President Donald Trump's office made a $37,000 payment to a media monitoring company the day after Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit related to their alleged affair in 2006. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump's office made a $37,000 payment to a media monitoring company the day after Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit related to their alleged affair in 2006. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump used taxpayer money to track media reports just one day after adult film star Stormy Daniels sued him over their alleged affair, new documents reveal.
The president's office made the payment to TVEyes, a company that monitors media coverage on TV, radio and print using certain keywords,according to documents from the Federal Procurement data system obtained by TMZ.
The documents, however, don't reveal what stories exactly the president wanted to track, but say the payment was for "Support - Management: Public Relations."
The Executive Office of the President approved the expense on March 7, the day after Daniels filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare her confidentiality agreement with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen invalid, reports Daily Mail.
He lawyer Michael Avenatti has argued that the "hush agreement" Daniels signed in October 2016 is invalid because it was not signed by Trump.
On Thursday, a California judge denied Daniels' request to depose President Trump in the case, calling her legal move "premature".
Daniels alleges she was paid $130,000 ($179,556) for signing the non-disclosure agreement just before the presidential election.
The adult film star alleges she had an affair with the president in 2006 and signed the agreement shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Photo / AP
During an explosive 60 Minutes interview, she said she felt pressured to sign the agreement and has since been threatened to keep quiet about the alleged extramarital affair.
Cohen has said then-candidate Trump was unaware that he was making a payment to the porn star in exchange for her signing a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter that occurred in 2006.
On Saturday, Daniel's lawyer doubled down on his claim that they will not settle the case out of court.
Avenatti tweeted: "Be clear: We will NEVER accept any settlement, regardless of the amount of money, that does not include Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump coming 100% (meaning 100%) clean with the American people.
Be clear: We will NEVER accept any settlement, regardless of the amount of money, that does not include Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump coming 100% (meaning 100%) clean with the American people. People that say this is about money haven’t been paying attention. #searchforthetruth#basta
"People that say this is about money haven't been paying attention."
TMZ points out the $27,025 ($37,326) payment is not only "by far" the most Trump's office has spent on the company's services, but it's also the largest payment the Executive Office has ever made to TVEyes since they began working with the White House in 2011.
The White House has not yet commented on the TMZ report.
