A magazine owned by the president’s longstanding friend who was accused of buying a story about Trump’s alleged affair with Playmate Karen McDougel, and then killing it, is now using her on their cover.
In a twist to the never ending sagas of the president and his alleged mistresses, woven into questions about how women like McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels were ultimately paid for their ‘silence,’ there is a specific caveat to McDougal’s story.
In her arrangements with American Media Inc, owned by Trump cronie David Pecker, she was promised at least two cover appearances when her deal was made with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen leading up to the November 2016 election.
She will be placed on the cover of AMI’s Men’s Journal in September, in what some at the company believe is the publisher’s attempt to stay out of the cross hairs of an investigation into McDougal’s ‘catch and kill’ buyout by the publisher.
The buyout brings into question how her payment was made, and if it violated campaign finance laws by the Trump Campaign.
The publisher is accused of buying her salacious tale of a year-long sexual liaison with Trump, in exchange for various other media coverage that would have behooved the former Playmate.
Former Playmate Karen McDougal will be featured on American Media Inc’s September cover of Men’s Journal, in what some company employees believe is an attempt to show prosecutors that the company’s ‘catch and kill’ of her story of an alleged liaison equated a legitimate contract, in which the company promised her two cover stories
Donald Trump (pictured with former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who negotiated the deal with McDougal) is close friends with American Media Inc’s CEO David Pecker (right)
In her contract, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, which she sought to be released from earlier this tear, she had given the company lifetime rights to her story of a sexual relationship with an unidentified ‘then-married man.’
In the April lawsuit, AMI agreed to give McDougal back the rights to her story as part of a settlement, but insisted that the Men’s Journal cover go forward as planned.
By the time of her lawsuit, Ms. McDougal had no interest in being on the cover of Men’s Journal, said a person familiar with the matter. American Media agreed to give Ms. McDougal back the rights to her story as part of an April legal settlement, but the company insisted that the Men’s Journal cover go forward as planned.
The contract also guaranteed both parties two magazine covers featuring McDougal and gave the company the option of using her as a fitness columnist.
AMI had used her on a cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers in 2017, which according to a company spokesperson, was the magazine’s best-selling issue of that year.
Current and former employees of publisher AMI tell the WSJ they believe McDougal’s planned appearance on the cover of September’s issue of Men’s Journal is intended to protect the company from a federal criminal investigation in New York.
According to sources familiar with the matter, prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether American Media improperly coordinated with Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, to buy McDougal’s story of the alleged affair and then not publish her account.
Karen McDougal won a case to have her deal with AMI tossed in April, but the company insisted on keeping her on a cover for it’s Men’s Journal September issue
For his part, AMI’s CEO, Pecker, has been vocal about his friendship with the president.
Meanwhile an American Media spokesman said Tuesday the planned McDougal cover in Men’s Journal was strictly a business decision, due to the contractual commitment in place with McDougal adding: ‘Her first cover in 2017 sold well.’
McDougal was paid $150,000, essentially for her silence on any alleged year-long affair with the president starting in 2006, and prosecutors are looking at if the payment violated any campaign finance laws.
In the unusual choice for a cover subject for Men’s Journal, which features predominantly male subjects, and whatever accompanying being completed without any cooperation by McDougal herself, nor is she participating in any photo shoot for the piece.
Some current and former employees believe that in placing McDougal, awkwardly on the cover of Men’s Journal, is meant to bolster the company’s argument that it entered into an appropriate contract with the former Playmate and that they are placing her on the cover now for editorial reasons and not to benefit Trump’s campaign.