The path of the $130,000 payoff to buy silence from Stormy Daniels

It may prove to be the most-talked-about secret payment in American political history — the $130,000 that President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid to pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump before he became president.

That payment to Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, was a mere 0.005 percent of the $2.4 billion spent on the 2016 election. But it could have an outsize effect on the presidency.

The payment has helped spur a lawsuit by Clifford against Trump and a federal investigation into Cohen. Campaign finance watchdogs assert the transaction was the result of a secret, and illegal, effort to subvert election spending laws on behalf of the president.

Trump on Thursday rejected any notion that payments to Clifford had violated campaign finance laws, though in the course of his defense he contradicted earlier statements that he had known of no payments to the actress.

The story behind the payment to Clifford — when Cohen paid it, how he paid it, whether he was paid back and by whom — will be critical to both the lawsuit and investigation, not to mention others that may come.

Below is what we know about what happened, how the explanations have evolved and why it all matters.

Oct. 17, 2016

Cohen sets up a new company in Delaware, Essential Consultants LLC, from which he will later pay Clifford.

Delaware has minimal disclosure requirements for people who create companies there, making it hard to know their identities.

Many companies incorporate in Delaware. The location of Essential Consultants could become legally significant if investigators establish that Cohen used Essential Consultants to evade campaign finance laws requiring full disclosure of campaign donations and disbursements. Cohen and lawyers for Trump have denied wrongdoing.

Oct. 26, 2016

Cohen communicates with his bank, First Republic Bank, about a payment to Clifford through his Trump Organization email account. Clifford’s lawyer Michael Avenatti has pointed to Cohen’s use of that account to argue he was working on the payment in his official capacity working for the Trump Organization.

Cohen has said that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction.”

AP PHOTOS Clockwise from top left, President Donald Trump, attorney Michael Cohen, attorney Rudolph Giuliani and adult film actress Stormy Daniels have tales to tell about a $130,000 payment made to the porn actress who alleges she had sex with a married Trump...