Trump's Drama With Stormy Daniels Is Reportedly Far From Over (& We're Getting Deja Vu)

It appears that the October Surprise for the 2024 presidential election has finally arrived. In exclusive documents given to Rachel Maddow and the team at MSNBC, it seems as if presidential candidate Donald Trump is once again trying to silence Stormy Daniels. All the way back in 2016, it was reported that Trump paid Daniels $130,000 to prevent her from coming forward about their alleged affair. For his part, Trump has consistently denied having any sexual encounters with Daniels. However, he is leaving a decent trail of money in the wake of this claim.

The Trump team is already trying to toss water on this fire by claiming the documents were inappropriately obtained. According to MSNBC, Steven Cheung suggests this new information was acquired as "part of an illegal, foreign hacking attack against President Trump." Although, so far there is no proof of that. In fact, it seems Stormy Daniels' lawyer actually provided the documents to Rachel Maddow directly.

Furthermore, what's interesting about this new instance of attempting to pay Daniels hush money is that doing so is what got Trump convicted of 34 felony counts in 2024. Why he's trying this strategy again is anyone's guess, but let's break down what exactly is going on this time around.

Even though Stormy Daniels testified at Donald Trump's hush money trial, where he was eventually found guilty, the adult performer still owes Trump quite a bit of money. After Daniels' previous lawyer, Michael Avenatti, embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Daniels, she owed Trump's legal team over $600,000. Luckily, Daniels had enough sympathetic fans and was able to raise enough money through supporters to meet what she and her new lawyers determined was the appropriate amount owed to Trump. However, the Trump team disagreed with the final sum.

This is not the first time Stormy Daniels and Trump have feuded with each other. Now, the Daniels team insists the final amount owed to Trump is about $620,000. The Trump team believes it should be closer to $650,000. In a leaked email, one of Trump's lawyers was willing to accept a lower payout in exchange for Daniels signing a Nondisclosure Agreement and remaining silent. Stating, "we can agree to settle these matters ... provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump."

It appears history is once again repeating itself, with a slight twist. Donald Trump is not laundering this money through his businesses — the crime he was convicted for. However, it does seem that the former president is scared of whatever it is Stormy Daniels might still have to say.