Court documents: Trump spoke repeatedly with Cohen, aides amid scramble to pay Stormy Daniels

Newly unsealed court documents show then-candidate Donald Trump communicated repeatedly with his lawyer Michael Cohen amid the scramble to keep quiet allegations that Trump had an affair with an adult film actress years prior.

The documents were released Thursday at the direction of a federal judge in New York, who disclosed a day prior that an investigation into suspected campaign finance violations had ended.

Prosecutors submitted a search warrant from 2018, with newly unredacted sections describing the FBI's investigation into payments Cohen arranged to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump: the porn star Stormy Daniels and a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal.

Cohen, who is currently serving a three-year sentence in a prison north of New York City, pleaded guilty last year to arranging the payments.

He also pleaded guilty to violating tax laws, lying to a bank, and lying to Congress in statements that concealed the full nature of his efforts to launch a Trump Tower real estate development in Moscow - conversations that continued well into the Republican presidential primary campaign.

From prison, Cohen issued a statement saying: "I and members of The Trump Organization were directed by Mr. Trump to handle the Stormy Daniels matter; including making the hush money payment." He said the investigation ending without charges for those at Trump's business "should be of great concern to the American people and investigated by Congress and The Department of Justice."

The president's current lawyer, Jay Sekulow, offered a terse comment: "Case closed."

In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley, prosecutors said the government has "effectively concluded its investigations of (1) who, besides Michael Cohen, was involved in and may be criminally liable for the two campaign finance violations to which Cohen pleaded guilty; and (2) whether certain individuals (redacted) made false statements, gave false testimony or otherwise obstructed justice in connection with this investigation."

A person familiar with the investigation speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to identify who was once under investigation, but did say that person was not Trump or his family members.

The unsealed portion of the search warrants offers new details about the scramble inside Trump's inner circle to keep quiet any allegations about Trump and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

"Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages, and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then Clifford's attorney," as well as officials at National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid whose boss, David Pecker, is close to Trump, according to the affidavit of an FBI agent, who added: "Based on the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public."

The Trump campaign was particularly concerned about the accusation because The Washington Post had revealed on Oct. 7, 2016, that Trump was caught on an "Access Hollywood" recording referring to women in vulgar terms.

The following day, Cohen received a call from then-Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks.

"Sixteen seconds into the call, Trump joined the call, and the call continued for over four minutes," according to the document.

When Hicks testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month, she said she was "never present" at a time when Cohen and Trump discussed Daniels. She also said she "had no knowledge of Stormy Daniels" during the campaign other than that she had heard Daniels' name mentioned as possibly "shopping stories around."

Asked by congressional investigators why she made statements during the campaign that the president had no relationship with Daniels, she replied, "I was relaying information from the reporter to the different parties involved, primarily Michael and Mr. Trump, and that was the response that was dictated to me. I didn't ask about the nature of the relationships."

The judiciary committee is investigating whether Hicks lied to Congress, according to an official with knowledge of matter. A lawyer for Hicks declined to comment.

The Cohen-Trump-Hicks call was followed by a series of calls that evening between Cohen, National Enquirer executives, and Hicks.

"At 8:03 p.m., about three minutes after ending his call with Pecker, Cohen called Trump, and they spoke for nearly eight minutes," the affidavit states.

For days, Cohen negotiated with Daniels's lawyer to craft a settlement that would buy her silence, according to the court documents. It ended up taking weeks to finalize, with Cohen creating a limited liability company to make the payment.

At one point, Cohen called Trump immediately after a phone call with Daniels's lawyer, but the two apparently did not connect, according to the affidavit.

Shortly before noon on Oct. 28, 2016, "Cohen spoke to Trump for approximately five minutes. Beginning at 1:21 p.m., Cohen attempted a series of phone calls" to Daniels's lawyer, Pecker, and others.

Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels, and on Nov. 1, 2016, the day she received her money, Cohen tried to call Trump but was unsuccessful. He then, according to the affidavit, called a number belonging to Kellyanne Conway, who at the time was Trump's campaign manager.

They did not connect, but later that evening, "Cohen received a return call from Conway, which lasted for approximately six minutes," according to the affidavit.

Conway is now a senior White House adviser. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Then, in November, the Trump team braced for an expected story in The Wall Street Journal describing how the National Enquirer had shielded Trump from allegations by McDougal, the former Playboy model, that she and Trump once had an affair. The report indicated the tabloid had paid McDougal to bury her story - a practice referred to as "catch and kill."

Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels, and on Nov. 1, 2016, the day she received her money, Cohen tried to call Trump but was unsuccessful. He then, according to the affidavit, called a number belonging to Kellyanne Conway, who at the time was Trump's campaign manager.

They did not connect, but later that evening, "Cohen received a return call from Conway, which lasted for approximately six minutes," according to the affidavit.

Conway is now a senior White House adviser. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Then, in November, the Trump team braced for an expected story in The Wall Street Journal describing how the National Enquirer had shielded Trump from allegations by McDougal, the former Playboy model, that she and Trump once had an affair. The report indicated the tabloid had paid McDougal to bury her story - a practice referred to as "catch and kill."

"I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide that payment from the American people before they voted a few days later," he said.

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The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey and Rachael Weiner contributed to this report.