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A court document recently revealed that former US President Donald Trump, indicted for falsifying business records to purposefully conceal illegal payments, has been charged with 34 felony counts. The charges against the former president stem from three separate instances where he made three different payments in varying amounts to silence people from revealing damaging information that could potentially harm his odds in the 2016 presidential race.
As per the recently released court documents, one of those payments was allegedly made to Dino Sajudin, a former Trump World Tower doorman. Sajudin, allegedly received $30,000 to withhold information alleging that the former president fathered an illegitimate child with his housekeeper.
The document states that shortly before the 2016 election, Trump, alongside his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, the CEO of American Media and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, schemed to suppress any damaging information against the presidential candidate. To that effect, the trio reportedly launched a “Catch and Kill" campaign wherein Pecker offered to outright purchase the rights to access damaging stories about the then-presidential candidate and destroy them before they could be made public.
Dino Sajudin claimed Trump fathered a child out of wedlock
As part of the “Catch and Kill” campaign Dino Sajudin was paid $30,000 in 2015 after former American Media CEO David Pecker learned that the doorman was trying to sell the story of Trump having a child out of wedlock with a housekeeper, to media outlets. It should be noted that the alleged housekeeper and the former president have denied the allegations.
As per court documents, American Media purchased the rights to the story without investigating the claims. However, as part of the pay-off, Sajudin was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement with American media, preventing him from ever talking about the allegations. The agreement stated that any breach of the contract would have made him liable to pay $1 million in damages. The indictment stated:
“AMI purchased the information from the Doorman without fully investigating his claims, but the AMI CEO directed that the deal take place because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer”
The indictment added that after the media company discovered that the allegations were baseless, they wanted to release the doorman from the NDA. However, due to a direct order from the defendant, they agreed to hold it until after the 2016 election.
“When AMI later concluded that the story was not true, the AMI CEO wanted to release the Doorman from the agreement. However, Lawyer A instructed the AMI CEO not to release the Doorman until after the presidential election, and the AMI CEO complied with that instruction because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.”
As per The News, American media have released Sajudin from the terms of the agreement.
The other two individuals who received hush money payments during the “Catch and Kill” campaign were former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had affairs with the former president.
However, Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges that accuse him of suppressing information in his bid to win the 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile, American Media’s former CEO Pecker, the star witness in the case against Trump, has confessed that the payments were made to help Trump’s presidential campaign.
