‘I hope I didn’t miss anything’: Model Karen McDougal breaks her silence hinting at Trump indictment

Playboy model Karen McDougal broke her social media silence following the landmark Trump indictment, joking “I hope I didn’t miss anything” along with photos of her enjoying a ski vacation.

“I’ve been out enjoying God’s country,” the 52-year-old model and actress wrote on Instagram.

The indictment against former President Trump not only included charges of hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, but also two less-followed indirect payments that kept Playboy model Karen McDougal and a doorman quiet about Trump’s alleged sexual rendezvous.

McDougal reportedly had a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006 and Trump’s doorman, Dino Sajudin, claimed to know about a love child Trump had with a former housekeeper.

Both McDougal and Sajudin were paid by the Trump-aligned National Enquirer. The former housekeeper questioned denied ever having an affair with Trump and Sajudin’s ex-wife later called him a “serial liar.”

In 2016, McDougal was awarded $150,000 for the rights to the story of her affair with Trump by American Media Inc., parent company of the National Enquirer. In a practice known as “catch and kill,” the Enquirer bought the rights but never told the story.

Former American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker has admitted to doing this to help the Trump campaign.

That same year, American Media Inc. Sajudin paid $30,000 for rights to the story he had to tell, but included a $1 million penalty in the contract if he told the story to anyone else. Then they enriched the story.

Trump’s lawyers said the former president was not aware of the payment until after the deal was closed. Pecker also testified last week before the grand jury in the Trump case, where he reportedly linked Trump directly to the deal and to a broader plan to suppress negative stories about him during the 2016 election.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has said he arranged for the Enquirer to make the payment and recorded a conversation in which he spoke to Trump about the payment.

Cohen also admitted to talking to the Enquirer about the payout to Sajudin.

At one point, Trump asked Cohen, “What are we going to pay for this?” Fifty one?’ Trump denies ever having an affair.

All told, Tuesday’s charges — falsifying business records in the first degree — carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison under New York law, but even if convicted on all charges, Trump is unlikely to sentenced until then. Each charge is a low misdemeanor punishable by up to four years in prison for each charge.

There was no formal conspiracy charge, but the state of affairs released by prosecutors describes how Trump, along with others, “orchestrated a plan” to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to publicize the publication. of it and to benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects. ‘

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges related to Daniels and McDougal’s payments. He testified that Trump directed him to buy silence from Daniels and work with Pecker to destroy the McDougal story.

McDougal said Trump first tried to pay her in 2006 after their first sexual encounter in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills hotel. She said the relationship continued for about 10 months after that, but she broke up in April 2007 because she felt bad.

The Federal Election Commission found in 2021 that Pecker and American Media Inc. had made an illegal campaign donation through the payment, but refused to prosecute after Pecker’s cooperation in the Cohen case.

When McDougal approached the Enquirer with the story of her affair, Pecker warned Cohen before paying McDougal $150,000 for her story and telling her that they would publish magazine covers and articles about her in exchange for her not talking about the affair with another outlet .

Cohen signed an agreement to pay $125,000 to buy the non-disclosure portion of the agreement, but Pecker later called off the deal, telling Cohen to tear up the agreement.

The FEC imposed American Media Inc. fined $187,500 and deemed the McDougal deal a “prohibited business contribution in kind.”

Pecker stepped down as the publisher’s CEO in 2020.

Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said Sunday in CNN’s State of the Union

The other pivotal case against Trump concerns a $130,000 hush money payment Cohen made to Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 campaign.

Cohen said he made the payment at Trump’s direction and that it was to ensure that Daniels would not go public with her story of a sexual encounter with the married Trump.

The alleged affair took place in 2006, long before Trump entered politics and when he was married to Melania. It was shortly after she gave birth to their son Barron.

Trump denies both the affair and any legal wrongdoing. At issue is the Trump Organization’s later reimbursement of Cohen for the payments, and Bragg’s office is reportedly investigating whether Trump falsified business records to hide the payment.

During a telling interview with Anderson Cooper in 2018, McDougal said she left her first date with Trump “crying in the backseat of a car” because he offered to pay her after they had sex.

“After we were intimate, he tried to pay me, and I didn’t really know how to take that,” she said.

She said she was hurt by the cash offer, which she declined.

“I don’t even know how to describe the expression on my face,” she said. “It must have been so sad.”

Later that year, she said she was also given a New York City apartment as a Christmas present, but lost it after the two split.

McDougal also tearfully recalled feeling guilty when she went to Trump’s apartment in Trump Tower and he showed her Melania Trump’s bedroom.

McDougal thought it was strange that Trump’s wife slept in a separate bedroom.

“I thought they might be in trouble,” she said.

McDougal recalled feeling uncomfortable walking into the apartment of a married man whose wife had just had a baby.

“I couldn’t wait to get out of the apartment, I guess,” she said.

“Doing something, doing something wrong is bad enough, and when you do something wrong, and you’re in the middle of someone else’s house or bed or whatever, that’s just an old stab in your heart, and I could just don’t wait to get out of the apartment.

“I wanted to go back to my hotel room.”

McDougal expressed regret over the affair and said she felt guilty. Nevertheless, despite the guilt, she stayed with Trump for the better part of a year.

“Looking back, I know it’s wrong,” said the 1998 Playmate of the Year.

‘I am really sorry. I know it’s the wrong thing to do.’