Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels apparently recieved money from Michael Cohen supposedly on behalf of Donald Trump to keep quiet about an affair that supposedly never happened.

Mr. Cohen agreed to pay Ms. Clifford $130,000 through Essential Consultants LLC, a shell company he created. (He got the money, prosecutors said, through a fraudulently obtained home-equity loan.)

Ms. Clifford, in turn, agreed to sign a nondisclosure contract with Mr. Trump. In it, she was identified as Peggy Peterson and he as David Dennison.

There was just one problem: Mr. Trump never signed the papers. That omission could cause him future legal problems because Ms. Clifford’s current lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has sued him.

Mr. Avenatti is claiming that the nondisclosure contract that Ms. Clifford signed is void because Mr. Trump never bothered putting his signature on it.

Mr. Trump was elected president. Shortly after his inauguration, In Touch published Ms. Clifford’s account of the alleged affair.

When Mr. Cohen learned the interview was about to released, he scrambled to book Ms. Clifford on Sean Hannity’s Fox News television show, according to yet another lawsuit that Mr. Avenatti filed in June against Mr. Cohen and Mr. Davidson.

Mr. Cohen wanted Ms. Clifford “to lie to the American public about her relationship with Mr. Trump,” according to the lawsuit.

But after a series of frantic texts to Mr. Davidson — “Can you call me please?” “Please call me” — Mr. Cohen abruptly changed his mind about putting Ms. Clifford on TV.

Why?

The lawsuit quotes him as sending a cryptic text to Mr. Davidson.

“The wise men all believe the story is dying,” Mr. Cohen wrote, “and don’t think it’s smart for her to do any interviews.”

Mr. Trump’s aides repeatedly denied that he slept with, let alone paid, Ms. Clifford, attacking the idea with words like “outlandish” and “absolutely, unequivocally” false.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, told Mr. Hannity on Fox that the president not only knew about the hush-money payment, but had also reimbursed Mr. Cohen for his expenses.

On Tuesday, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to, among other things, working with Mr. Pecker to pay Ms. Clifford, at Mr. Trump’s behest, to influence the election.

Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Trump made his latest statements on the scandal. Going on Fox himself, he acknowledged that, yes, he knew about the payoff — but only after Mr. Cohen had made it.

Contrary to established law, he went on to insist that, even though he had paid the $130,000 back to Mr. Cohen, none of it amounted to a crime.

The payments did not “come out of the campaign,” Mr. Trump said. “They came from me.” Since she broke the agreement by opening her big mouth it looks like Clifford has to return Mr. Trump’s money. It’s the right thing to do.

 

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