Reports indicate that the Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s possible involvement in a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels has heard evidence regarding a separate financial transaction with another woman who claims to have had an affair with the former president.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has given the grand jury evidence about Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump starting in 2006.
As the Journal first reported in 2016, the parent company of the National Enquirer, which backed Trump’s first run for president, agreed to pay McDougal $150,000 for her story about the alleged affair. But in the end, the tabloid did not print McDougal’s story, putting an end to the story in a way that is known in the business as “catch and kill.”
The way Daniels’ story about her alleged sexual encounters with Trump starting in 2006 was handled is similar in important ways. Michael Cohen, who used to be Trump’s lawyer, gave Daniels $130,000 in 2016 for her story, but that deal wasn’t made public until 2018.
Cohen says that Trump paid him back for the payment, but the former president denies wrongdoing in the hush money scheme and has denied having affairs with Daniels or McDougal.
The fact that the grand jury is hearing evidence about the McDougal payment makes it more likely that Trump will face more charges over the matter, or that prosecutors will use the transaction to show that the former president used hush money schemes in the past.
This month, the grand jury was supposed to announce whether or not Trump would be indicted, but that hasn’t happened yet. According to reports, the jury will talk about other things next week before leaving for a two-week break.
