Donald Trump ("Hush Money") Trial (2024) by Douglas O. Linder

It had never happened before.  No American president or former president had ever faced a criminal trial.  But in May 2024, in the middle of tight presidential race pitting President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump, Trump faced trial in a New York City courtroom in a case that could well decide the election.

Background

In September 2005, Donald Trump, several months into his marriage to his third wife, Melania, and Billy Bush, emcee of “Access Hollywood” and later co-host of NBC’s “Today” show, bantered in a bus as they rode to a Los Angeles studio where Trump was scheduled for a cameo appearance on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” Their vulgar conversation about groping and having sex with women was captured on a hot mic. In the audio, Trump discusses a failed attempt to seduce a woman. “I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it,” he says. “I did try and f--- her.” Trump adds. “I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there.  And she was married.” Then Trump notices Arianne Zucker, the actress who is waiting to escort them into the soap-opera set.

Billy Bush, Donald Trump, and Arriane Zucker in 2005 (Access Hollywood)

“Your girl’s hot as s---, in the purple,” says Bush.

“Whoa!” Trump says. “Whoa! I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”

“And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”

“Whatever you want,” replies Bush.

“Grab them by the p---y,” Trump says. “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

Eleven years later, in October 2016, just three weeks before Election Day in a presidential race pitting Trump against Hillary Clinton, the so-called “Access Hollywood tape” (including video) was posted online.  The release of the tape shocked the nation and sent the Trump campaign into damage control mode. 

Soon after the video appeared online, Clinton wrote on Twitter: “This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president.”

Trump, not known for making apologies, apologized: “This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close,” Trump said in a statement. “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am.”

Hope Hicks, a young star on Trump’s staff knew that the vulgar tape spelled trouble for the campaign as soon as she read the transcript.  “This was a crisis,” she would tell jurors in Trump’s 2024 criminal trial.

The last thing the campaign wanted in the days before the election was another damaging story that could further erode his support, especially among female voters.  And there was, Trump knew, another story out there that could be a death blow to his chances: a story about an affair with an adult-film star not long after his wife Melania had given birth.

Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels in 2006 in Lake Tahoe (My Space/Stormy Daniels)

In July 2006, Trump played in a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.  Adult film studio Wicked Entertainment sponsored one of the holes.  It was at the Wicked-sponsored hole that actress Stormy Daniels (whose real name was Stephanie Clifford) first met Donald Trump, posing with him for a picture.  The two met again later met in the “gift room” of the clubhouse where Trump asked Daniels for a DVD.  She presented him with the video “3 Wishes”, which she wrote, directed, and starred in.  Minutes later, a Trump bodyguard asked Daniels if she would like to meet Trump for dinner.  “F--- no!” she remembered later saying at the time, but she took the bodyguard’s cell number.  Later, at the urging of her publicist who saw possible benefits for her career, Daniels changed her mind and agreed to meet Trump at Harrah’s hotel, where he was staying during the tournament.

As Daniels later told the story, when she entered Trump’s penthouse suite, she was greeted by Trump wearing a pair of “silk or satin pajamas.”...Continued