President Trump’s campaign may have known about a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, according to newly unsealed court records.
In mostly unredacted search warrant documents released Thursday, an FBI special agent detailed phone calls between Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen and members of Trump’s campaign, including his press secretary Hope Hicks and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, and Trump himself.
The FBI agent concluded Cohen communicated with Trump, Hicks, Keith Davidson, the porn star’s lawyer, David Pecker, and Dylan Howard of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, around the time Daniels, who alleges she had an extramarital affair with Trump, received a hush-money payment.
“Based on the timing of the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public, particularly in the wake of the Access Hollywood story,” court records say, using Daniels’ legal name, Stephanie Clifford.
Trump has said he did not know about the payments and denies having an affair with Daniels. .
Around the same time the “Access Hollywood” tape was released, in which Trump bragged about groping women without their consent, Daniels was in discussions with media outlets about her alleged affair with Trump.
A day after the tape’s release, Cohen and Hicks spoke on the phone at least twice. Trump is believed to have been on the first call.
The timeline set forth in the documents differs from Hicks’ interview with the FBI, when she said that that to the best of her recollection, she did not learn about the allegations made by Clifford until early November 2016.
“Hicks was not specifically asked about this three-way call,” according to the documents.
After the second call with Hicks, Cohen called Pecker and then received a call from Howard. He then had a third call with Hicks, after which he spoke with Pecker. Cohen called Trump and the two spoke for nearly eight minutes after he ended the call with Pecker. Throughout the night, Cohen continued to keep in contact with Howard, appearing to discuss the payment to Daniels. The parties involved continued to discuss the settlement in the days after.
On Oct. 17, after Davidson threatened to pull out of the settlement if the transaction was not completed by the end of the day, Cohen called Trump but the Republican nominee did not pick up. Cohen did eventually connect with Trump, the two speaking twice via phone on Oct. 26. Less than 30 minutes after their conversations, Cohen began the process of opening a bank account under Essential Consultants, the company he used to pay Daniels.
Investigators believe Cohen and Davidson finalized the $130,000 transaction on Oct. 28, the same day Cohen had another phone call with Trump. Cohen also tried to speak with Davidson, Pecker and Howard throughout the day, but may have only spoken with Howard by phone.
That night, Davidson texted Cohen “all is AOK.”
“I hope we are good,” Cohen replied.
“I assure you. We are very good,” Davidson said.
Howard also texted Cohen, saying, “Keith [Davidson] says we are good.”
Cohen responded “OK” to Howard and “Excellent” to Davidson. A few hours later, he spoke with Hicks for several minutes.
Trump’s lawyer stayed in communication with Davidson in the following days about Daniels, and the porn star’s lawyer sent an audio attachment to Cohen where Daniels cast doubt on allegations made by another adult film star about that star’s alleged affair with Trump. Cohen called Trump, who did not answer, and then he called a number belonging to Conway. Conway returned Cohen’s call shortly after.
On Nov. 4, the Wall Street Journal published a story alleging Playboy model Karen McDougal had an affair with Trump and was paid by AMI to “bury her story.” Cohen was in frequent contact with Howard, Davidson, Pecker, and Hicks around the time the story was published.
“He’s pissed,” Cohen wrote to Howard.
Howard wrote back that everyone in the secret deal was unhappy about the story, saying, “I’m pissed! You’re pissed. Pecker is pissed. Keith is pissed. Not much we can do.”
“Based on my involvement in this investigation, I believe Cohen was referring to Trump when he stated ‘he’s pissed,’” the FBI special agent wrote.
Hicks and Cohen spoke at least three times on the phone in the hour before the story was published and the two exchanged text messages the morning after.
“So far I see only 6 stories,” Cohen wrote to Hicks. “Getting little to no traction.”
“Same. Keep praying!! It’s working!” Hicks replied.
“Even CNN not talking about it. No one believes it and if necessary, I have a statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars statement. I wouldn’t use it now or even discuss with him as no one is talking about this or cares!” Cohen wrote.
The FBI special agent concluded from the text messages that “Cohen was referring to the above-referenced recorded audio statement by Clifford that he obtained by Davidson, and was stating that such a statement could be used to influence potential negative media relating to Trump, but was unnecessary at that time.”
The agent also said he believes Pecker spoke to Trump later that morning.
Despite the revelations, federal prosecutors signaled they were unlikely to charge anyone else in the case. The inquiry into who else may be “criminally liable” for the campaign finance violations related to the payments to two women alleging they had affairs with Trump “has effectively concluded,” prosecutors said.
Cohen is currently in prison for violating campaign finance laws, as well as bank and tax fraud and lying to Congress.
