...that he says were reimbursements for the $130,000 hush money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 election.

House Democrats are now pursuing a formal deposition of Whitaker as they scrutinize whether he committed perjury.

...lawyers representing both the White House and the Trump Organization repeatedly provided false information to ethics officials, including “evolving stories” about whether payments were made to Mr. Cohen and the purposes of those payments.

because then-candidate Trump “was very concerned about how this would affect the election” if their allegations of affairs became public

Judge orders porn star Stormy Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in attorneys’ fees, sanctions

The porn star also says her lawyer refused to give her information about how her crowdfunding money was being spent, and launched a second crowdfund without her knowledge.

The ruling ordered Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, to pay Trump’s legal fees.

President in February instructed Michael Cohen to seek restraining order against adult-film actress

The feds are looking into complaints about the police squad that arrested Stormy Daniels, possibly in a pre-planned sting, at an Ohio strip club.

–Nintendo Life

“‘I had sex with that’, I’d say to myself. Eech.”

So, now you know.

The book, titled "Full Disclosure," was obtained ahead of its Oct. 2 release by The Guardian newspaper.

One theory on the decision was that Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight financial fraud charges in August, had nothing to gain from Daniels' silence.

In other words, not only was Trump aware of the payment by AMI, he even knew the figure.

In Ohio, it is illegal for an employee who is “nude or seminude” at a sexually oriented business to be touched by a patron or to touch a patron, with the exception of an immediate family member.

...saying the two men "colluded" and "acted in concert" to "manipulate" Daniels and to benefit Trump.

The mutual broadsides were only the latest round of sparring in a battle between the proxies for Mr. Cohen and Ms. Clifford

The disclosure, released by the Office of Government Ethics, did not specify the purpose of the payment.

Trump knew about a six-figure payment that Michael D. Cohen ... made to a pornographic film actress several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April

The details of the payment, and whether and when Trump knew about it, have important legal implications. A payment intended to protect his campaign from political damage could be a violation of campaign finance law. As a candidate, Trump was permitted to spend an unlimited amount of his own funds on his campaign, but such sums should have been reported to the Federal Election Commission.

“Imagine if that came out on October 15th, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani told Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”

The president’s tweets on Thursday were far more formal that his usual morning messages to the world, which often include words in all capital letters and are punctuated with exclamation points.

... appearing to contradict Trump’s assertion last month that he was unaware of the payment.

The suit alleges Trump's comment amounts to an accusation that Clifford fabricated the threat and exposed her to ridicule and violent threats.

“Michael represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” Trump said. “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.”

...indicating he would assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination regarding his involvement in a hush money deal involving porn star Stormy Daniels and the President.

But the bottom line is that Cohen's libel suit against BuzzFeed created a risk: Daniels might have been forced to turn over documents that Cohen and Trump want to keep out of public view. Cohen eliminated the risk by dropping the suit.

Prosecutors are "going to be very excited at the prospect of having an independent means of corroborating what was said between the two parties"

Lawyers for Michael Cohen and Donald Trump have formally notified the court Thursday evening that they intend to ask for the case to be stayed, citing Cohen’s Fifth Amendment rights.

If AMI routinely paid for the exclusive rights to stories that it ended up not using — if, that is, the Sajudin situation were something that happened regularly with other payment recipients and other celebrities — the payment may not be easily tied to Trump’s candidacy explicitly.

Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said the actions were taken following a “referral” from special counsel Robert Mueller.

FBI officials on Monday raided the Manhattan office of Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, seizing records related to a 2016 payment he made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.

“You can’t have an agreement when one party claims to know nothing about it”

Trump’s denial was the first time he’s made a public statement about the money given to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her silent about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

The inquiries are exposing the risks Trump took on when he made the decision to maintain ownership of the company that bears his name while serving in the White House

In requesting depositions, Avenatti said he “intends to prove that the Hush Agreement did not have a lawful object or purpose.”

Monday's legal maneuver is an additional move in an ongoing suit by Daniels against Cohen, Trump and the limited liability company Cohen has said he established to facilitate a payment to Daniels ahead of the presidential election.

Republican election law expert Trevor Potter said the payout potentially represented an “illegal, in-kind contribution.”

The man looked at her daughter, then added, "that's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom”

If you have been trying to keep up with the various legal battles brewing around President Donald Trump over his pre-presidential treatment of and relationships with women, today was especially busy. And that's saying something.

Cohen also intends to force the dispute with Daniels, who alleges she was secretly paid to keep quiet about an affair with the president, out of the public eye and back into private arbitration

Daniels is expected to deliver her version of the story of their encounter in a highly anticipated taped interview scheduled to air March 25 on CBS’ 60 Minutes.

"Evangelicals know they are not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president."

Munyan said Daniels placed the phone between her ear and his. He said he listened in like this on Trump’s calls six or seven times over the course of the relationship with Daniels.

In exchange, the actress, Stephanie Clifford, seeks an end to her deal to keep quiet about what she says was an affair with Mr. Trump that started in 2006 and lasted for several months.

Cohen, President Trump’s longtime ally and attorney, had used a Trump Organization email address as he worked to secure the payment to Daniels.

It would seem very fitting if an attempt to bury a sordid affair, rather than a lengthy and expensive special counsel investigation ... proved to be Trump's undoing.

Now the press secretary is on the record acknowledging that the two are involved in a legal feud.

The lawsuit suggests that Trump was aware of the agreement and that the money was intended to influence the election’s outcome. That intimation bolsters two complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission that say the payment violated election law because it was not reported as an in-kind campaign donation.

The bank used by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer to wire $130,000 to a former adult-film actress flagged the transaction as suspicious and reported it to the Treasury Department

While Cohen was probably trying to put Trump in the clear by saying he had nothing to do with it, his very explanation paints a picture very similar to that of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

The statement ends abruptly. “I will have no further comment on this matter,” it reads and then concludes with a promotional message: “Please feel free to check me out on Instagram at @thestormydaniels.”

Shark-related nonprofits say they have received a stream of donations mentioning President Trump since an adult film star who allegedly had an affair with Trump said he told her he hoped sharks die.

Common Cause said the alleged payment to Stephanie Clifford — who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels — amounted to an in-kind donation to Trump's presidential campaign that should have been publicly disclosed in its official reports.

The magazine had published some details from the interview earlier in the week, but the full transcript — totaling more than 5,000 words — gave a new, expansive view of how Daniels recounted their interactions.

A lawyer for President Trump orchestrated a $130,000 payment to a pornographic-film actress in October 2016 to prevent her from going public with claims of a consensual sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.