Complaint alleges Trump campaign broke campaign finance laws with \'catch and kill\' payment over adultery story | News

Free Speech For People has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission demanding “an immediate investigation” into a payment of $150,000 from American Media Inc. to Karen McDougal and whether or not that payment was an unreported in-kind contribution to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign committee.

The group says the payment could be an unreported expenditure by the campaign committee because the money was paid to McDougal for the purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential general election.

American Media Inc., the company that owns the National Enquirer, paid $150,000 for the rights to a story of Karen McDougal and her affair with Donald J. Trump in 2006-07.

McDougal’s earlier efforts to sell her story to the Enquirer had failed, but AMI began serious negotiations after Trump clinched the nomination.

The deal was reached in August 2016. But after purchasing the rights to the story, the Enquirer, opted not to publish the story.

“The timing of the deal and the AMI CEO’s close relationship with Trump, suggest that the decision not to publish might not have been a journalistic decision,” said Shanna Cleveland, senior counsel for Free Speech For People and the author of the complaint.

Cleveland added, “The payment may have been an effort to conceal a politically embarrassing fact, and influence the 2016 general election. If that’s the case, the payment is a direct violation of the Federal Elections Campaign Act.”

Read the group's complaint here.