One of the biggest lingering scandals associated with President Trump has to do with his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Over the last few years, Daniels has claimed that she had a sexual relationship with him–and that she got paid off to keep quiet about it. Trump has repeatedly threatened to sue Daniels for going public.

But it seems others knew about the affair, too, and long before this all came to light. In fact, Fox News was set to publish a story about it in 2016. Instead, the article got killed–and Rupert Murdoch himself was allegedly the reason why. This is according to investigative journalist Jane Mayer’s new bombshell story in the New Yorker, which details President Trump’s longtime and often shady relationship with Fox News and its owner Rupert Murdoch.

Mayer writes that, right before the election, FoxNews.com reporter Diana Falzone was able to find proof that Trump had a sexual relationship with Daniels:

Falzone had worked on the story since March, and by October she had confirmed it with Daniels through her manager at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and with Daniels’s former husband, Mike Moz, who described multiple calls from Trump. Falzone had also amassed e-mails between Daniels’s attorney and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, detailing a proposed cash settlement, accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement. Falzone had even seen the contract.

But when it came time to publish, Fox allegedly refused to pull the trigger; CNN reported this last yer. At the time, Fox News digital editor-in-chief and VP Noah Kotch provided the following statement to CNN: “Like many other outlets, we were working to report the story of Stephanie Clifford’s account in October 2016 about then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump and a possible payment by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. In doing our due diligence, we were unable to verify all of the facts and publish a story.”

Mayer, however, reports a different reason for why the story was shelved. Fox’s Ken LaCorte allegedly told Falzone: “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.” (LaCorte denied saying this to the New Yorker, but others corroborated the claim to Mayer.)

The following year, Fox allegedly demoted Falzone–who then sued the company. Falzone did not comment to the New Yorker on the allegations against Fox. Falzone’s lawyer, however, admitted that she signed an NDA as part of a settlement with the company.

This is just one example of the alleged sway Trump holds with Fox News. The entire story is brimming with juicy and breathtaking tidbits like this. It depicts clearly how the once-conservative-leaning network became a full-on mouthpiece of the current presidential administration. Look no further than the way Fox allegedly handled the Stormy Daniels story to understand behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing. </s> NEW YORK – The FBI raid on President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen sought information that included payments allegedly made to keep women silent about affairs with Trump more than a decade ago.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN Tuesday that a focus of the raid was to seek records on the deal set up between ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and a company that reportedly paid her amid the 2016 presidential campaign cycle to keep her account from publication.

The warrant also sought records regarding the deal with porn star Stormy Daniels, another woman who alleges an affair with Trump and was paid to keep her story quiet. Cohen is in a legal dispute over a hush agreement Daniels signed before the 2016 campaign to keep quiet about the alleged affair.

McDougal filed a lawsuit last month against American Media Inc., the company that owns The National Enquirer, to be released from an agreement with the company.

Shortly before the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal published a story saying American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to McDougal, but did not run her story in a tabloid maneuver known as “catch and kill.” The contract, according to the Journal, did not require the Enquirer to run the story and required McDougal’s silence.

The New York Times was first to report the inclusion of McDougal in the warrant. Representatives for Trump have denied both McDougal and Daniels’ accounts.

A corporate spokesman for American Media Inc. provided a statement to CNN in response to the suit last month, saying McDougal “has been free to respond to press inquiries about her relationship with President Trump since 2016” and that the company had not “silenced” her.

The search warrant behind Monday’s raids of Cohen also included a request for documents related to Cohen’s ownership of taxi medallions, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Cohen has held numerous New York City medallions in his portfolio, according to records, though the value has been diminished since the onset of Uber and Lyft.

There were various sections to the request regarding information connected to payments to Daniels and communications with Trump and his campaign, one of the sources said. Another source said Monday that the search included bank records.

There were also what one source said were other issues that could be unrelated to Daniels, including smaller investments.

In addition, the warrant said it related in part to election laws.

Cohen admitted in February that he had facilitated a payment to Daniels, although he has denied the validity of the alleged affair. Trump said when asked last week that he did not know about the payment and referred other questions about the matter to Cohen.

“Michael is my attorney,” Trump said. “You’ll have to ask Michael.”

Revelations about the payment have prompted widespread scrutiny and some legal questions, including complaints to the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, saying the payment to Daniels could constitute violations of campaign finance law.

Both McDougal and Daniels have gone public with their stories despite the agreements they are fighting that they say kept them silent. McDougal said she and Trump had an extended affair from 2006-2007, and Daniels said she also had sex with Trump in 2006 and alleged she was later threatened to stay quiet about it.

The FBI raided Cohen’s office on Monday, Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan confirmed, and a source familiar with the matter said Monday’s raids included the Loews Regency hotel where Cohen has been staying. The Wall Street Journal reportedthe raid included Cohen’s home.

Ryan said in a statement that the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York had executed “a series of search warrants,” and that federal prosecutors had told him it stemmed partially from a referral by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump lashed out at news of the searches, calling it “ridiculous” and “an attack on our country.”

His anger continued through Tuesday morning, when he apparently referred to the special counsel investigation as a “total witch hunt.” </s> Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom Donald Trump’s attorney acknowledges paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss an alleged sexual encounter with the man who is now president.

NEW YORK — Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom Donald Trump’s attorney acknowledges paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss an alleged sexual encounter with the man who is now president, her manager told The Associated Press.

At the same time, developments in the bizarre case fueled questions about whether such a payment could violate federal campaign finance laws.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, believes that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories were published Tuesday: one in which Cohen told The New York Times he made the six-figure payment with his personal funds, and another in the Daily Beast, which reported that Cohen was shopping a book proposal that would touch on Daniels’ story, said the manager, Gina Rodriguez.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” Rodriguez said Wednesday.

At issue is what, exactly, happened inside a Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel room in 2006 between Trump, then a reality TV star, and Clifford, who was promoting a porn production company during a celebrity golf tournament.

In the years since, Clifford has claimed that she and Trump had sex once and then carried on a subsequent yearslong platonic relationship. But she has also, through a lawyer, denied the two had an affair. Trump’s lawyer, Cohen, has denied there was ever an affair.

The actress first detailed her account of an alleged extramarital affair with Trump in 2011, when the celebrity website The Dirty published it but then removed the material under the threat of a lawsuit, according to the site’s founder, Nik Richie.

Her story then remained largely out of public view until a month before the 2016 presidential election, when the website The Smoking Gun published an account that went mostly unnoted by major news organizations.

In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that a limited liability company in Delaware formed by Cohen made the six-figure payment to the actress to keep her from discussing the affair during the presidential campaign.

Cohen said the payment was made with his own money, and that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”

He was responding to inquiries from the Federal Election Commission, which is investigating an advocacy group’s complaint that the October 2016 transaction violated campaign finance laws.

The case was reminiscent of the 2012 prosecution of former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, who faced six criminal charges after a pair of his wealthy friends spent nearly $1 million to support his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, during his 2008 presidential run.

Jurors eventually acquitted Edwards on one charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions, but were unable to reach a verdict on the five remaining counts including conspiracy and making false statements. The case ended when prosecutors elected not to retry Edwards.

As in that case, the payment by Trump’s lawyer was not reported as a campaign expenditure nor an in-kind contribution, and the origin of the money is still unclear, said Paul Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, the group that filed the complaint.

But Bradley Smith, the Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission from 2000 to 2005, was skeptical that the payment by Cohen could pose a campaign finance issue.

“You’d have to prove that it was a coordinated expenditure, and that the reason it was done was for the benefit of the campaign,” he said. If the payment was made to protect Trump’s brand or avoid personal embarrassment, he said, that would likely not be a campaign problem.

At the time of the payment, which followed the release of footage from “Access Hollywood,” in which Trump was recorded bragging about grabbing women’s privates, Clifford was negotiating with multiple national news networks about telling her story.

A White House spokeswoman referred all questions about the payment to Cohen.

The alleged affair between the actress and Trump occurred in 2006, a year after his marriage to his third wife, Melania.

A lawyer for Clifford, Keith Davidson, has previously distributed statements on her behalf denying there was any affair.

But in a 2011 interview with the gossip magazine In Touch Weekly, the actress — who the magazine said passed a polygraph exam — said the two had sex on one occasion and she described subsequent in-person meetings, phone calls and discussions about a potential TV appearance. The AP has previously reported that In Touch held off on publishing her account after Cohen threatened to sue the publication. It published the interview last month.

In recent weeks the actress has played coy, declining to elaborate when pressed on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Rodriguez said her client will soon announce how and when she will tell her story publicly. The celebrity website The Blast first reported the contention that Cohen’s comments freed Clifford from her nondisclosure agreement. </s> NEW YORK — Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson settled her sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes for a reported $20 million and a public apology Tuesday, ending the case that triggered the downfall of Fox’s chief executive.

Filed two months ago, Carlson’s lawsuit alleged that she was demoted and let go at Fox because she rejected Ailes’ sexual advances and complained about workplace harassment.

In a statement, Fox parent company 21st Century Fox said, “We regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.”

Carlson was paid $20 million, according to a person familiar with the settlement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the agreement were confidential.

The former Miss America spent several years on the “Fox & Friends” morning show before being shifted to the afternoon and told in June that her contract wasn’t being renewed.

Carlson said she is ready to move on to the next chapter in her life and promised to work to help women in the workplace. She thanked “all the brave women” who came forward to tell their own stories and others who supported her.

“All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace,” she said.

Ailes, who denied Carlson’s allegations when the lawsuit was filed, had no statement Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Carlson’s case led 21st Century Fox to launch its own investigation, and other women came forward with stories of being harassed by Ailes, including Fox News star Megyn Kelly. A few women told their stories publicly.

Two weeks later, Ailes was gone, reportedly with a $40 million payout, and is said to be informally advising Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Ailes was hired by Rupert Murdoch to build Fox News from scratch in 1996. He built it into a dominant news network and a force in Republican politics.

Murdoch recently named veteran Fox executives Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine as the network’s new co-presidents.

NEW YORK — Greta Van Susteren has abruptly quit after 14 years as a prime-time anchor at Fox News Channel, saying that Fox “has not felt like home to me for a few years.”

Starting Tuesday, she’s being temporarily replaced in her 7 p.m. ET time slot by Fox veteran Brit Hume, at least through the election.

Word of the surprise shake-up in what has been cable TV news’ most stable and successful lineup was announced only minutes after the settlement of former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson’s harassment lawsuit against deposed Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

Van Susteren, in a Facebook post, did not say what she meant by Fox News not feeling like home anymore. She had defended Ailes in an interview with The Daily Beast in the immediate aftermath of Carlson’s lawsuit, saying she had known nothing of the alleged behavior. The Washington-based lawyer said Tuesday that she took advantage of a contractual clause allowing her to leave and since it had a time limitation, she could not wait.

Fox did not explain Van Susteren’s exit, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement.

Van Susteren, who came to Fox from CNN after establishing herself among the commentators on the O.J. Simpson trial, said on Facebook that she hoped to continue her career in broadcasting.

She held down the 10 p.m. time slot at Fox for many years, but her “On the Record” show was switched to 7 p.m. when Fox wanted to make room in prime time for Megyn Kelly. Kelly took over at 9 p.m. and Sean Hannity was moved to 10 p.m.

Van Susteren’s departure came at a time many Fox watchers were focused on other potential changes at the network. Fox mainstay Bill O’Reilly, who turns 67 on Saturday, has mused publicly about the idea of retirement, and it’s unclear how Ailes’ departure will affect him. Kelly’s contract expires later this year, and Fox dearly wants to keep her. Hannity’s vocal support of Donald Trump has made him a controversial figure in the conservative media.

Hume, 73, is a senior political commentator for Fox and had been the network’s primary news anchor before stepping aside in 2008. He said he’s taking on Van Susteren’s show through the election.

Fox’s co-presidents, Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, said in a statement that “we are grateful for Greta’s many contributions over the years and wish her continued success.” </s> The latest twist in the tangled tale of what happened between President Donald Trump and an adult film star more than a decade ago has taken a new turn Tuesday, with Trump’s longtime personal lawyer claiming that he paid the porn star $130,000 out of his own pocket.

Michael Cohen, the lawyer who worked for Trump for over a decade, said in a statement obtained by Fox News that the 2016 transaction with Stomy Daniels was lawful and not a campaign contribution or campaign expenditure “by anyone.”

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” the statement read.

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. 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 reached a $130,000 deal a month before the election, which prevented her from going public.

The New York Times first reported on Cohen’s payment. The paper said Cohen refused to answer follow-up questions like whether or not Trump knew about the payment.

Cohen told the paper that he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog. The watchdog asked the FEC to investigate the source of the payment and determine whether it represented an excessive campaign contribution.

He called the allegations “without merit” and said he does not plan “to provide any further comment on the FEC matter."

Fox News' Ed Henry, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> Porn star Stormy Daniels has sued Donald Trump over the non-disclosure agreement she was paid £93,500 hush money for.

The adult actress alleges that Trump never signed the agreement that his lawyer had arranged with her following her alleged affair with the billionaire businessman.

The civil lawsuit alleges that the non-disclosure agreement is invalid because, while she and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen signed it, Trump did NOT.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed the lawsuit, which was obtained by NBC News , in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday.

Daniels is referred to as Peggy Peterson throughout the non-disclosure paperwork, while Trump is referred to as David Dennison.

An additional side letter agreement redacts the true identity of 'DD', but Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, claims the individual is Trump.

Avenatti tweeted confirmation of the lawsuit on Tuesday, linking to the full set of court documents .

Daniels signed both the agreement and a side letter agreement using her professional name on October 28, 2016, just days before the 2016 presidential election, NBC reports.

Cohen reportedly signed the document the same day, but there is an empty blank space where 'DD' was supposed to sign, but did not.

Both agreements are appended to the lawsuit as Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2, the website reports.

Yesterday, it emerged that lawyer Cohen moaned to friends he had not been reimbursed for paying Daniels hush money out of his own pocket.

Last month the attorney said he made the payment and denied it violated any campaign finance laws.

Cohen had been working to secure a deal with Daniels just weeks before the November 2016 US election, it is claimed.

But as the deal was being brokered, it is claimed he was unable to track down Trump for the money forcing him to use his cash instead.

Earlier this year, it emerged that Trump allegedly had the porn star spank him with a Forbes business magazine cover featuring his picture.

In 2009, Daniels was thinking of a run for the Senate in Louisiana and was working with local political consultants about potential donors.

Trump was on her list - and his name was one of the contacts in her phone, one political aide told Democratic consultant Andrea Dubé in an email.

"She says one time he made her sit with him for three hours watching Shark Week. Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine," the consultant wrote to Dubé.

The consultant revealed Daniels had told him the bizarre spanking session occurred while they were involved in a sexual relationship that began soon after they met during a golf tournament in July 2006.

The magazine that Trump asked Daniels to spank him with had his face on the cover, the consultant added.

An Autumn 2006 cover of Forbes features a photo of Trump flanked by his daughter, Ivanka, and his son, Donald Jr.

Responding to the claims Daniels received "hush money" the White House said: "These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election."

The president has repeatedly said that all of the more than a dozen women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct or assault are liars.

"[The sex] was textbook generic," she said in an interview with US magazine InTouch magazine in 2011.

"It was nothing crazy. It was one position, what you would expect someone his age to do."

The seven-year-old interview was published for the first time earlier this week after allegations emerged that Trump's personal lawyer brokered a deal for her never to speak again.

But before accepting the supposed payment weeks before Trump was elected, the Good Will Humping star had already discussed her alleged liaison with Trump with InTouch.

She and the billionaire businessman met at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in 2006 - after Trump had married Melania and when their son, Barron, was just three months old, she said.

Daniels said she agreed to go back to his hotel room, where she says she teased him about his hair and he evaded her questions about Melania.

"He goes, 'Oh, don’t worry about her,'" she recalled.

Eventually, Trump began pressuring her to get closer to him.

"He was sitting on the bed, and he was like, 'Come here.' And I was like, 'Ugh, here we go,' and we started kissing," she said.

"I actually don’t even remember why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, 'Please don’t try to pay me.' And then I remember thinking, 'But I bet if he did, it would be a lot,'" she said, according to the mag.

Afterward, he asked her to sign a copy of her X-rated film 3 Wishes, Daniels said.

She said the now president became "smitten" and started calling her every 10 days, promising to get her on The Apprentice and referring to her as "honeybunch", she said.

She also recalls Trump comparing her to his daughter, Ivanka.

"He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter,"Daniels said.

Despite the then-60-year-old Trump’s unremarkable performance between the sheets, the pair continued to meet up, including in his office at Trump Tower in 2007.

"Whether you’re a fan of his or not, which I never really was, you gotta admit he's pretty fascinating," she said of their relationship.

"We had really good banter." </s> President Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen negotiated a settlement for a top GOP fundraiser who impregnated a Playboy model, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Cohen negotiated the deal, worth $1.6 million, on behalf of Elliott Broidy, a California-based venture capitalist, close ally of President Trump, and the deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee. Cohen is a national deputy finance chairman for the RNC. The payment was negotiated towards the end of 2017, according to the Journal.

Broidy in a statement to the Wall Street Journal confirmed the affair with the unnamed woman and that the woman informed him she had become pregnant.

“She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period,” Broidy said.

The deal was negotiated by the same players involved in a October 2016 $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, an ex-porn star who claims to have had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006. Cohen arranged for that payment, a transaction Trump has denied involvement in. Daniels at the time of the payment was being represented by Keith Davidson, the same attorney who represented the woman in the Broidy negotiations, according to the Journal.

The FBI raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel on Monday. The search warrant reportedly sought information related to the Daniels payment, as well as a $150,000 payment by National Enquirer’s parent company in 2016 to buy the rights of claims made by another Playboy model, Karen McDougal that she had an affair with Trump. National Enquirer never ran McDougal’s allegations and gave her a fitness column instead, prompting speculation that the payment was intended to keep her allegations from coming out in what is known in the tabloid world as a “catch and kill.” National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc. is run by David Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s.

It’s not clear what role, if any, Cohen had in that transaction. </s> Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, released a statement on Feb. 13 that revealed he personally paid Stormy Daniels the $130K that’s been surrounding the alleged affair.

This is crazy. President Donald Trump‘s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, released an official statement to The New York Times on Feb. 13 and it surprisingly revealed that he personally paid porn star Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) $130, 000 in 2016. Although Cohen said he paid her the money, which many suspected was to keep things quiet in regards to Stormy’s alleged affair with Trump, he never revealed what it was for. The attorney, who counseled the Trump Organization for more than 10 years, also said he was never paid back the money he took from his own pocket. “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” he revealed in the statement. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Apart from the wild statement, Cohen refused to answer other questions about the transaction, including whether or not Trump even knew he made the payment or if he ever made other similar transactions with anyone else. Cohen previously made headlines when he said that Trump denied having an affair with Stormy but this is the first time he talked about taking part in the suspected payment to the blonde bombshell.

In addition to the statement in The New York Times, Cohen said he released a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission after the government watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint that claimed the payment was an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign. The group also wanted to determine whether the Trump Organization or another person made the payment. “The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution,” Cohen said. “The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the F.E.C.”

After Cohen’s statement went public, Twitter users took to the social media site to comment on the breaking news story. Some were shocked about the news while others either made a joke of the situation or harshly criticized Cohen’s actions. “@MichaelCohen212 paid off Stormy Daniels using his “own” money because he will always lie for I mean “protect” .@realDonaldTrump. What else are these corrupt people covering up?,” one user tweeted. “We arrive at the point where Michael Cohen’s admission that he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn star to keep quiet about screwing Donald Trump is supposed to make a sex scandal *go away.* It’s February 2018 in America.,” another posted.

This scandal has definitely been making waves for a while and now with Cohen’s recent admittance, it’s sure to keep things brewing for a long time!

HollywoodLifers, are you shocked that Trump’s longtime lawyer admitted to paying Stormy money to keep quiet about the alleged affair? Let us know in the comments below! </s> Adult film star Stormy Daniels (born Stephanie Clifford) filed a lawsuit against President Trump on Tuesday alleging that she’s not bound by the “hush agreement” she signed prior to the election because Trump himself never signed it, NBC News reports. Daniel’s lawyer Michael Avenatti has shared a copy of the court documents asking for the non-disclosure agreement — for which Daniels was paid $130,000 in October 2016 by Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen — to be voided so that Daniels could speak freely about an alleged affair she carried on with the then-Apprentice host in 2006.

The non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed in 2016 reportedly refers to her as “Peggy Peterson” and to Trump as “David Dennison” with the space for his signature left blank. An accompanying letter reveals their actual identities.

Avenatti appeared on the Today show Wednesday morning and dismissed the notion that Trump didn’t know about the payout because Cohen allegedly acted on his own accord.

“The idea that an attorney would go off on his own, without his client’s knowledge and engage in this type of negotiation and enter into this type of agreement quite honestly is ludicrous,” Avenatti said. “Mr. Trump did not sign. We believe that that was so that he could later claim deniability, and therefore, from a legal perspective, we believe she’s free to talk.”

Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ attorney, tells the Today Show that Stormy did have a sexual relationship with Trump and says “there is no question that the president knew about” the $130,000 payment. If true… that’s a blatant violation of campaign finance laws. pic.twitter.com/34BPmtHnhI

Sources previously told the Wall Street Journal that shortly after the election Cohen was complaining that Trump still hadn’t reimbursed him for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels’s lawyer out of his own funds. When asked for comment at the time, Cohen simply responded “fake news.”
The New Yorker reports that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch prevented the release of a story about hush money which Donald Trump paid to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election because Murdoch wanted Trump to win the election.