How a shared golf cart with a porn star led Donald Trump to become the first US president to be indicted

It was July 13, 2006 and Donald Trump was forging up the fairways of the majestic Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, nestled beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains.

He was riding high on the success of his blockbuster TV show The Apprentice, as he took part in the annual American Century Celebrity Golf Championship.

Fellow celebrity golfers included Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had just won the Super Bowl, cyclist Lance Armstrong, and basketball star Charles Barkley.

But the event had also attracted other visitors that week, including a group of pornographic film actresses from Los Angeles.

In a tournament “gift room”, where companies promote their products, a pornography studio called Wicked Pictures had set up a photo booth and was handing out “goodie bags” of DVDs.

The actresses included Louisiana-born Stephanie Clifford, a rising Los Angeles-based star in the porn industry, who was known by her professional name, Stormy Daniels.

What happened over the course of the ensuing four-day golf tournament is hotly disputed.

‘Black silk pyjamas and Shark Week’

Ms Clifford, at the time 27, later claimed in US interviews that she had found herself riding in a golf cart with Mr Trump, before taking a photograph with him in the gift room, and then going to his penthouse at the Harrah’s casino hotel.

In a book, she claimed Mr Trump, dressed in black silk pyjamas, was interested in how profitable her pornographic films were. And then, she claimed, they had sex.

Ms Clifford has also claimed that she later met up with Mr Trump in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

On that occasion, they talked, watched Shark Week on television, and did not have sex, she claimed.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied ever having sex with the porn star.

The alleged events took place at a milestone moment in Mr Trump’s life. At the time of the golf tournament he had just turned 60.

As he practiced his swing, one journalist asked him what was more difficult, turning 60 or having just become a father for the fifth time.

Story continues

“Definitely turning 60,” Mr Trump replied. It was “getting up there. No question about it.”

An unlikely candidate

No one imagined that, already in his seventh decade, he could one day be a serious contender for the presidency.

However, as his political star then rose the allegation from that week in Tahoe was to become a thorn in his side.

Ultimately, it was not the truthfulness or otherwise of Ms Clifford’s allegation that mattered, but the way in which it was kept quiet.

In 2011, Ms Clifford made her first attempt to sell a story to a US tabloid for $15,000.

Her motivation, by her own account, was that she had believed Mr Trump might cast her in The Apprentice, but that had not transpired.

This initial attempt to go public was thwarted when the publication contacted Mr Trump’s representatives for comment, and Michael Cohen, his “fixer,” threatened to sue.

Five years later, after Mr Trump had become the Republican presidential nominee, Ms Clifford decided to try again.

On October 7, 2016, a month before the election, the “Access Hollywood” tape was published, showing Mr Trump making disparaging comments about women. It threatened to derail his campaign.

The following day, according to prosecutors in Mr Cohen’s later criminal trial, an agent for Ms Clifford told the National Enquirer she was willing to go public with an allegation of an affair with Mr Trump.

The National Enquirer then informed Mr Cohen.

According to the sentencing document from Mr Cohen’s trial, “over the course of the next few days, Cohen negotiated a $130,000 agreement” to “purchase Woman-2’s silence”. Woman-2 was Ms Clifford.

However, for reasons that are unclear, Mr Cohen did not immediately make the payment.

Cohen makes a deal

On October 25, 2016, with just two weeks left until the election, Mr Cohen was informed that Ms Clifford was now “close to completing a deal” for an interview with a major TV network.

Mr Cohen later told Congress: “It got to the point where it was down to the wire. It was either somebody wire the funds and purchase the life rights to the story from Ms Clifford, or it was going to end up being sold to television. And that would have embarrassed [Mr Trump], and it would have interfered with the election.”

The following day Mr Cohen obtained $131,000 from a HELOC account, a “home equity line of credit”. In essence, Mr Cohen borrowed the money from a bank with his own house as collateral.

He then transferred the money to a business account he had just opened in the name of Essential Consultants LLC.

It was then wired from Essential Consultants to Ms Clifford’s lawyer and described as a “retainer”.

Ms Clifford later told 60 Minutes that she hastily signed the deal to remain silent.

She said: “I just quickly said yes to this very, you know, strict contract and, what most people will agree with me, extremely low number.”

On November 1, 2016, Mr Cohen received, from Ms Clifford’s lawyer, signed copies of an agreement between Peggy Peterson and David Dennison, which were pseudonyms for Ms Clifford and Mr Trump.

A week later, Mr Trump won the election and became the next US President.

A legal minefield

As he was preparing for his inauguration, Mr Cohen gave a bank statement from Essential Consultants to executives at the Trump Organization, asking to be reimbursed for the $130,000.

It was then agreed to pay Mr Cohen $420,000, which included “grossing up” to cover taxes, a bonus, and money for other work.

According to prosecutors, Mr Cohen was instructed to send a dozen monthly invoices for $35,000 as part of a “retainer agreement,” and the company then accounted for the payments as “legal expenses”.

Mr Cohen would later tell Congress that, a month after Mr Trump was inaugurated, the two men were together in the Oval Office.

According to Mr Cohen, the new president showed him the famous paintings on the wall, and then said: “Don’t worry, Michael your January and February reimbursement cheques are coming.”

He showed a congressional committee two of the $35,000 cheques – one signed by Mr Trump, the other by Donald Trump Jr.

Ms Clifford’s allegations remained unpublicised for another year, until January 12, 2018, when the Wall Street Journal published details of the $130,000 payment.

Mr Trump denied knowledge of the payment to Ms Clifford.

In August 2018, Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to a series of offences, including campaign finance violations related to the hush money payment.

He was later sentenced to three years in jail.

According to prosecutors, and Mr Cohen himself, he had “acted in coordination and at the direction of Individual-1”. “Individual-1” was Mr Trump.

The question of whether to charge Mr Trump has since become a legal minefield, and the subject of heated debate behind closed doors among prosecutors in New York.

Investigations into the matter have remained ongoing for so long that some called it the “zombie case”.

Now, it is well and truly back from the dead.