Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said on Thursday that former President Donald Trump paying an adult film star to keep quiet about an alleged affair the two had was "not immoral."
Trump, the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee, faced trial in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged the payment was meant to prevent her from speaking publicly about her claims of having an affair with the former president. On Thursday, a jury handed down a guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts following the trial.
"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt," Trump said outside the courtroom following the verdict. Trump, who has long denounced the prosecution as a "witch hunt," has said he is innocent of all charges in this case and other criminal and civil cases he is facing.
Speaking Thursday on NewsNation's Dan Abrams Live, Kelly said paying Daniels off "was not wrong."
"How was it wrong?" she asked. "I don't know what kind of weird marriage these two have [Donald and Melania Trump]...So I don't know what their covenant is in terms of what he's allowed to do on the outside of his marriage."
Abrams responded, "I'm not talking about the sex. I'm talking about the $130,000 to keep [Daniels] quiet to protect his campaign."
"It's not immoral," Kelly said. "There's nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing."
Newsweek has reached out to Kelly's representatives via email for comment.
Kelly later addressed the verdict on her own podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, describing it as a "sad day."
"This is ridiculous. What a sad day. The country has been disgraced. That is what has happened...And now because of 'falsified business records,' we have convicted—as a felon—a former president of the United States," she said.
Kelly and Trump have had a rocky relationship over the years. In 2015, Kelly and the then-presidential hopeful clashed during a Fox News primary debate in which as moderator she pressed him on key issues, including about his comments on women.
"Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't use a politician's filter," Kelly said at the time. "However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."
She continued: "Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?"
After the debate, Trump told CNN's Don Lemon that Kelly "had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."
They reunited for the first time since the interview last year, which Kelly described as being "frankly great to see him."
The pair had a "one-on-one" meeting at a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) conference in July.
"When he came into the arena, we met just one-on-one, his team was standing nearby, but he and I got a one-on-one together for the first time in years and it was, frankly great to see him," she said on her podcast at the time. "All that nonsense between us is under the bridge. He could not have been more magnanimous."
She then described how Trump had an alluring "aura" and said "he commands the room."
"It's not just because he's former president now because I knew before that. There's just something about him, it's like an aura that sort of takes over the room. There's only one person you can look at. He could not have been nicer or more generous and had some interesting thoughts about the debates, whether he's going to attend," Kelly added.
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