NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former Playboy model who said she had an affair with President Donald Trump filed suit in California on Tuesday seeking release from a legal agreement requiring her to stay silent, becoming the second woman this month to contest arrangements not to disclose alleged extramarital relationships with Trump.
Karen McDougal filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against American Media Inc, publisher of the National Enquirer, which paid her $150,000 in 2016 to keep quiet.
In the lawsuit, McDougal claimed she and Trump engaged in a 10-month extramarital “romantic relationship” in 2006 and 2007, a time period that overlaps with his alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s wife Melania Trump gave birth to the president’s youngest son Barron in 2006.
McDougal said her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, secretly negotiated with Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, on the AMI deal. Cohen has acknowledged arranging to pay Daniels for her silence during the 2016 presidential campaign.
McDougal is asking the court to declare the agreement null and void, saying she was tricked into signing it, that it was intended to illegally influence the 2016 election and because it violates public policy against using threats of legal action to get someone to stay silent on issues of public concern.
