Stormy Daniels’s Attempt to Sell Her Story Began the Road to Trial
Stormy Daniels tried to benefit from Donald J. Trump’s political momentum in early 2016, setting off the saga that ultimately resulted in his criminal trial.
Her agent reached out to Dylan Howard, editor of The National Enquirer, and editorial chiefs at other publications, seeking about $200,000 to tell her story of having sex with Mr. Trump a decade before when he was at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev.
Ms. Daniels had no takers. Mr. Howard thought her story had little value because it had already been written about on a gossip site in 2011. At the time, she had publicly denied the encounter.
A month before the presidential election, her story’s value suddenly increased. On Oct. 7, 2016, The Washington Post published a recording of Mr. Trump on the set of “Access Hollywood” talking about groping women.
The ensuing uproar revived Ms. Daniels’s negotiations with The Enquirer. Her agent negotiated a price of $120,000 with Mr. Howard, but Mr. Pecker nixed the deal, unwilling to spend more after having already paid a Playboy model to bury her story of an affair with Mr. Trump in what prosecutors have called a “catch-and-kill” scheme to aid Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
“We can’t pay 120k,” Mr. Pecker texted Mr. Howard. They agreed that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, would have to handle the problem.
“Spoke to MC. All sorted,” Mr. Howard later texted Mr. Pecker. “No fingerprints.”
Mr. Cohen had been in London visiting his daughter, who was studying abroad, when the “Access Hollywood” recording hit. He had gotten on a three-way call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the campaign’s press secretary, and then spoke to Ms. Hicks alone to discuss damage control.
Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor for Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said in court last week that after the recording emerged, Mr. Trump was desperate to “lock down the Stormy Daniels story” and prevent more damage.
On Oct. 10, Mr. Cohen began to negotiate a price with Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing Ms. Daniels, settling on $130,000. A nondisclosure agreement identified Ms. Daniels by the pseudonym Peggy Peterson, or “PP,” and Mr. Trump as David Dennison, or “DD.”
But Mr. Cohen delayed paying for weeks, and Ms. Daniels began contacting news outlets again.
With the election rapidly approaching, Mr. Cohen drew the money from his own home equity line of credit and wired it to Ms. Daniels’s lawyer through a shell company on Oct. 27.
Her silence was assured.