Dive Into The Story Of the Second Woman Who Received Hush Money For Alleged Trump Affair

 Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial stems from a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election—but jurors will also hear testimony about, and likely hear from, model Karen McDougal, who was also paid before the 2016 election to cover up allegations she and Trump had an affair.

 

 McDougal is a model and former Playboy Bunny, who has also appeared as an actress and was chosen as the 1998 Playmate of the Year.

She alleges having a sexual relationship with Trump for approximately 10 months between 2006 and 2007, telling CNN in 2018 they were together “many dozens of times” and “saw each other a minimum five times a month, up to bigger numbers per month.”

Trump was married at the time to current wife Melania Trump, but McDougal told CNN that beyond that, “I didn’t know he was intimate with other ladies;” she also told The New Yorker that she would pay for her own travel out to see Trump but he would reimburse her, in order to keep the payments more hidden.

McDougal, a self-described Republican, ended the relationship with Trump because of her “feelings of guilt” and several comments Trump made that “McDougal found disrespectful,” The New Yorker reports based on conversations with McDougal’s friends, including Trump referring to McDougal’s mother as an “old hag.”

McDougal ultimately signed an agreement with American Media (AMI) in August 2016 that gave the publication the rights to the story of her alleged affair with Trump—done as part of an agreement between AMI and the Trump campaign to “catch and kill” negative stories about him—in exchange for $150,000, as well as a regular column on wellness in their publications and putting McDougal on two magazine covers.

According to prosecutors, Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen was initially supposed to reimburse AMI for its payment to McDougal on Trump’s behalf, but AMI ultimately called off the deal at the last minute.

Trump has denied McDougal’s allegations that the two had an affair. He has also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him at trial, and attorney Todd Blanche said in opening arguments Monday there was nothing unlawful about any non-disclosure or other agreements that women signed in connection with Trump.

McDougal’s $150,000 payment is not part of the indictment against Trump, who’s only been charged in connection with reimbursement checks to pay back a separate hush money payment that Cohen made to Daniels. The scheme to “catch and kill” McDougal’s affair allegations is slated to come up during the trial, however—illustrating Trump’s broader strategy to silence negative stories before the election—with prosecutor Matthew Colangelo mentioning the model in his opening arguments Monday and telling the jury they would hear a recorded conversation between Cohen and Trump about the payment. “The evidence will show [Trump]

desperately did not want the information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was concerned about the effect on the election,” Colangelo said Monday, as quoted by NPR. Former AMI CEO David Pecker is expected to be asked about McDougal when he retakes the stand on Tuesday, and McDougal herself could be called as a witness at the trial.

The payment to McDougal is one of three hush money schemes prosecutors have mentioned in the case against Trump. The 34 felony charges Trump faces—all for alleged falsification of business records—directly stem from $130,000 that Cohen paid Daniels, who similarly alleges having an affair with Trump in 2006. Unlike the payment to McDougal, which was only handled through AMI, Cohen paid Daniels directly through a shell company, and Trump then reimbursed his then-attorney through a series of payments made throughout 2017. Those payments—which totaled $420,000, adding in extra expenses, a bonus, and money to cover taxes—were made through the Trump Organization, prosecutors allege, and were falsely labeled as being for legal services. Trump has denied wrongdoing and maintained they were personal payments made to his attorney himself, not through his company. The third hush money payment was a $30,000 check AMI paid to a doorman who alleged Trump had a child out of wedlock. AMI continued paying off the doorman even after the story was determined to be false at Cohen’s direction, prosecutors allege. AMI has previously admitted that it made the payment to McDougal, and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations that stemmed from the payments to both McDougal and Daniels.