Q&A on Stormy Daniels’ Payment
In a series of early morning tweets on May 3, President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time that he reimbursed his personal attorney for the $130,000 payment that was made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Still, there are many unanswered questions about the payment — which was made less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election — and whether it may have run afoul of campaign finance or ethics laws.
Here, we lay out some of those questions and what we know, and don’t know, at this point.
How much was paid?
This is not in dispute: Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that barred her from talking about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Who made the payment?
On Oct. 17, 2016, three weeks before the Nov. 8 election, Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen incorporated Essential Consultants LLC in Delaware. In February, Cohen released a statement to the New York Times, acknowledging that he authorized the payment.
When was the payment made to Daniels?
On CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, held up from a bank in San Francisco showing that on Oct. 27, 2016, Essential Consultants made a $130,000 payment to
