Delay threatened payoff for silence

The 2016 election was less than a month away, and Donald Trump’s attorney had blown the deadline for paying Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the future president.

In an Oct. 17, 2016, email, an attorney for Daniels — a porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — threatened to cancel the nondisclosure agreement by the end of the day.

That very morning, Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, had created a limited liability company, public records show, that ultimately would serve as a vehicle for Daniels’ payoff. But the money had not arrived. A second email to Cohen, a short time after the first, said Daniels was calling the deal off.

“Please be advised that my client deems her settlement agreement canceled and void,” Daniels’ lawyer, Keith Davidson, wrote in the email, which The Washington Post obtained.

Ten days later, the $130,000 payment arrived, according to another email reviewed by The Post. Daniels’ story about her sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier would remain under wraps long past Election Day.

The account of how the deal came together — and how it briefly fell apart — adds a dimension of brinkmanship to the public understanding of the transaction. On the day that Daniels canceled the deal, protesters gathered in front of Trump Tower in New York City to express outrage over week-old revelations that the Republican presidential nominee had once bragged about grabbing women by the crotch, news that was prompting a number of women to come forward with stories of alleged sexual misconduct by the candidate.

“The media is trying to rig the election by giving credence — and this is so true — by giving credence to false stories that have no validity and make it the front page,” Trump told supporters that Oct. 17 night in Wisconsin. “They take a story with absolutely nothing, that didn’t exist, and they put it in front-page news because they want to poison the minds of the voters.”