WASHINGTON: The case against former US president Donald Trump is focused on a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels. However, the prosecutor also mentioned another woman.
Background documents claim payment was made on behalf of Trump to “Woman 1,” – whom evidence suggests is Karen McDougal. She is an ex-Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with Trump, like Daniels, the BBC said.
She said it lasted ten months. Trump has denied it ever happened. Here’s what we know about McDougal and her involvement in the case.
Before moving to Michigan as a child, McDougal was born in Gary, Indiana. She began modeling in swimwear competitions in her 20s. She joined Playboy, where she won ‘Playmate of the Year’ in 1998 and was also voted “Playmate of the 90s”, second to Pamela Anderson.
She later worked as a fitness model, making history by being the first woman to grace the cover of Men’s Fitness in 1999. She additionally made brief acting appearances in TV commercials and uncredited cameos in movies like Charlie’s Angels from 2000.
According to McDougal, she met Trump in Los Angeles at the Playboy Mansion, where he was filming an episode of The Apprentice, according to a 2006 article in the New Yorker magazine. Trump was married at the time, “immediately took a fancy to me, began talking to me – telling me how lovely I was, etc.,” she recounted.
According to McDougal, she and Trump dated for ten months, during which time they “at least” five times every month. She characterized her connection with CNN as devoted and mutually beneficial.
McDougal agreed to pay the tabloid newspaper, the National Enquirer, $150,000 (£106,000) to share her tale exclusively in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
She was forbidden from discussing the alleged affair in public by the agreement. Unfortunately, the piece was never released, and McDougal claims she was duped into keeping quiet about the romance.
“Catch and kill” is buying a story to bury it, and the National Enquirer is said to have done this to stifle articles critical of Trump.
In 2021, the United States Federal Election Commission, which is in charge of enforcing finance law pf campaigns, found that the Enquirer’s publisher violated election laws by paying for the rights to McDougal’s story and never publishing it.
It concluded that McDougal’s compensation during the 2016 presidential election constituted an unauthorized campaign contribution. A $187,500 (£132,000) fine was imposed on The National Enquirer.
According to her website, McDougal currently defines herself as a model, columnist, supporter, and spokesmodel.
She describes herself as a supporter of increasing awareness of “breast implant sickness,” claiming that she became ill after getting breast implants. In 2017, she had them taken out.
She publicly apologized to Melania Trump in 2018 for the alleged affair, saying: “I apologize. Not something I would want to do to myself. I know it’s wrong when I look back at where I was back then. I apologize sincerely for that. I am aware that doing so is improper.”
Trump has consistently refuted a relationship with McDougal. The only focus of the indictment against Trump is the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. The district attorney’s statement of facts, which is provided as background to the case, contains information about McDougal. On every charge in the indictment, Trump has pleaded not guilty.
