Tuesday, June 30, 2026

National Enquirer Hit with $187K Fine from Federal Election Commission over Buying and Killing Story from Trump Mistress

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Remember when the National Enquirer was doing Donald Trump’s dirty work?

Well, they’ve just been fined $187,000 by the Federal Election Commission for buying and killing a tell all by former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She sold them her story about sleeping with Trump for $150,000. They bought it, and killed it.

The FEC considers that a campaign donation, besides being unethical.

McDougal she that she had a 10-month fling with Donald Trump before he was President, saying they were together “many dozens of times.”

“I can tell you we saw each other a minimum five times a month, up to bigger numbers per month,” the former Playboy model told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. She said they were together “many dozens of times,” and when asked by Cooper if they were intimate, she responded in the affirmative.

Where was Melania? I don’t care, do you? This was in addition to Stormy Daniels and who knows who else?

Here is the FEC decision.

Just PS: American Media said they were selling the Enquirer to James Cohen’s Hudson News for $1 million. This sale has NEVER happened. AMI, now known as A360, still owns and publishes the Enquirer. Chatham Assets, which said they wanted to get rid of the Enquirer after this McDougal mess, still has it.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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