Ex-Playboy model settles lawsuit over Trump affair
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Playboy model who said she had a 10-month affair with US President Donald Trump settled her lawsuit on Wednesday with a supermarket tabloid over an agreement that prohibited her from discussing the relationship publicly.
Karen McDougal’s settlement with the company that owns the National Enquirer “restores to me the rights to my life story and frees me from this contract that I was misled into signing nearly two years ago,” she said in a statement Wednesday.
In August 2016, the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship, but the story never ran.
Last month, McDougal filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles asking to invalidate the contract, which she said she was misled into signing.
The suit alleged that the company didn’t publish the story because AMI’s owner, David Pecker, is “close personal friends” with Trump.
It also charged that Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, had inappropriately intervened and was secretly involved in discussions with AMI executives about the agreement.
Federal agents raided Cohen’s office and residence last week seeking any information on payments made in 2016 to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, according to people familiar with the investigation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.