Karen McDougal Trump Affair Allegations

Overview

Karen McDougal Trump Affair Allegations refers to allegations made by former Playboy model Karen McDougal that she carried on an affair with Donald Trump between 2006 and 2007 and that Trump had an extensive system for keeping his affairs secret.

Background

On February 16th, 2018, Ronan Farrow published in The New Yorker^[1] an article in which he published an eight-page letter from former Playboy model Karen McDougal alleging an affair with Donald Trump that took place for nine months between 2006 and 2007, two years after his marriage to Melania Trump and months after the birth of Barron Trump. The letter was provided to The New Yorker by a friend of McDougal's, and McDougal confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

Developments

The story echoes a story first reported in The Wall Street Journal^[2] that had circulated prior to the 2016 United States Presidential Election that The National Enquirer had paid McDougal for her story but never ran it because the CEO of Enquirer parent company American Media Inc., David Pecker, is a close friend of Trump. McDougal had declined to comment about the affair for fear of violating a life-story agreement she had with A.M.I. The White House responded to the story by claiming it was Fake News. Among the more eye-catching comments from the account were stories in which Trump called McDougal's mother an "old hag," and that Trump remarked a friend of McDougal's liked “the big black dick.” After the story was published, it was picked up by several outlets including CNN,^[3] NBC News,^[4] and The New York Times.^[5]

Michael Cohen Tapes

On July 20th, 2018, the New York Times reported that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen had audio tapes of Trump discussing payment to McDougal to keep her silence from 2016.^[6] The tapes were seized as part of the April 9th, 2018 Raid on Michael Cohen's Apartment. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, stated that the payments were discussed but not ultimately made. The New York Times quotes Giuliani thusly:

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Mr. Giuliani said, adding that Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Cohen that if he were to make a payment related to the woman, write a check, rather than sending cash, so it could be properly documented.
“In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence,” Mr. Giuliani said.

According to CNN reporter Allie Malloy, Trump responded to the news by saying "I can't believe Michael would do this" (shown below, left). User @gilbertjasono joked that Cohen kept the filed in a folder labeled "Trump-
Cohen Crime Recordings, gaining over 180 retweets and 890 likes in two hours (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References