NEW: Trump Offered ‘Financial Incentive’ To Keep Stormy Daniels From Trashing Him After Bombshell Hush Money Verdict

Tommy ChristopherOct 17th, 2024, 10:35 am

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers offered Stormy Daniels a “financial incentive” to refrain from disparaging Trump following the bombshell hush money verdict.

The hush money trial resulted in “guilty” verdicts on all 34 felony counts, for which Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced in November — but which Trump is appealing.

But according to a letter obtained by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Trump’s team tried to keep Daniels from disparaging Trump going into the election by offering her a deal on a separate case:

In a case separate from the hush money trial, Daniels was ordered to pay for Trump’s legal fees after she lost a defamation suit she filed against him. About two months after the hush money trial, Trump’s lawyer told Daniels’ representative that the former president would agree to a lower payment if she agreed not to make any disparaging comments about Trump.

“We disagree that a payment of $620,000 would be in full satisfaction of the three judgments,” Trump’s lawyers said in a July letter obtained by Maddow from Daniels’ lawyer.

“However, we can agree to settle these matters for $620,000, provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for President,” the letter continued.

Daniels’ lawyer declined the proposal, Maddow reported. Daniels’ lawyer told MSNBC that they ultimately settled on $627,500 but she did not agree to remain silent.

Maddow dropped her reporting on Wednesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, during which she revealed the detail that a Trump spokesperson misidentified the source of the letter as an “Iranian hack”:

MADDOW: — related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his business and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for president.

So we’ll take less than we believe she owes, more than $30,000 less than we were previously demanding if Stormy Daniels signs an agreement right now to not talk about Trump, to not talk about having sex with him before, which is what we paid for before, and to not talk any — say anything bad about him now running for president.

Stormy’s lawyer repeatedly said no to her signing any kind of NDA. You saw her natural reaction in the moment saying “no way”. So he said “no, no, no” to any kind of NDA.

And then look at this, Chris, he gets this email from Trump’s lawyer, quote: I just spoke to my client, that would be Donald Trump, and co-counsel. Case can be settled for $635,000. No mention of an NDA.

So the way this goes is, hey, we think she owes $650,000. Okay, we’ll take $620,000 if she also signs an NDA. No to the NDA, okay, fine. I’ve spoken to Trump, then it’s going to be $635,000.

Stormy’s attorney tells us they finally settled on $627,500, which is what Stormy paid and she never signed anything.

Now, I will tell you we sent questions about all of this to Trump’s Florida attorney who was handling these negotiations. He did not reply. He forwarded our email to the Trump campaign. They gave us a response instead.

Their response was quite unexpected. They told us, oh, these documents are part of the Iranian hacking. Quote: These purported documents were attained as part of an illegal foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team. We are working with authorities to determine the legal repercussions for those likely committing federal offenses by posting and utilizing stolen material by a terror — by terror regime adversaries. Ms. Daniels has been held to account by having to pay President Trump over and above the money she owes to him as a result of her wrongdoings.

Now, parts of that statement are factually and sort of legally inexplicable, but that is what they told us. We went back to them again saying thanks, but asking them about the hush money demand, specifically. They just reiterated that statement.

As I said, we got these communications straight from Stormy Daniels’s lawyer after speaking with Stormy Daniels herself. There was no hacking involved. We did not get them from any hack or from the leaking of any hacked documents.

There was a breach of the Trump campaign recently last month. The Justice Department indicted three Iranians for hacking into the Trump campaign back in May, stealing emails and documents and then trying to shop them to the media and to the Biden campaign.

Some emails between Trump’s lawyers and Stormy’s lawyers from these negotiations did just recently turn up online, in a report on Substack. Stormy Daniels and her lawyer both told us they know nothing about that.

But we didn’t get them from any Iranian hacking operation or any leak of any Iranian hacked materials. And so, putting the Iranian hacking diversion to the side and their threats about it and stuff, the bottom line here is the Republican nominee for president Donald Trump is currently awaiting sentencing for crimes involving a secret hush money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election to keep her from talking about him and specifically about having sex with him.

And now, just before the 2024 election, Trump has once again demanded that Stormy Daniels sign on to an agreement not to talk about him, offering to knock thousands of dollars off her bill if she did it. And you know, maybe this time, Trump has learned his lesson about not laundering this through his business, but he really is basically trying to do the same thing again.

I should also tell you, Chris, just one last point. We did contact the New York district attorney’s office about this. That’s the office that prosecuted Trump on the initial hush money case, and they — they had no comment for us on this matter.