A former Playboy model is following the lead of adult actress Stormy Daniels and has filed a lawsuit to gain the right to discuss her alleged affair with Donald Trump. Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year, alleges she had a 10-month relationship with Trump and is suing the company that kept her story buried from publication.
The White House has stated that Trump denies the affair ever happened. According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal shortly before the election, American Media Inc., the company that owns The National Enquirer, paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story, then refused to publish it in a tactic known as “catch and kill.” The contract also mandated that McDougal not speak about her story publicly.
According to a statement issued to CNN by a spokesperson for American Media, McDougal “has been free to respond to press inquiries about her relationship with President Trump since 2016,” and she has not been “silenced.”
While the suit from McDougal says the original agreement allows her to respond to “legitimate press inquiries,” it also states that if she were to talk to the press McDougal would be met with “financial ruin.”
