Porn star Stormy Daniels’ former attorney Keith Davidson said a $130,000 payout he orchestrated for her silence about an alleged affair with Donald Trump was for “political reasons” related to the 2016 election. Davidson, who also represented Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who reportedly received a Trump payout of her own, dropped the bombshell in an ABC News interview on Monday. If true, the statement may add to evidence already provided by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that the president broke campaign finance laws by failing to report payments related to the election. Davidson told ABC that it wasn’t until the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was heard bragging about sexual assault that a settlement for Daniels became more important for Trump’s representatives. Davidson said the tape, which surfaced in October 2016 ― the month before the election ― was “the motivating factor in this case resolving.”

.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: @KeithMDavidson speaking out to @TomLlamasABC about the hush money deal he brokered for Stormy Daniels, and what moment he thinks forced Donald Trump’s then fixer Michael Cohen to sign the deal just 10 days before the election. https://t.co/C4eIuq1RyNpic.twitter.com/CIVVtvdtgr — Good Morning America (@GMA) March 11, 2019

Trump’s then-fixer Cohen missed an earlier payout deadline for a Daniels settlement, Davidson said, effectively nixing their agreement. However, things changed after the “Access Hollywood” recording emerged. “It defeats the argument that this was done purely for personal reasons,” Davidson said. “It was done for political reasons. The natural conclusion is that after the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, that something like this could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Trump last week tweeted that checks Cohen said were reimbursement for the hush money “was not a campaign contribution” and that “there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me.” That claim directly contradicts Davidson’s account.

It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2019