The court case against Donald Trump is ongoing, but this week, prosecutors mentioned a second woman who has been an alleged victim of the former US president.
Manhattan Criminal Courthouse heard that another payment was allegedly made on Trump’s behalf to another woman — named in proceedings as “Woman 1” — who is suggested to be Karen McDougal.
The case is primarily focused on the alleged payment Trump made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges against him in the current indictment.
But who is Karen McDougal?
Who is Karen McDougal?
Ms McDougal is an ex-Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with Trump.
She arrived on the modelling scene in her 20s when she started appearing in swimwear competitions.
She was scouted during these and soon afterwards joined the American men’s magazine Playboy. In 1998, she was crowned the magazine’s Playmate of the Year.
During the ‘Playmate of the 90s’ competition, she came second to Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.
Ms McDougal also became the first woman to appear on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine in 1999. She also appeared in the 2000 film Charlie’s Angels.
When was the alleged affair?
Trump denies it ever happened. However, Ms McDougal says the affair lasted for around 10 months, during which they saw each other five times a month.
When did they allegedly meet?
Ms McDougal claims she met Trump at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, where he was recording an episode of The Apprentice.
The New Yorker magazine reports how she told how Trump, who was married at the time, "immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me — telling me how beautiful I was, etc".
What happened after the alleged affair?
Trump denies all of this happened but Ms McDougal says that in 2016, in the run-up to the presidential election, she was approached and signed a deal worth $150,000 (£106,000) to tell her story exclusively to what she believed was the tabloid newspaper, the National Enquirer.
The agreement banned her from talking publicly about the alleged affair.
But she says the article was never published. Ms McDougal strongly believes that she was tricked into silence about the relationship by people working for Trump, so she could not cast any cloud over his presidential campaign.
Did the National Enquirer ever say anything about the claim?
Purchasing a story deliberately to then never report it is known as "catch and kill". The National Enquirer reportedly did this on several occasions to suppress negative stories about Trump.
After several claims, in 2021, the US Federal Election Commission, which is in charge of enforcing campaign finance law, found the paper had violated election laws. It said it had paid for the rights to Ms McDougal’s story and never published it, calling it an illegal campaign contribution. The National Enquirer was fined $187,500 (£132,000).
