Updated at 4:55 p.m.
The former Trump World Tower doorman who reportedly accepted $30,000 to stay quiet about rumors President Trump had a child decades ago with a former employee released a statement Thursday appearing to identify the woman as a housekeeper.
“Today I awoke to learn that a confidential agreement that I had with A.M.I. (The National Enquirer) with regard to a story about President Trump was leaked to the press,” Dino Sajudin wrote, per CNN.
“I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child,” he added.
The former TT doorman stands by his story of Trump’s alleged affair. pic.twitter.com/QkY8RBfYnB
— Sonia Moghe (@soniamoghe) April 12, 2018
Sajudin was given the $30,000 by American Media, Inc., the parent company of tabloid the National Enquirer, in 2015 in exchange for signing over the rights, “in perpetuity,” regarding his knowledge about whether Trump had fathered an illegitimate child in the 1980s, according to multiple reports.
National Enquirer journalists spent four weeks trying to authenticate Sajudin’s story, including making Sajudin take a polygraph test, before editors put an end to their investigation, per the Associated Press, the New Yorker, and fellow A.M.I. gossip website Radar.
Dylan Howard, an Enquirer editor and A.M.I. executive, told the AP the Enquirer found Sajudin “lacked any credibility,” despite successfully undergoing the polygraph.
The alleged daughter and her mother declined to comment to the New Yorker. Her father told the news outlet Sajudin’s accusations were “completely false and ridiculous.”
Sajudin’s ex-wife Nikki Benfatto also told the New York Daily News her husband is “a pathological liar,” and is “infamous for making up stories.”
While the White House also turned down the opportunity to provide a statement, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen told the AP he had discussed Sajudin with the Enquirer as the magazine started its probe.
Cohen, however, denied knowing that a payment had been made prior to reaching out to the publication.
Although no journalist has proven Sajudin’s claims, the payment is the second example of A.M.I. “catching and killing” a story that could have potentially damaged Trump’s chances before Election Day.
Sajudin told the AP he was the Enquirer’s paid anonymous source, and threatened to sue if they printed his name. He also refused to say anything more “[i]f there’s no money involved.”
Ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says she had an extramarital affair with Trump from 2006 to 2007, was paid $150,000 by A.M.I. in 2016 for exclusive rights to her story, but an article was never published.
