Trump Mistress Sues to Be Released from NDA; No, A Different Trump Mistress

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 20, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 20, 2018 |

Former Playboy Playmate, Karen McDougal, is now suing to be released from her non-disclosure agreement so that she may publicly speak about her affair with Donald Trump. This NDA, however, is not between Trump and McDougal but between McDougal and The National Enquirer, with whom McDougal sold her story for $150,000. The Enquirer, published by a friend of Donald Trump’s, bought the story ahead of Trump’s Republican nomination so that they could sit on it in a practice known as “catch and kill.”

McDougal is also claiming that Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in the negotiations, a claim that A.M.I., the company behind The National Enquirer, does not deny. McDougal also claims she was misled about the term and is suing to avoid arbitration on the matter. She claims that since fraud was involved, she should be able to sue in court.

The thing about NDAs is that they that are notoriously difficult to enforce. In fact, Trump — had he attempted to do so — probably would have lost if he had attempted to enforce his NDA with Stephen Bannon for comments he made in the Michael Wolff book. Trump allegedly also made all senior officials sign an NDA when they were hired, although those are almost certainly unenforceable.

The case is different with private citizens like Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, however, especially if the NDA was appropriately narrowly tailored to specific instances. It’s less clear here where fraud is alleged, or in Daniels’ case where Trump didn’t sign the agreement. Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, meanwhile, is suing Stormy Daniels for $20 million, or $1 million for every time she ran afoul of the NDA.

In related news, a lie detector test has revealed that Stormy Daniels was being honest about her affair, and a former The Apprentice contestant has been given the go-ahead by a court to sue Trump for defamation.

A TV game show host (Trump) married to a model (Melania) has an affair with a porn star (Stormy Daniels), hires a movie producer (Mnuchin) and a reality show star (Omarosa) while his son has an affair with a singer (Aubrey O'Day). But Democrats are the ones with Hollywood values. https://t.co/SGh44yDhhI

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 20, 2018

via The NYTimes