National Enquirer reportedly bought and never published a doorman's salacious rumor about Trump

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

The National Enquirer paid a former doorman of one of President Trump's New York City buildings $30,000 in 2015 for rights to a rumor he'd heard about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate child in the 1980s with one of his employees, then killed the story, The Associated Press and The New Yorker report. The doorman, Dino Sajudin, apparently faced a $1 million penalty if he discussed the story with anyone else.

Sajudin went as far as to take a lie-detector test to prove to American Media Inc. — the publisher of the National Enquirer — that high-level employees in the Trump organization had personally told him the rumors. The New Yorker says it could not independently verify that Trump fathered an illegitimate child, and the family of the daughter named in the rumors denied them, or declined to comment. Regardless, "AMI's payment to Sajudin is significant because it establishes the company's pattern of buying and burying stories that could be damaging to Trump during the presidential campaign," The New Yorker writes.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.