--- title: Donald Trump Kept Affair With Karen McDougal Quiet: Report description: Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, has alleged that she had a nine-month affair with President Donald Trump a decade ago. canonical: https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-16T16:53:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:04.493Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Donald Trump Reportedly Kept an Affair With a Playboy Model Quiet og:description: "No paper trails for him." og:url: https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfef3c7c440d8ca99/698927f3bc6cfc28bb3e50e2/gettyimages-918647250.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Addresses The Nation After Yesterday's School Shooting In Florida That Killed 17 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Donald Trump Reportedly Kept an Affair With a Playboy Model Quiet twitter:description: "No paper trails for him." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfef3c7c440d8ca99/698927f3bc6cfc28bb3e50e2/gettyimages-918647250.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Donald Trump Reportedly Kept an Affair With a Playboy Model Quiet > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump's Lawyer Admits Porn Star Stormy Daniels Was Paid, Says $130,000 Came Out of His Own Pocket [Watch (HLS stream): Trump's Lawyer Admits Porn Star Stormy Daniels Was Paid, Says $130,000 Came Out of His Own Pocket](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3Op7FHsx.m3u8) (0:54)  _Published 2018-02-14. The president’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, confirmed there was a payment made to the porn star in 2016_ by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Feb 16, 2018 4:53 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks about the shooting yesterday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at the White House on February 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks about the shooting yesterday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at the White House on February 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Feb 16, 2018 4:53 PM UTC A former _Playboy_ model kept handwritten notes about an alleged nine-month affair with President Donald Trump that began in 2006 which outline a series of subterfuges used to conceal it, according to the [_New Yorker_](https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal). A story published Friday morning says that the notes show how Trump, who at that point had been married to Melania Trump for about a year and a half, used a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel and reimbursements for airplane tickets to keep an affair with Karen McDougal from becoming public. “No paper trails for him,” McDougal wrote in the notes. Shortly before the 2016 election, the _Wall Street Journal_ [reported](https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-enquirer-shielded-donald-trump-from-playboy-models-affair-allegation-1478309380) that the publisher of the tabloid the _National Enquirer_ had paid McDougal $150,000 for the exclusive rights to the story of McDougal’s affair with the future presidential candidate shortly after he clinched the GOP nomination. The tabloid never ran a story. Several of the details from the notes match other allegations made against Trump. In an interview with _In Touch Weekly_, porn star Stormy Daniels alleged that she also met Trump at a bungalow in the Beverly Hills Hotel. [Summer Zervos](http://time.com/5058646/donald-trump-accusers/), a former Apprentice contestant who is [suing Trump for defamation](http://time.com/5066106/donald-trump-civil-lawsuit-state-court-summer-zervos/), also alleged that he came on to her inappropriately at a bungalow in the same hotel. The women all describe being escorted to the bungalow by a Trump bodyguard, identified by two of them as future Director of Oval Office Operations Keith Schiller; with Trump interested in eating in the room and watching TV. McDougal, who told the _New Yorker_ in broad terms that she now regrets her past behavior, is still barred by the _Enquirer_ contract from talking about any relationships she may have had with married men. “At this point I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about,” she told the _New Yorker_. “I’m afraid to even mention his name.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Well, for the first time since the news of Donald Trump's alleged affair with Stormy Daniels, the president's longtime lawyer has confirmed there was a payment made to the porn star. Calling it a private transaction, Lawyer Michael D. Cohen told the New York Times on Tuesday. That be paid $ 130, 000 out of his own pocket to Daniels in 2016. This comes after a Wall Street Journal report from January which suggested that a lawyer from Trump arranged a payment to Daniels a month before the 2016 election so that she'd keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter. The encounter in question allegedly happened less than four months after Trump's wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. Cohen and the White House have denied the allegation of an affair. Cohen worked as counsel to the Trump organization for more than a decade. In a statement he clarifies that he has not been reimbursed by Trump for this payment directly or indirectly [ MUSIC ] And the payment to Daniels was, quote, not a campaign contribution or expenditure by anyone. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/"},"headline":"How Donald Trump Reportedly Kept an Affair With a Playboy Model Quiet","datePublished":"2018-02-16T16:53:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:04.493Z","description":"Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, has alleged that she had a nine-month affair with President Donald Trump a decade ago.","url":"https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime","stormy daniels"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfef3c7c440d8ca99/698927f3bc6cfc28bb3e50e2/gettyimages-918647250.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfef3c7c440d8ca99/698927f3bc6cfc28bb3e50e2/gettyimages-918647250.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Addresses The Nation After Yesterday's School Shooting In Florida That Killed 17","caption":"President Trump Addresses The Nation After Yesterday's School Shooting In Florida That Killed 17","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5162564/trump-karen-mcdougal-new-yorker/","name":"How Donald Trump Reportedly Kept an Affair With a Playboy Model Quiet"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump's Lawyer Admits Porn Star Stormy Daniels Was Paid, Says $130,000 Came Out of His Own Pocket","description":"The president’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. 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