Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been criminally charged over a hush money scandal involving a former porn actress, and it appears that another hush money allegation related to a separate sex scandal will also be addressed in the trial.
According to major U.S. media outlets on the 31st (local time), the Manhattan District Attorney's Office summoned and questioned witnesses regarding hush money payments to Playboy model Karen McDougal prior to the grand jury's decision to indict former President Trump.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had extramarital affairs with former porn actress Stormy Daniels (left) and Playboy model Karen McDougal (right), who received hush money just before the 2016 presidential election. [Photo by Yonhap News]
McDougal shares a key similarity with Stormy Daniels, the former porn actress at the center of this case: both had extramarital affairs with Trump around the same time and received large sums of money in exchange for their silence before the 2016 presidential election.
McDougal, who had an affair with Trump for nearly a year starting in 2006, was paid $150,000 and sold her story about the two to the tabloid National Enquirer. The National Enquirer secured exclusive rights to the story about Trump's sex scandal ahead of the election, effectively silencing McDougal by not publishing it.
Shortly after the grand jury was convened, prosecutors called David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer, as a witness in January. They also re-summoned him on the 27th, just before the indictment decision, signaling the possibility that the McDougal case could become a key issue.
However, it is unclear whether this case was included among the criminal charges listed in the indictment against former President Trump. Even if it was not specified as a criminal charge, prosecutors may use the "second hush money" allegation as a valuable weapon during the trial.
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