In short, the efforts by Trump surrogates to silence Daniels on the eve of the election, while effective at the time, involved criminal behavior that attracted the attention of federal prosecutors. Cohen pleaded guilty last month to violating campaign finance laws in connection with the payment to Daniels. Daniels was one of at least two women to have struck a deal with Trump or a close friend of Trump before the election. But after the Journal story, Cohen mounted a campaign to intimidate Daniels, she charged in a lawsuit against the president in March The lawsuit, in which Daniels was represented for the first time by her lawyer Michael Avenatti, sought release from the hush agreement on the grounds that Trump had never signed it.

When the world learned that President Donald Trump had allegedly slept with porn star Stormy Daniels in , a few months after Melania Trump had given birth to their son, the first lady shrugged off the news. But Melania Trump kept up her breezy, emoji-filled texts to Winston Wolkoff and seemed to shrug it all off. When Winston Wolkoff texted Melania to ask if she was OK, the wife of the former reality TV star only texted back to ask about a lunch date.

A news article involving U. Daniels later signed a statement that both her lawyer and publicist witnessed denying that she had an affair with Trump. Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including a campaign finance violation for Daniels' payment in August