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Karen McDougal, Who Claimed Trump Affair, Sues Fox News

Ms. McDougal, a former Playboy model who sold her story to The National Enquirer, said Tucker Carlson made false claims about extortion that damaged her reputation.

The host Tucker Carlson said on air that Karen McDougal’s behavior “sounds like a classic case of extortion.”Credit...Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

A former Playboy model who has said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump before he was president sued Fox News on Thursday, saying that Tucker Carlson, one of the network’s hosts, had intentionally defamed her on his television show.

The model, Karen McDougal, said Mr. Carlson had falsely accused her of extortion last year when he said that she “approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he doesn’t give them money.”

Ms. McDougal said in the lawsuit, which was filed in New York State court in Manhattan, that she never threatened Mr. Trump. She is seeking damages from Fox News for harming her reputation, but she does not name Mr. Carlson as a defendant. The network is responsible for his comments, she said, and his accusations were reckless and easy to verify as false.

Fox News said in a statement that it would “vigorously defend Tucker Carlson against these meritless claims.”

Eric R. Bernstein, the lawyer representing Ms. McDougal, said she was “harassed, embarrassed and ridiculed” after Mr. Carlson’s comments.

“Media outlets like Fox News must learn that they can’t mislead for ratings,” he said. “They hurt real people like Karen McDougal when they do so.”

Ms. McDougal has said she first met Mr. Trump at the Playboy Mansion in 2006 when he was filming an episode of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” They had a 10-month affair, she said, until she ended the relationship because she felt increasingly guilty about Mr. Trump cheating on his wife. Mr. Trump has denied the affair.

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Ms. McDougal has said she first met Mr. Trump at the Playboy Mansion.Credit...Bennett Raglin/Getty Images

Shortly before the 2016 presidential election, The National Enquirer bought the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story for $150,000 and then did not publish it, a practice to suppress damaging information known as “catch and kill.” Ms. McDougal was bound by the deal, which restricted her from discussing the alleged affair, until April 2018, when she reached a settlement with American Media Inc., which owns The Enquirer.

On the Dec. 10, 2018, episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Mr. Carlson referred to The Enquirer’s payment as “ransom” and said Ms. McDougal’s behavior “sounds like a classic case of extortion.” He did not name Ms. McDougal, but he did show a picture of her.

Lawyers for Fox News filed a brief in federal court on Thursday afternoon arguing that the case should be heard there, as opposed to state court, because the damages sought are quite likely to exceed state court limits and because the case is between parties in different states. Ms. McDougal lives in Arizona and Fox News’s headquarters is in New York.

First Amendment protections make defamation lawsuits difficult to win, and the cases often are settled or dismissed by a court before trial.

Lyrissa Lidsky, the dean of the University of Missouri School of Law and an expert in defamation law, said the case against Fox News could come down to whether a reasonable viewer would think Mr. Carlson was accusing Ms. McDougal of a crime.

“The central question of the lawsuit is whether Tucker Carlson was making a factual assertion that she committed the crime of extortion, or if he was using extortion loosely as a form of hyperbole,” Professor Lidsky said, adding that a court may take into account Mr. Carlson’s tone, his wording, and how frequently he makes hyperbolic statements.

Because Ms. McDougal would most likely be considered a public figure, she would have to prove not just that Mr. Carlson’s statements were false and defamatory, but also that he acted with “actual malice” — meaning that he knew or should have known that they were false — in order to win her case.

When The Wall Street Journal first reported on The Enquirer’s payment to Ms. McDougal, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump said his campaign had no knowledge of it. But Mr. Trump discussed paying The Enquirer for the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story with Michael D. Cohen, who was then his lawyer, according to a secret recording made by Mr. Cohen that was released last year.

“No matter which version of Trump’s statements one believes, Trump never once claimed that he was extorted” by Ms. McDougal, her lawyer, Mr. Bernstein, wrote in the lawsuit.

A reasonable person watching the show would have thought that Ms. McDougal was a criminal, Mr. Bernstein said in the lawsuit. He said Mr. Carlson and Fox News did not conduct “even a cursory investigation” into the claims that were aired.

The lawsuit noted that Fox News’s website describes Mr. Carlson as the “sworn enemy of lying” and that he prefaced his claims about Ms. McDougal by saying, “Remember the facts of the story — these are undisputed.”

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Former Playboy Model Sues Fox News. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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