New York, Feb 19 (RHC)-- The New Yorker reports that Donald Trump went to great lengths to cover up extramarital affairs in the years before he became president.  Journalist Ronan Farrow reports that Trump used his close ties to American Media, Inc. -- the publisher of the National Enquirer -- to quash a story about a consensual sexual affair with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year. 

According to Farrow, the Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 for the exclusive rights to her story and then buried the piece just before the election.  The tabloid also reportedly paid McDougal to write a fitness column in an attempt to further buy her silence.