A
former Playboy model who allegedly had a 9-month affair with President
Donald Trump is suing the company that kept her original account from
publication.
Karen McDougal is suing to be released from an agreement mandating her silence.
McDougal
is the latest woman to take legal action over an agreement restricting
her from speaking out about an alleged relationship with the President
prior to his time in government. The White House has said Trump denies
the affair.
The New York Times first reported the lawsuit earlier Tuesday.
Shortly
before the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal published a
story saying American Media Inc., the company that owns The National
Enquirer, paid $150,000 to McDougal, but did not run her story in a
tabloid maneuver known as "catch and kill." The contract, according to
the Journal, did not require the Enquirer to run the story and required
McDougal's silence.
The
New Yorker published an article last month that referenced an eight-page
document McDougal wrote about the alleged affair, which a friend
provided to the magazine and McDougal confirmed.
Adult
film actress Stormy Daniels has taken Trump and his personal attorney,
Michael Cohen, to court in an attempt to end a nondisclosure agreement
that is alleged to require her to keep silent about an affair she had
with Trump over a decade ago. Cohen and the White House have denied the
affair.
Cohen
admitted last month to facilitating a payment to Daniels, whose legal
name is Stephanie Clifford, and lawyers for both him and Trump have
claimed Clifford has violated the nondisclosure agreement and could owe a
monetary penalty of more than $20 million.
The
Times report said McDougal's suit claims Cohen was "secretly involved"
in her talks with American Media Inc., and outlines a number of
similarities between the two. Both alleged affairs started in 2006, and
both women originally shared the same attorney, Keith Davidson of Los
Angeles.
In
response to the original Journal story about the Enquirer and McDougal,
American Media Inc. denied paying to kill damaging stories about Trump.
The
news of McDougal's suit came as New York judge allowed a defamation case
brought by Summer Zervos, who has accused Trump of sexual assault, to
move forward by denying a defense motion to dismiss the case.
CNN
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