day.

On Wednesday, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reported that Trump's lawyer had approached Daniels to try to “get another hush money deal” by offering to “pretend Stormy Daniels owed Trump less money, when they actually believed she owed it.” Despite Trump's conviction, Daniels still owed the former president more than half a million dollars in legal fees related to a failed defamation case Daniels brought against Trump in 2018.

Citing a call and documents from Daniels' attorney reviewed by MSNBC, Maddow said that “this time” Trump and his attorney “apparently planned to launder the new hush money payment to Stormy Daniels by paying a court judgment.”

During the news segment, Maddow shared a picture of the email he received from Daniels' attorney. In the alleged letter from Trump's lawyer, his lawyer offered to pay $620,000 in legal fees owed if Daniels “agreed in writing not to make any public or private statements related to alleged past interactions with President Trump or to make any defamatory or derogatory statements.” about him or his companies and/or affiliates or his suitability as a presidential candidate.”

Maddow stated that after Daniels rejected the offer, Trump's lawyer sent another email stating that the case could be settled for $635,000 – with no mention of a nondisclosure agreement. The host said Daniels ultimately settled for $627,500 and did not sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Maddow said MSNBC reached out to Trump's lawyer in Florida, who is handling the negotiations, and that her request was forwarded to his campaign. In response, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung claimed that the “alleged documents were obtained as part of an illegal foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team.” Cheung added that her team is “working with authorities to determine the legal consequences for those likely to commit federal offenses by publishing stolen material and using it from opponents of the terror regime.”

In September, the Justice Department charged three men with hacking Trump's presidential campaign. Maddow acknowledged that while some emails between Trump and Daniels' lawyers have “surfaced on the Internet,” MSNBC obtained the documents directly from Daniels' legal team.