Report: Prosecutors subpoena Trump Organization over Stormy Daniels hush money

The Manhattan district attorney's office has subpoenaed the Trump Organization, requesting documents related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, several people briefed on the matter told The New York Times Thursday.
Daniels said she had an affair with Trump in 2006, and shortly before the 2016 presidential election, his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence. The Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen, and the Times reports prosecutors are looking into whether any senior executives filed false business records, claiming the reimbursement was a legal expense. Trump Organization attorney Marc Mukasey told the Times this is a "political hit job."
Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations in connection with the hush money case and is now serving time in prison, also worked with the National Enquirer to arrange a payout for another woman who said she had an affair with Trump. Playboy model Karen McDougal was paid $150,000 for her story, which was never published. The Manhattan D.A.'s office also sent American Media Inc., the Enquirer's publisher, a subpoena on Thursday, the Times reports. The company's CEO, David Pecker, is one of Trump's longtime friends.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The tourist flood in the Mediterranean: can it be stemmed?
Talking Point Finger-pointing at Airbnb or hotel owners obscures the root cause of overtourism in holiday hotspots: unmanageable demand
-
5 warmongering cartoons about congressional approval
Cartoons Artists take on the War Powers Act, media bias, and more
-
Codeword: June 29, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from