The legal ramifications of this payout appeared to resurface after former Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance launched a criminal investigation into Trump. Avenatti is facing 14 years behind bars after being convicted of the advance theft, as well as cheating his law clients. But what ultimately removed Trump from office was his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.Īvenatti and Daniels’s relationship soured, and he was eventually prosecuted for federal crimes – including the siphoning of a $300,000 book advance for her book.

Daniels initially retained Michael Avenatti as an attorney, and he quickly secured his position as a media darling and adamant media foe of Trump, who has declared himself as a candidate in the 2024 presidential race.Īvenatti breathlessly insisted on the media circuit that Trump’s alleged affair could force his resignation. While news of the payout emerged years ago, its potential to land Trump in legal hot water remained unclear. Her attorney, Clark Brewster, said in a 15 March tweet: “Stormy responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed.” In addition to Daniels, Cohen said he arranged a hush-money payment to another woman at Trump’s bidding.ĭaniels recently met Manhattan prosecutors and answered their questions about the payment from the former president. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges relating to this payment. While Trump has denied having sex with Daniels and has contended the payment had nothing whatsoever to do with the election that he won, prosecutors persuaded a grand jury to charge that his method of repaying Cohen – in $35,000 monthly increments – was illegal, after an investigation aimed at determining whether he violated state campaign finance laws or falsified business records. Trump’s then lawyer, Michael Cohen, made the payment. Yet as Trump ran successfully for president in 2016, his relationship with Daniels evolved drastically.ĭaniels was negotiating a deal to go on television during the presidential campaign and discuss the purported sexual encounter with Trump when she received what prosecutors say was a $130,000 payment to hush up. She has claimed Trump had a bodyguard invite her to dinner, that they later had sex in his hotel room despite his being married to eventual first lady Melania Trump, and that they stayed in touch for a while because he offered her a role on his reality show, The Apprentice.

The self-described “little girl back in Baton Rouge, just trying to survive” later met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, where she was hired to greet competitors between tees. And she eventually began appearing in and directing pornographic films, using a pseudonym drawn from the name Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx gave to his daughter – Storm – and her preference for Jack Daniel’s whiskey.

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