She sold her story for $150,000 in August 2016 but it was never published by the National Enquirer, a practice known as “catch and kill” to prevent a potentially damaging story from becoming public. David Pecker, the chairman of parent company American Media Inc (AMI), is Trump’s friend.

Giuliani said the discussion of payment did not mean McDougal’s claim of an affair was true and characterised it as an attempt to resolve false allegations that were “personally damaging” to Trump.

via Trump says Cohen taping him ‘totally unheard of and perhaps illegal’