Ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal sues Fox News over Tucker Carlson segment about alleged Trump affair

Nicholas Wu | USA TODAY

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Former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have an affair with Donald Trump before he became president, filed a lawsuit against Fox News in New York state court on Thursday, alleging the network allowed its host Tucker Carlson to make "demonstrably false" accusations against McDougal.

McDougal's attorney, Eric Bernstein, said Carlson and Fox were "grossly irresponsible and manifested a reckless disregard for truth" in allowing Carlson to say on-air in a December 2018 segment that McDougal extorted Trump for a payment of $150,000 in August 2016.

Carlson had presented what he called "undisputed" facts about two women, McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who had "approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he doesn't give them money."

The host called the situation "like a classic case of extortion."

Instead, Bernstein explained, the payment had come from American Media Inc. (AMI), the owner of the National Enquirer, to suppress a story about her affair with Trump, before the 2016 election.

AMI said in a nonprosecution agreement with federal prosecutors that the payments had been made "in cooperation, consultation, and concert with" a presidential campaign, without naming Trump.

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Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations last year related to the payments to Daniels and McDougal.

Fox told the Associated Press it "will vigorously defend Tucker Carlson against these meritless claims." Lawyers for Fox asked to move the lawsuit to federal court, the AP reported.