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Has Donald Trump settled the Stormy Daniels hush money case?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows Donald Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 counts tied to falsifying business records over a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and has since pursued appeals; the record and subsequent negotiation activity indicate the matter is not simply “settled” [1] [2] [3]. Reporting also documents later contacts between Trump’s lawyers and Daniels’ camp about reducing judgments or resolving fees and even offers tied to non‑disparagement, but those items are reported as negotiations or letters, not as a definitive, final settlement ending all litigation [4] [5] [6].
1. What the criminal conviction was and what it covered
New York prosecutors charged that Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election and that Trump falsified business records to conceal reimbursements and the true purpose of those payments; a Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May 2024 on 34 counts relating to that scheme [3] [1]. Reuters and other outlets frame the case as focused on the $130,000 payment and the alleged concealment around it [2].
2. Appeals, reviews and the case’s legal status after conviction
Trump has appealed the February–May 2024 guilty verdicts and sought various post‑conviction remedies; news outlets report ongoing appeals and requests to overturn the conviction, and judges have continued to review immunity and other issues tied to the case, so the criminal adjudication was active in appellate proceedings rather than sealed by a new settlement [1] [2] [7]. The New York press and Reuters note judicial activity into 2025, including sentencing and review steps [2].
3. Civil and fee disputes involving Daniels — negotiations, not a clean buy‑off
Multiple reports describe that after the criminal trial, Trump’s lawyers sought to collect or reduce legal fees Daniels was ordered to pay and offered to settle those debts in exchange for non‑disparagement or silence; Forbes, The Independent and Newsweek report letters and offers in mid‑ to late‑2024 that propose reductions in Daniels’ debt conditional on confidentiality or non‑disparagement language [4] [5] [6]. Those pieces present this as a bargaining posture by lawyers, not as a final settlement resolving the underlying criminal conviction [4] [5].
4. Daniels’ legal exposure and the reported sums
Reporting shows Daniels faced court orders to pay substantial portions of Trump’s legal fees from separate civil litigation (AP reported Daniels was ordered to pay nearly $122,000 and “more than $600,000” was referenced overall in related fee tallies), and later correspondence referenced figures in the $620,000–$652,000 range as amounts Trump’s team claimed or proposed to adjust in settlement talks [8] [4]. Those fee negotiations are distinct from the criminal charges that produced the conviction and sentence [8] [4].
5. Conflicting frames in coverage — prosecution vs. political defense
Prosecutors and mainstream outlets emphasize evidence and conviction over the $130,000 payment and Trump’s alleged role [3] [2]. By contrast, Trump and some partisan outlets characterize the proceedings as politically motivated and emphasize appeals and requests for reversal; local U.S. coverage also documents Trump’s arguments about immunity and bias as part of his appeals strategy [7] [9]. Both frames appear in the record of the post‑trial period [7] [9].
6. What the sources do not show — no single document saying “case settled”
Available sources do not report a single binding, final settlement that vacates the conviction or entirely resolves all criminal and civil claims between Trump and Stormy Daniels; instead, they document a criminal conviction and sentence followed by appeals and separate fee‑settlement negotiations or offers between counsel [1] [2] [4]. If you are asking whether Trump “settled” in the sense of paying Daniels to close out the original hush matter and thereby erase the criminal outcome, current reporting does not present evidence of that [1] [2] [4].
7. Bottom line and what to watch next
The bottom line: Trump was convicted in May 2024 in the New York hush‑money case tied to the $130,000 payment, has appealed, and there were later lawyer‑to‑lawyer negotiations over fees and non‑disparagement terms — but reporting shows negotiations, not a definitive settlement that nullifies the conviction [1] [4] [2]. Watch appellate rulings, any public filing that documents a binding settlement agreement, and court orders on fees or sentence modification; those would be the authoritative documents that change the legal status reported so far [2] [7].