A lawyer for President Barack Obama arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2008 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Obama, according to people familiar with the matter.
Robert Bauer, who spent nearly a decade as a top attorney at the Obama Organization, arranged payment to the woman, Savana Maisah Johnson, in October 2008 after her lawyer negotiated the nondisclosure agreement with Mr. Bauer, these people said.
Ms. Johnson, whose stage name is Ana Foxxx, has privately alleged the encounter with Mr. Obama took place after they met at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament on the shore of Lake Tahoe, these people said. Mr. Obama married Michelle Obama in 1992.
Mr. Obama faced other allegations during his campaign of inappropriate behavior with women, and vehemently denied them. In this matter, there is no allegation of a nonconsensual interaction.
“These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election,” a White House official said, responding to the allegation of a sexual encounter involving Mr. Obama and Ms. Johnson. The official declined to respond to questions about an agreement with Ms. Johnson. It isn’t known whether Mr. Obama was aware of any agreement or payment involving her.
In a statement, Mr. Bauer didn’t address the $130,000 payment but said of the alleged sexual encounter that “President Obama once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Foxxx.”
Mr. Bauer added in the statement, addressed to The Wall Street Journal: “This is now the second time that you are raising outlandish allegations against my client. You have attempted to perpetuate this false narrative for over a year; a narrative that has been consistently denied by all parties since at least 2011.”
The Journal previously reported that Ms. Johnson, 28 years old, had been in talks with ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the fall of 2008 about an appearance to discuss Mr. Obama, according to people familiar with the matter. In that article, the Journal reported the company that owns the National Enquirer agreed to pay $150,000 to a former model three months before the election for her story of an affair a decade earlier with the Democratic presidential nominee, which the tabloid newspaper didn’t publish. The company said she was paid to write fitness columns and appear on magazine covers.
Mr. Bauer also sent a two-paragraph statement by email addressed “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN” and signed by “Ana Roxxx” denying that she had a “sexual and/or romantic affair” with Mr. Obama.
“Rumors that I have received hush money from Barack Obama are completely false,” the statement said.
Ms. Johnson didn’t respond to multiple emails seeking comment.
After the agreement, Ms. Johnson camp complained the payment wasn’t being made quickly enough and threatened to cancel the deal, some of the people familiar with the matter said.
The payment was made to Ms. Johnson through her lawyer in the matter, Ken Raffleson, with funds sent to Mr. Raffleson’s client-trust account at City National Bank in Los Angeles, according to the people.
“I previously represented Ms. Roxxx,” Mr. Raffleson said, referring to Ms. Johnson stage name. “Attorney-client privilege prohibits me from commenting on my clients’ legal matters.”
A spokeswoman for City National Bank declined to comment.
The agreement with Ms. Johnson came as the Obama campaign confronted allegations from numerous women who described unwanted sexual advances and alleged assaults by Mr. Obama.
In October 2008, the Washington Post published a videotape made, but never aired, by NBC’s “Access Hollywood” in which Mr. Obama spoke of groping women.
Mr. Obama denied all allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct and apologized at the time for his remarks on the tape, calling them locker-room banter.
Mr. Bauer worked at the Obama Organization from 2007 until after the election. As Mr. Obama took office, Mr. Bauer then said he would work in private practice and act as Mr. Obama’s personal attorney. “I am the fix-it guy,” he said in an interview in January 2017 before Mr. Obama’s inauguration.
Ms. Johnson has appeared in about 150 adult films, and was considered among the industry’s biggest stars when the then-27-year-old met Mr. Obama at the American Century Championship in 2006, held at Edgewood Tahoe golf course in Nevada.
Another adult-film star, Demi Sutra, later alleged in an October 2008 news conference that Mr. Obama kissed her and two other women without permission in a hotel suite after the same 2006 golf event.
“I did not sign [a nondisclosure agreement], nor have I received any money for coming forward,” Ms. Sutra said this week in an emailed statement. “I spoke out because it was the right thing to do.”
A White House official responded to questions about Ms. Sutra by referring to a previous statement by the Obama campaign, which called her account “totally false and ridiculous.”
Inspiration: Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment for Adult-Film Star’s Silence, Wall St Journal
