American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, agreed to pay Playboy centerfold Karen Mcdougal $150,000 US for the rights to the story of her alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump and then spiked the story, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The National Enquirer is a well-publicized backer of the Republican presidential nominee. Trump was married to current wife Melania at the time of the alleged consensual relationship which is said to have occurred in 2006.
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The agreement doesn’t mention Trump by name but rather gives the publisher the rights to “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man,” according to the report.
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Quashing stories that way is known in the tabloid world as “catch and kill,” the paper reported.
The company denied buying any damaging stories to Trump’s campaign in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Rather, American Media says the money was for a series of fitness columns from Mcdougal and magazine covers as well as lifetime rights to the story of any relationship she has had with a then-married man.
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Trump and American Media Chairman David J. Pecker have been friends for many years. The former was once the chairman of a company which published “Trump Style,” which was distributed to guests at Trump properties.
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Over the past year, the Enquirer has both endorsed Trump and published negative stories against his rivals.
The most notorious of which may have been a story which linked Ted Cruz’s father with Lee Harvey Oswald.