Report: Fox News Chose To Not Air Stormy Daniels Story

Trump, Stephanie Clifford

Fox News reportedly had a story about an alleged sexual relationship between Donald Trump and porn actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016, the month before the presidential election, but decided not to publish it, CNN reported Tuesday, citing four people described as being "familiar with the matter."

CNN's story came in the wake of The Wall Street Journal reporting last Friday that Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels -- whose real name is Stephanie Clifford -- around the same time to keep her from talking.

Cohen, Clifford and the White House denied the Journal's report, and Clifford in a statement denied having had a sexual relationship with Trump.

However, CNN said yesterday that Fox reporter Diana Falzone filed a story in October 2016 about an alleged sexual relationship between Clifford and Trump, which included an on-the-record statement from Clifford's manager confirming that Clifford had been involved in a sexual relationship with Trump. Falzone had also seen emails about a settlement.

However, Fox never ran the story, with one source telling CNN, "She had the story and Fox killed it." Noah Kotch, who was named editor-in-chief and vice president of Fox News digital in 2017, said in a statement, "In doing our due diligence, we were unable to verify all of the facts and publish a story."