Tabloid paid source for story on Trump

Doorman’s allegations of child out of wedlock denied as completely false

The owner of the National Enquirer paid $30,000 in late 2015 to a onetime Trump Tower doorman who was offering an embarrassing story about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, but the tabloid never published it, according to a person familiar with the payment.

A spokesman for the Trump Organization on Thursday denied the story that doorman Dino Sajudin told the tabloid: that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock in the late 1980s and that top executives of the Trump Organization, including longtime security chief Matt Calamari, knew about it.

“Mr. Sajudin’s claims are completely false,” the Trump Organization said in a statement.

A spokesman added Calamari never made such a statement and accused Sajudin of having a history of peddling false stories.

In an interview Thursday with the Washington Post, Sajudin dismissed claims that he had made anything up. “You know I took a polygraph test,” he said, adding that he believes his story was buried as part of a larger strategy by the tabloid to quash negative articles about Trump.

“It seems like the writing is on the wall about that, it’s pretty clear,” Sajudin said.

He said the story “had to come out,” and he referred further questions to his attorney.

Sajudin’s contract with American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, was first reported by the New Yorker and the Associated Press.

The news about the payment he received comes as federal investigators in New York are examining efforts by Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to tamp down negative stories about the real estate mogul as he ran for president.

One focus of the inquiry is Cohen’s relationship with David Pecker, AMI’s chief executive and chairman, according to people familiar with the investigators’ work. Pecker and Cohen are longtime friends who strategized throughout the campaign about how to assist Trump’s bid and counter salacious rumors that might surface about him, according to two people with knowledge of their relationship.

An FBI raid executed Monday on Cohen’s office and residences sought all of the lawyer’s records of communications with AMI, Pecker and National Enquirer executive Dylan Howard regarding two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump while he was married, according to three people familiar with the probe.

One woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, reportedly received $150,000 from AMI in 2016 for her story alleging a 10-month affair with Trump. The Enquirer did not publish the story.

In a statement about the Sajudin payment, AMI denied “that Donald Trump or Michael Cohen had anything to do with its decision not to pursue a story about a ‘love child’ that it determined was not credible.”

“The suggestion that David Pecker has ever used company funds to ‘shut down’ this or any investigation is not true,” the company said. “In addition, AMI and Mr. Pecker emphatically deny any suggestion that there might have been any ‘partnership’ created which might influence any business ties in regard to AMI. These claims are reckless, unsubstantiated, and false.”

It is unclear whether federal investigators are scrutinizing the AMI payment to Sajudin.