Michael Cohen's Office Got Raided, And *Suddenly* Karen McDougal's Lawsuit Got Resolved. SO WEIRD!

For a coffee boy Trump's never met, she's very well dressed!

Hooray! Karen McDougal has been freed from her agreement with the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc. (AMI). Who's excited to hear every detail of her nekkid sexxytimes with Donald Trump in 2006?

NO?

Yeah, us neither. On the one hand, they're both consenting adults. And on the other hand, BLECH!

We're very glad that Karen McDougal is out from AMI's clutches, though. She's now free to tell her story without threat of being sued, and she can keep the $150,000 AMI paid her in 2016. She'll give the company a portion of her earnings if she sells her story within a year, with a maximum ceiling of $75,000. So, Mazel Tov, Karen!

But we're a lot more interested in what happened in 2016 than the part where she bumped Trump's orange bits in 2006. Trump may have been a perfect "gentleman" when she knew him 12 years ago, but we're pretty sure this woman got royally screwed in the run-up to the election. Because Michael Cohen is no gentleman.  And neither is Keith Davidson, the attorney who represented Karen McDougal in 2016. In fact, the first sentence of her now-dismissed lawsuit against AMI alleged, "This case is about a powerful media company taking advantage of the plaintiff, Karen McDougal, with the collusion of her lawyer, to achieve its own political and financial ends." If McDougal is correct, Davidson and AMI were relaying everything she said about Trump to his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

And look what we found here in McDougal's Settlement Agreement with AMI:

For the avoidance of doubt, neither Keith Davidson nor Michael Cohen is an AMI Released Party. Nothing in this Agreement releases any claim that any McDougal Releasing Party has or may have against Keith Davidson and/or Michael Cohen.

GO GET 'EM, GIRL! Because we're not sure what kind of fuckery Cohen and Davidson were up to, but we can tell you that this stuff reeks. Remember, Cohen negotiated the payout to Stormy Daniels  with Keith Davidson.  Cohen negotiated Elliot Broidy's payout to his girlfriend  with Keith Davidson.  And AMI kept Cohen in the loop on the payout to former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin, who alleged that the president had an illegitimate child in the 1980s with a housekeeper. We have no idea who represented Mr. Sajudin, but we would not be for shocked if his name rhymed with Shmeith Shmavidson.

And that's A LOT OF COINCIDENCES.

Another interesting coincidence is the timing of this settlement. Last week, Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel room were raided by the FBI, who seized documents relating to McDougal's suit against AMI. And suddenly the prospect of being deposed by McDougal's lawyers about a federal criminal investigation and an FEC complaint became a lot less attractive. Guess AMI's CEO David Pecker, Trump's longtime buddy, would rather stay home and comb his mustache than give sworn testimony on how this whole McDougal deal went down. Weird, huh?

The NYT reports,

A.M.I. also spoke with Mr. Cohen about Ms. McDougal, though it says it did so only as part of its reporting process.

[Counsel to Karen McDougal, Peter K.] Stris said that before reaching the settlement, he was prepared to answer A.M.I.’s motion to dismiss Ms. McDougal’s case with a request for a limited version of pretrial discovery. The move, compelling both sides to share emails and other records, could have provided information that would not be available through the material the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Cohen. An A.M.I. lawyer, Cameron Stracher, said that he doubted the request would have succeeded, and that avoiding discovery was not a motivating factor in the settlement.

And speaking of AMAZING COINCIDENCES, this morning Michael Cohen decided he just doesn't feel like suing Buzzfeed for defamation over the Steele Dossier anymore. He'd like to let bygones be bygones, out of the generosity of his heart. And if Judge Otero would let him postpone the Stormy Daniels case and not make him give sworn depositions on stuff the FBI is looking into, that would be great! That hearing is set for tomorrow afternoon. We'll keep you posted on that and any other very weird coincidences for which there is absolutely no totally obvious compelling legal justification that involves saving Michael Cohen's ass.

Also, too, Michael Cohen is definitely not crapping his ugly plaid pants in fear and will not be telling his story to the feds real soon. NOPE. NO WAY.

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[ NYT / McDougal Settlement Agreement / McDougal Complaint /