In late July, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump asked the adult film star Stormy Daniels to sign an agreement promising not to speak about her “interactions” with Trump or question “his suitability as a candidate for president,” documents provided to CBS News by Daniels’ attorney Clark Brewster show.
In exchange, according to the documents, he offered her a financial incentive — a reduction in the amount Trump would accept to settle legal fees related to a defamation lawsuit. The agreement would have essentially silenced Daniels from speaking about Trump in the lead up to the 2024 election.
It was an extraordinary demand that came only eight weeks after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies related to a plot to cover up a nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed days before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for $130,000. Daniels claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump years before, which Trump denies.
MSNBC reported the NDA demand on Wednesday night, citing letters sent to Brewster from a lawyer for Trump. Brewster provided the letters to CBS News on Thursday.
The request came during negotiations over a court-ordered payment stemming from a 2018 defamation suit Daniels filed against Trump, which was eventually dismissed. The court in that case ruled that Daniels had to cover Trump’s legal fees.
The bill went unpaid for years amid appeals and challenges, accruing interest and additional legal fees, and growing from about $293,000 to more than $600,000. One of Trump’s criminal defense attorneys grilled Daniels about the debt during Trump’s criminal trial, where she testified for two days about the alleged sexual encounter, the 2016 NDA and the fallout. Trump pleaded not guilty, but the Manhattan jury unanimously convicted him in May and he is awaiting sentencing.
After the trial, Daniels launched an online fundraiser, bringing in more than $1 million. Brewster sought to determine exactly how much Daniels owed the former president in talks with Trump attorney Harry Ross.
On July 23, Ross told Brewster in a letter that the bill was $652,362.23, which was more than Brewster had calculated. Two days later, Ross wrote to say that Trump agreed to accept less, $620,000, on one condition: “that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for president, with the terms of these points to be specified in a forthcoming separate agreement.
CBS News
Daniels declined to sign an NDA and Brewster said she ultimately paid $627,000.
University of Florida law professor Lyrissa Lidsky said it’s “not unusual in the abstract that a lawyer would look to prevent further reputational harm when negotiating.” But this offer was different from typical cases, she said.
“What’s highly unusual about this is the case being settled in the midst of a candidate running for president, and the party is a former president who still has an interest in silencing” Daniels, Lidsky said.
Brewster told CBS News the offer was “inconceivable.”
“You can’t talk about Trump? I’m like, ‘That will never be the case.’ How could she ever do that? She’s testified, there’s been a documentary. She’s been interviewed on international TV. I mean, no, that’s never going to happen,” Brewster said.
In response to questions about whether Trump knew about the July NDA offer to Daniels, in which CBS News specified that the letters were provided by Brewster, Trump’s campaign blamed hackers. Three Iranians were charged in September for hacking the campaign’s email accounts over the summer.
“These purported documents were attained as part of an illegal, foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team,” said the spokesperson, Steven Cheung.
“We are working with authorities to determine the legal repercussions for those likely committing federal offenses by posting and utilizing stolen material by terror regime adversaries,” Cheung said. “Ms. Daniels has been held to account by having to pay President Trump over and above the money she owes to him as a result of her wrongdoings.
Cheung sent the same statement to MSNBC.
Brewster told CBS News he also gave the letters to that outlet.
“I don’t even know what to say. I gave them the emails. So, I mean, it’s just more nonsense,” Brewster said.
