By Greg Price
Staff Writer
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An unproven rumor about President Donald Trump fathering a love child in the 1980s was sold to American Media Inc. for $30,000 while Trump was on the campaign trail in late 2015, according to several media reports.
The money was paid to a former doorman at Trump World Tower, Dino Sajudin, who agreed to give American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, the story exclusively about Trump having an illegitimate child with another tower employee, the Associated Press and The New Yorker reported Thursday morning.
The agreement with Sajudin was struck on November 30, 2015, less than a year before Trump would claim the White House and well after he had announced his candidacy. The timing of the payment was first reported by Radar Online, which is owned by American Media, on Wednesday.
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If Sajudin had shared his story with anyone else he faced a $1 million penalty.
No report was able to confirm Sajudin's claims and the woman and child have not been named. The AP did reach the woman in question but she denied the rumor emphatically, claiming it was "fake."
American Media opted not to run the story because it, also, could not confirm it after spending a month reporting it out.
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Hefty payments doled out in order to keep stories about Trump's past have dogged the president for months now, and potentially put his personal attorney and friend Michael Cohen in jeopardy.
Cohen's home, hotel room and office were raided Monday by the FBI, which seized documents and other materials. The federal authorities were reportedly looking for information about payments made to adult actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.
Cohen has admitted to paying Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Though Cohen has not said why he made the payment, Daniels has claimed it was hush money to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. As reports surfaced about the funds earlier this year, Clifford has since sued to be released from the non-disclosure agreement she struck, claiming that it was invalid because Trump never signed it.
The president last week denied having knowledge of the payment to Clifford and referred reporters back to Cohen.
McDougal has claimed she had a months-long affair with Trump but that she reached a deal in August 2016 worth $150,000 with American Media for the rights to her story. She, too, had to keep quiet and American Media did not release her story.
American Media has faced a backlash over accusations of obtaining stories about Trump and then killing them off by having the paid-off sources agree not to spread the story at all.
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