Donald Trump directly involved in talks that led to Stormy Daniels hush-money payment, says FBI

Newly unsealed documents say he and aide Hope Hicks spoke repeatedly with fixer Michael Cohen over Daniels’ threat to sell story of affair with Trump

New disclosures raise the possibility that Hicks lied to the FBI

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US President Donald Trump with former White House communications director Hope Hicks outside the Oval Office in March 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:54am, 19 Jul 2019Updated: 3:08am, 19 Jul 2019

Donald Trump and his White House communications director were directly involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, according to the FBI.

A court filing unsealed on Thursday said Trump and Hope Hicks spoke repeatedly with Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time legal fixer, in October 2016 as Daniels – whose real name is Stephanie Clifford – threatened to sell her story of an affair with Trump.

“I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public,” an FBI agent wrote, in an application for a search warrant.

Cohen later admitted to making payments totalling US$280,000 through a shell company to buy the silence of Daniels and the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged she had an affair with Trump.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels attends the opening of an adult entertainment fair in Berlin in October. Photo: AP

The new disclosures raise the possibility that Hicks lied to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hicks told an agent in an interview that “she did not learn about the allegations made by Clifford until early November 2016”, the new filings said. Hicks, who is now a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, has denied wrongdoing.