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“Trump is trying to get another hush money deal with Stormy Daniels ahead of this election,” Maddow told the MSNBC audience.
Former President Donald Trump has made yet another attempt to silence bi adult film actress Stormy Daniels. In a bombshell report on MSNBC Wednesday evening, out anchor Rachel Maddow revealed to host Chris Hayes on his All In with Chris Hayes show that Trump’s legal team recently tried to cut a deal with Daniels, offering to reduce her legal debt if she agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
This echoes the hush money payment at the heart of Trump’s 2016 scandal, which resulted in his conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. Trump’s campaign has made the baseless claim that the documents Maddow obtained were part of a foreign influence operation involving Iranian hackers.
Daniels, who has spoken openly about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump, was again offered a deal to stay quiet about their past. According to Maddow, Trump’s lawyers proposed reducing Daniels’ debt by over $30,000—if she agreed to an NDA that would prevent her from making any further public statements about Trump, including about the $130,000 hush money payment she received in 2016. Maddow explained, “Trump is trying to get another hush money deal with Stormy Daniels ahead of this election. Trump’s lawyer basically offered to take it off the bottom line. They would pretend that Stormy Daniels owed less money to Trump than they actually believed she owed if she also signed an agreement to not talk about Trump.”
Maddow revealed that this time, Trump’s legal team planned to disguise the hush money payment as a reduction in Daniels’ legal settlement. Maddow reported that Daniels, expecting a final call to end her legal battles with Trump, was instead offered the NDA. As Maddow described, her reaction was swift and decisive: she refused the deal. Trump’s legal team ultimately settled for a final payment of $627,500 without the NDA.
Maddow raised concerns during her report about the potential legal implications of Trump’s continued efforts to silence Daniels. Trump was convicted in May 2024 for falsifying business records to cover up the 2016 hush money payment.
To explore whether these actions could result in additional charges, Maddow reached out to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which led to the prosecution of Trump’s earlier hush-money case. The office declined to comment on the matter.
In response to Maddow’s report, Trump’s campaign issued a surprising and unsupported claim: that the documents used in Maddow’s report were part of an illegal foreign hacking operation. According to Trump’s camp, the documents were obtained through a “foreign hacking attack” aimed at undermining the former president’s campaign.
The roots of this claim trace back to a separate incident involving Iranian nationals. In September, U.S. authorities charged three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with hacking Trump’s campaign in an attempt to disrupt the election. The Department of Justice alleged that the hackers sought to leak stolen materials from Trump’s campaign to individuals linked to President Joe Biden’s re-election effort before he stepped aside to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to run. Maddow made it clear during the broadcast that the documents central to her report came directly from Daniels’ attorney and had no connection to foreign hackers.
Watch Rachel Maddow’s explosive report below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
