Settlement frees McDougal to talk about alleged affair
LOS ANGELES — A former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald Trump has settled her lawsuit with a supermarket tabloid over an agreement that prohibited her from discussing the relationship.
Karen McDougal said the settlement Wednesday with the National Enquirer’s parent company “restores to me the rights to my life story.”
In August 2016, American Media Inc. paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship. But the story never ran.
The lawsuit alleged Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in her discussions with AMI. The White House has said Trump denies the affair.
Under the agreement, McDougal can keep the $150,000 she was paid. AMI is entitled to 10 percent of any profit McDougal makes from reselling the rights to her story within the next year, up to a maximum of $75,000, according to a copy of the settlement terms.
In a statement, McDougal said she was “relieved to be able to tell the truth about my story when asked.”
McDougal told CNN last month that she and Trump had a 10-month relationship in 2006 and 2007, during which they met dozens of times at multiple Trump properties — including the apartment he shared with his wife, Melania. Their son Barron was an infant at the time.
The settlement ends one of two legal battles involving women who say they were paid to stay silent about accounts that would have embarrassed Trump in the final stretch of the campaign.
In the other matter involving a woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump, the president Wednesday accused porn actress Stormy Daniels of a “con job” for releasing a sketch of a man she claims threatened her to remain silent about the alleged, decade-old affair.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, appeared on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday and released a sketch of a man who she said approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, shortly after she had sought to sell a tabloid magazine her story about Trump.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
The tweet was the first from Trump that explicitly referred to Daniels’ allegations since The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Cohen had arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen has acknowledged making the payment from his own funds.
In the nondisclosure agreement, Daniels agreed to remain silent about Trump and a brief affair she says she had with him in 2006 when they met at a Lake Tahoe celebrity golf tournament in California.
Taking questions from reporters on Air Force One recently, Trump denied having an affair with Daniels and said he did not know about Cohen’s payment to her.
The drawing depicted a man whom Daniels described as being in his 30s or 40s with sharp cheekbones and wavy hair. She said she was with her infant daughter when he approached her in a parking lot and warned her to leave Trump alone.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, took to Twitter shortly after Trump’s tweet Wednesday, suggesting the president has become “unhinged” over Daniels, who is suing Trump to get out of the nondisclosure agreement.
“In my experience, there is nothing better in litigation than having a completely unhinged, undisciplined opponent who is prone to shooting himself in the foot,” Avenatti wrote. “Always leads to BIGLY problems ... like new claims (i.e. defamation). LOL.”