Ex-Trump doorman says now he can talk about president’s alleged love child
CNN publishes contract between Dino Sajudin and AMI media company, which bought rights to his story in exchange for exclusivity despite never publishing
The attorney for a former doorman at Trump World Tower said Friday that his client is now able to talk about a contract he signed with American Media Inc., which previously prevented him from disclosing details of an alleged affair between US President Donald Trump and an ex-housekeeper which resulted in the birth of a child.
CNN published a copy of the contract between Dino Sajudin and AMI, which appears to have been signed on November 15, 2015.
The contract states that AMI holds the exclusive rights to the story, without providing any details other than “source shall provide AMI with information regarding Donald Trump’s illegitimate child.”
According to Sajudin’s attorney, Marc Held, his client was “recently” released from the contract after discussions with AMI.
CNN said AMI did not respond to questions asking for confirmation that Sajudin had been released from the contract, and Held said he could not provide further details as his client had signed a second agreement with AMI when he was released from the original deal.
AMI reportedly originally made a $30,000 payment to Sajudin, requiring the doorman to sign a contract that effectively prevented him from going public. AMI said it paid the doorman not for his silence, but for exclusive rights to the story, which AMI never published because, it said, the story could not be authenticated.
According to CNN, the contract states that the sum of money was only to be paid upon publication of the story.
Upon payment, the contract reportedly states, the “exclusivity period” of the story between Sajudin and AMI would be “extended in perpetuity and shall not expire.”
The contract subjected Sajudin to a $1 million penalty if he disclosed either the rumor or the terms of the deal to anyone.
“Mr. Sajudin hopes the truth will come out in the very near future,” attorney Marc Held told CNN.
The existence of the contract was first reported by the New Yorker in April.
“Today I awoke to learn that a confidential agreement that I had with AMI (The National Enquirer) with regard to a story about President Trump was leaked to the press,” Sajudin told CNN at the time.
“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.”
The woman at the center of the rumor about Trump denied emphatically to the AP last August that she’d ever had an affair with Trump, saying she had no idea the National Enquirer had paid Sajudin and pursued his tip.
The allegation that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock has not been confirmed by any news organizations that have investigated the story.
Asked about the payment last summer, Dylan Howard, the Enquirer’s top editor and an AMI executive, said he made the payment to secure the former Trump doorman’s exclusive cooperation because the tip, if true, would have sold “hundreds of thousands” of magazines. Ultimately, he said the information “lacked any credibility,” so he killed the story on those merits.
On Thursday it was reported that prosecutors had granted immunity to Enquirer chief executive David Pecker and Dylan Howard for testimony about Trump’s involvement in payoffs to silence women about his liaisons.
Michael Cohen, the longtime Trump fixer who last week pleaded guilty to violation of campaign financing laws by paying sums of money to women who had affairs with Trump, had previously told the AP that he had discussed Sajudin’s story with the magazine when the tabloid was working on it. He said he was acting as a Trump spokesman when he did so and denied knowing anything beforehand about the Enquirer payment to the ex-doorman.
Cohen is thought to have made payments to the Enquirer to quash certain stories that could hurt Trump’s electoral chances.
