In a bit of an extra-marital pickle? Better call Michael Cohen.
A new report by the Wall Street Journal says that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer negotiated yet another non-disclosure deal in late 2017 to the tune of $1.6 million to silence a former Playboy model who said she was impregnated by a top Republican fundraiser.
The payment was made on behalf of Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles-based venture capitalist and deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, which also boasts Cohen as national deputy finance chairman, the WSJ reported.
The agreement prevents the former Playboy model from talking about her relationship with Broidy. In exchange, the woman would receive $1.6 million in the span of two years in quarterly installments, the WSJ said. The first payment was due Dec. 1.
“I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate,” Mr. Broidy said in a statement. “At the end of our relationship, this woman shared with me that she was pregnant. She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period.”
Cohen didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment. Keith Davidson, a spokesman for the woman’s lawyer told the WSJ she could not confirm or deny the report.
Cohen, whose home, hotel room and offices were raided by federal investigators this week, is under intense scrutiny as federal prosecutors sift through seized documents, looking for evidence of bank fraud, among other things, according the Journal.
The paper also reported that investigators are specifically looking for evidence related to payments to two women who say they had sexual relationships with Trump, as well as Cohen’s taxi business.
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, dismissed the accusations calling the search warrants “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”
Broidy, 60, helped the Trump campaign’s joint fund with the Republican Party raise more than $108 million during the 2016 presidential race. He also gave $160,000 last year to the Republican National Committee, according to the Journal.
Broidy’s non-disiclosure agreement with the Playboy model is similar to another 2016 hush deal, in which Cohen paid $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, whose legals name is Stephanie Clifford, to stop her from talking about her relationship with Trump more than a decade ago.
The WSJ also reported that the Broidy deal used the same pseudonyms as the Daniels agreement — David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.
As TheWrap reported in 2016, Broidy pleaded guilty to committing a felony in 2009, by giving nearly $1 million in illegal gifts to state officials in order to secure a lucrative deal with New York’s public pension fund for his then-firm Markstone Capital Partners.
He avoided jail time by blowing the whistle on the same people who accepted his bribes. He admitted to ponying up $75,000 for an all-expanses paid luxury trip to Jerusalem, which included first-class tickets, luxury hotel suites, a helicopter tour, and a personal driver for New York State’s comptroller and his family.