By now, the basics of Donald Trump’s Stormy Daniels scandal are probably familiar. There is, however, a new twist in the story, suggesting that the ordeal has an important new chapter.

As regular readers probably recall, shortly before Election Day 2016, Trump paid the adult-film actress $130,000 as part of an agreement in which Daniels would keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with the future president. (Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.) The point, of course, was to prevent the public from learning about the alleged encounter, which Daniels claims happened shortly after Trump’s third wife gave birth to his youngest child.

Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, exposed the fact that Trump laundered the payments through his business to cover them up, ultimately leading to criminal charges against the former president. Prosecutors indicted the Republican on 34 felony counts, a jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts. The GOP nominee for the nation’s highest office is currently awaiting sentencing.

But as bizarre as this might seem, there’s fresh evidence that, eight years after Trump paid Daniels to be quiet shortly before Election Day 2016, the Republican candidate is also trying to pay Daniels to be quiet shortly before Election Day 2024. As NBC News summarized:

Former President Donald Trump this summer offered a financial incentive to adult film star Stormy Daniels if she agreed to keep quiet about Trump — including about the relationship that became the center of the hush money payments that ended up the subject of a New York criminal trial — ahead of this November’s election, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported on Wednesday.

For those who might’ve missed Rachel breaking the story on “All In with Chris Hayes,” let’s review what we now know.

A jury found Trump guilty of crimes related to the hush-money payment to the porn star, but Daniels still owed the former president a significant amount of money in legal fees stemming from a variety of cases, including an ill-fated defamation case filed by her now-imprisoned attorney.

She launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise enough money to pay those bills, which worked: Daniels owed Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars, and her supporters donated what she needed.

At that point, her lawyers began negotiating with the Republican candidate’s lawyers on the precise amount, accommodating questions regarding interest, according to written correspondence between the legal teams obtained by Rachel. At one point, Team Trump wanted $652,000, for example, while Team Daniels said the total should be closer to $600,000.

And as part of that process, the former president’s lawyers decided to add a variable to the negotiations: Trump would accept less money in exchange for Daniels’ silence.

In other words, Trump’s lawyers thought Daniels owed one amount, but they were prepared to accept less than that amount if the adult film actress signed an agreement not to talk about the former president.

Trump’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to MSNBC, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung falsely asserted that the documents Maddow referenced “were attained as part of an illegal, foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team.” The fact is, Daniels’ lawyer provided the documents to Rachel.

“We disagree that a payment of $620,000 would be in full satisfaction of the three judgments,” Trump’s lawyers said in a July letter obtained by Rachel. “However, we can agree to settle these matters for $620,000, provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with President Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for President.”

So to review, Trump wanted $650,000. He was prepared to accept $620,000 alongside a signed NDA.

When Daniels balked, Trump agreed to accept $635,000 — and he got $627,500, without an NDA.

So what’s the bottom line? As Rachel summarized on the show, “The Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, is currently awaiting sentencing for crimes related to a secret hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 election, to keep her from talking about him — and specifically about having sex with him.

“And now just before the 2024 election, Trump has once again demanded that Stormy Daniels sign on to an agreement not to talk about him, offering to knock thousands of dollars off her bill if she did. Maybe this time, Trump has learned his lesson about not laundering this through his business, but he really is basically trying to do the same thing again.”