A government watchdog group on Tuesday filed complaints with the feds over a President Trump pal’s payment of $150,000 in hush money to cover up an affair Trump allegedly had with a Playboy Playmate.
Common Cause charges in complaints to the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission that the payment was “an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the 2016 Trump campaign.”
Multiple media reports have said that American Media Inc. — whose CEO, David Pecker, is a close friend of the president — paid $150,000 to ex-Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal in August 2016 to keep her quiet.
The payment, the group charges, “was coordinated with Donald Trump’s attorney and agent Michael Cohen,” making it an illegal contribution that was never reported to the feds, as required by campaign finance laws.
The group filed a similar complaint against Cohen over his admitted $130,000 payoff to porn princess Stormy Daniels, who also allegedly had an affair with Trump in 2006.
“Transparency and the rule of law are vital to the health of our democracy and that is precisely why this case, like the Stormy Daniels hush money case, must be fully investigated. Americans have a right to know who is spending money to influence the election of the president,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.
“These payoffs to quash embarrassing stories about Trump, in apparent violation of campaign finance law, appear to be part of a disturbing pattern by Trump’s attorneys and others in the campaign and in the administration.”