Just 11 days before the 2016 election, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her alleged affair with the presidential candidate under wraps. Now, with news breaking surrounding the affair, Daniels could be forced to pay up to $1 million every time she speaks out about the event, due to a non-disclosure agreement she is currently fighting.
On March 25, ‘60 Minutes’ aired an interview with Daniels where she described her relationship with Trump. According to CBS, she made sure to point out the problem is not with her being a victim, stating she is not part of the ‘Me Too’ movement. She was a consenting adult and knew what she was doing, the problem lies in the cover-up and possible corruption involved.
In 2011, after agreeing to an interview with In Touch magazine, Daniels was approached by a man outside of an exercise class while with her daughter. The man made threats directed towards her daughter and said to keep quiet about Trump. Later, in the midst of multiple offers to speak out about the affair with the Republican candidate, Daniels was offered a small payoff to sign a strict non disclosure agreement about the affair by Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal published a story which quoted anonymous sources. Daniels claimed she was not the source, however after the story broke she claims she was pressured by her former attorney and business manager to sign papers for Cohen denying affairs with Trump, according to the ‘60 Minutes’ interview.
Now with the danger of up to $1 million in fines, Daniels and her attorney are taking Trump to court. According to USA Today, a judge denied a request by Daniels’ lawyer to depose Trump on the $130,000 hush agreement. Judge S. James Otero said the motion was “premature” on procedural grounds because lawyers for Trump had not yet filed an anticipated motion to compel arbitration,which was a clause put forth in the NDA, which would keep the issue behind closed doors. If Daniels is able to prove the NDA is invalid due to Trump not signing the document, she will be able to avoid the fines. She may even be able to take the matter to trial.
The hush agreement not only has trajectory to become one of the largest hush agreements in history, but also one of the biggest presidential scandals of our time. Trump may face backlash due to rules regarding campaign contributions due to his lawyer making the payoff in his name during the election. We will have to wait and see how all of this plays out in the courts, and see whether Trump starts to sing a different tune when his back’s against a wall.
According to The Post, “senior officials believe Daniels’s account to be largely credible and consider it a serious news story that could deal real and lasting damage to the president.” We see a man who time and again has held women as objects that are the same as jets and jewelry, when one has money they’re entitled to them. In this extraordinary case we see masses of people undoubtedly siding with the accuser. We see examples of trying to buy her silence, whether he says he had no knowledge of the payoff or not. The ramifications for this may have appeared as a simple affair and cover-up. However, now they steadily grow to include illegal election contributions and manipulation to aid in the winning of an election. The hush agreement occurring so close to the election brings about the question whether or not Trump really had no idea what was happening in his own backyard.
