As we speak, scandal-ridden ex-President Donald J. Trump is on trial in Manhattan, where he stands charged with a staggering 34 felony counts related to 6-figure hush money payments he made to his alleged sexual affair partners in an effort to buy their silence during the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Frankly, the most notable name in this case is that of adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
In 2018, Daniels went public with her claims of a one-night sexual affair with the man who was then a New York real estate “mogul” and washed-up reality TV “star” when she met him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006 and was promptly invited to his hotel room.
However, Stormy Daniels isn’t the only one to participate in an extramarital affair with the guy who would go on to become the President of the United States.
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate, also went public with her side of the story concerning her affair with Donald J. Trump that, in my opinion, was far worse than his one-night stand with a porn star — and, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Donald’s wife Melania feels the same.
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McDougal has publicly claimed that she not only had a sexual affair with Trump, but the two engaged in a serious romantic relationship that lasted nearly a year. McDougal was also allegedly “paid off” by Trump via former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who is said to have purchased her story of the Trump love affair for $150,000 with the sole purpose of burying the story.
With Donald’s Manhattan trial fully underway now, CNN has launched a “Trump Hush Money Trial” coverage series, where they stay on top of updates and goings-on inside and out of the courtroom.
In one of their recent segments, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who was once responsible for covering the now-former First Lady Melania Trump during her tenure in the White House, discussed the bombshell testimony from David Pecker with the network’s chief legal correspondent Paula Reid.
Collins explained that Pecker’s bombshell testimony regarding McDougal — in which the former tabloid publisher admitted covering up the affair story “in concert” with the Trump Campaign — would be especially sensitive to the former president, as the McDougal affair was the one that hurt his wife Melania the deepest.
Mediaite reported the transcript of the discussion between Collins and Reid:
KAITLAN COLLINS: And obviously this is going to be a really sensitive moment in this trial, which is how personal this will be for Donald Trump.
Karen McDougal is one of the most personal parts of this because she alleged not only that they had an affair, she said they had a relationship.
And this was something that when, I know from covering the White House and covering Melania Trump, it was deeply upsetting for the first, the former first lady, Melania Trump, and it created a rift in the relationship between her and Donald Trump.
Everyone talks about Stormy Daniels and yes, that certainly was there as well. But Karen McDougal I, we were told at the time, agitated Melania Trump more so, actually, than Stormy Daniels had.
PAULA REID: And you can understand that because the Stormy Daniels relationship and she says publicly in her new documentary, it appeared to be quite transactional. There were some sexual encounters, but she kept up the relationship, talking to him because she wanted to be on The Apprentice.
And once it’s clear that wasn’t going to happen, she sort of dropped him.
The Karen McDougal — as she tells the story, it was, you know, from her viewpoint, a romantic relationship that went on for some time, traveling together. It was much more of an intimate relationship, again, according to her account of events.
So it’s completely understanding why that would be frustrating and annoying to Melania and something that Trump would not want out in the public.
KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah. And David Pecker says that Howard, who as a reminder, was the editor in chief of the National Enquirer, called him in June 2016, a notable month and year, obviously, about a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.
As I noted, it was a longer relationship, not just simply a one time affair. Jake, obviously, this is a critical moment here in this, because this is one of the key stories that they can zoom in on that. David Pecker has an immense amount of knowledge about. I mean, they sent emissaries to go and meet directly with Karen McDougal about this story.
JAKE TAPPER: Right. So this is a catch and kill story that, there seems to be more grounds to believe it to be true than the doorman’s story.
You can find ongoing, live updates from CNN on Donald Trump’s Hush Money Trial here.
Featured image via U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Darrell Hamm
