How DA could use hush money payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal to bolster Trump case
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News the Manhattan district attorney’s office is also investigating a $150,000 payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, who, like Stormy Daniels, claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump.
The former president has denied having an affair with either woman and has called the investigation a witch hunt.
McDougal was paid for the rights to her story in August 2016 by American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, which did not publish it, a practice known as catch and kill.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, has said he recorded Trump discussing reimbursement to American Media for the payment to McDougal, but the payment was never made.
Trump has not responded to ABC News' request for comment but in a 2018 interview with Fox News, he claimed he wasn't aware of any payment made to AMI to facilitate the alleged hush agreement.