Nearly two decades after Stormy Daniels and Donald J. Trump met in Nevada, they met face to face again in a Lower Manhattan courtroom in the first criminal trial against a former United States president.
Here is a timeline of their history:
July 2006
Mr. Trump attended the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev., where Wicked Pictures, the production company whose adult films she starred in, had set up a booth.
According to Ms. Daniels, the two met at the event, had dinner and then consensual sex in a hotel room. She said that Mr. Trump told her that she could appear on his show “The Apprentice.”
Mr. Trump was married to his current wife, Melania, for about a year, and his youngest son, Barron, was born several months before. Though there are photos of Mr. Trump and Ms. Daniels at the tournament, he has denied that he had sex with Ms. Daniels.
July 2007
Ms. Daniels told “60 Minutes” on CBS News in 2018 that a year after the golf tournament, Mr. Trump invited her to his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel to discuss her possible appearance on his reality television show “The Apprentice.” She never appeared on the show.
April 2011
Ms. Daniels considered selling her account of sex with Mr. Trump but ultimately did not, she told “60 Minutes.”
May 2011
She took a polygraph test, which supported her account that she had sex with Mr. Trump.
June 2016
Ms. Daniels wanted to go public with her account of the sexual encounter. A lawyer for Ms. Daniels, Keith Davidson, sent a text message to an editor of The National Enquirer, reading “I have blockbuster Trump story.”
July 2016
Mr. Trump secured the Republican Party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
October 2016
David Pecker, then the publisher of The Enquirer, said he spoke with the tabloid’s editor, Dylan Howard, and told him that he did not want to associate the publication with a porn star, according to testimony in the 2024 criminal trial. Mr. Pecker said in the trial that he did not want to spend more money on hush-money deals involving allegations against Mr. Trump, after making two other deals in previous months.
Mr. Pecker testified that he told Mr. Howard to reach out to Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.
Later in the month, Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cohen exchanged emails and phone calls about a possible hush-money deal to bury the story of Ms. Daniels’s alleged encounter with Mr. Trump. Mr. Howard was also part of the negotiations.
Near the end of the month, Mr. Cohen wired $130,000 from a newly formed entity, Essential Consultants, to Ms. Daniels.
November 2016
Mr. Trump won the presidential election.
February 2017
The repayment began from Mr. Trump to Mr. Cohen’s hush-money deal and continued in parts throughout the year. The total payments to Mr. Cohen were $420,000 for the hush-money deal, a bonus and additional cash for tax considerations.
The Trump Organization recorded the payments as “legal expenses,” citing a legal retainer with Mr. Cohen. Prosecutors say that no legal retainer existed and recording the payments as “legal expenses” was a falsification of business records. They underpin the criminal charges against Mr. Trump.
January 2018
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms. Daniels received a $130,000 hush-money deal from Mr. Cohen days before the 2016 election.
Later in the month, Ms. Daniels denied having an affair with Mr. Trump in a statement. Ms. Daniels said later that the statement was worded that way because of a nondisclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because she felt like she had no choice.
April 2018
The F.B.I. executed a search warrant on Mr. Cohen.
August 2018
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court that month, admitting to making illegal campaign contributions to support Mr. Trump’s 2016 election, including his payment to Ms. Daniels.
March 2021
The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation into the hush-money deals involving Mr. Trump.
March 2023
Mr. Trump is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records stemming from Ms. Daniels’s hush-money deal.
May 2024
Ms. Daniels and Mr. Trump meet again at a Lower Manhattan Courtroom in his criminal trial.
