The Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal involves an alleged one-night sexual encounter in 2006 between businessman and later U.S. president Donald Trump and pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, a conspiracy on the part of Trump to cover up the story in the month prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Trump’s falsification of business records as part of the conspiracy.

The story broke in 2018, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen paid US$130,000 to Daniels for her silence during the 2016 Trump campaign.

After the story broke, Cohen voluntarily cooperated with federal investigators and admitted the payment to Daniels was an illegal contribution to Trump’s campaign intended to influence the election. Cohen pled guilty to this and other crimes and in December 2018 was sentenced to three years in prison. The scandal grew during 2018, as the public learned that Trump was alleged to have reimbursed Cohen via false business records designed to hide their true nature. The New York District Attorney‘s office impaneled a grand jury to investigate Trump’s involvement, and the grand jury voted to indict Trump on March 30, 2023.