Former Playboy model wins battle to tell her story
WASHINGTON: Former Playboy model Karen Mcdougal has reached a settlement with a news publication that frees her up to speak about her affair with US President Donald Trump years ago, when he was a businessman.
American Media Inc, which publishes National Enquirer and whose owner is a friend of Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, had paid Mcdougal $150,000 in 2016, the year of the presidential elec- tion, for exclusive rights to her story but never ran it.
Mcdougal said in a statement that the settlement “restores to me the rights to my life story and frees me from this contract”.
Mcdougal and porn star Stormy Daniels have both said they had affairs with Trump and that they were paid to keep quiet in the run-up to the elections in November 2016 when Trump was already facing question about his treatment of women.
Both women had sued to be freed from their respective gag agreements. Daniels was paid $130,000 by Cohen, who has claimed Trump did know of it and that the money was his own, for which he was not reimbursed.
The women’s accounts of being paid hush money have become the focus of the FBI investigation into Cohen, whose office, home, hotel suite and security locker were raided recently.
The White House has denied that Trump had an affair with either of the women, and has tended to direct all questions about them to Cohen.