The New York Times says that a secret recording made by Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen shows then-candidate Trump discussing the possibility of a payoff for Karen McDougal, the former Playboy playmate who says she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Rudy Giuliani confirmed the conversation took place but says Trump still wasn’t aware of McDougal’s deal with American Media Inc (AMI) for the rights to her life story—long suspected to be covert move to kill a story that could tank Trump’s presidential campaign.
Welcome to Rabbit Hole: Secret Tapes Edition. It’s like Watergate—only seedier.
So what? That President Trump may have had an affair with Playboy playmate Karen McDougal is no great mystery. She gave a lengthy interview to CNN’s Anderson Cooper detailing the relationship, which reportedly began during the same 2006 celebrity golf tournament where he met another alleged mistress, former porn star Stormy Daniels. Both AMI and Trump have always claimed that McDougal’s agreement with the tabloid company was a straight-up agreement for her life story, not an attempt by AMI CEO and Trump pal David Pecker to catch and kill a potentially damaging story about his buddy—and had nothing to do with Trump himself.