Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has filed a statement of facts detailing an alleged “catch and kill” scheme involving a former doorman at Trump Tower, Dino Sajudin.

The scheme involved paying Sajudin $30,000 for exclusive rights to a story about a child Donald Trump had supposedly fathered with an employee in the 1980s. 

The payment was then allegedly falsely recorded in the financial records of American Media Inc. (AMI), whose then-CEO, David Pecker, was involved, together with Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen, in the scheme to look out for negative stories and to keep them from being published.

The statement of facts alleges that the scheme lasted from August 2015, after Trump had announced his 2016 presidential run, to December 2017. According to the filing, AMI CEO Pecker learned in October or November of 2015 that the doorman, Sajudin, was trying to sell information about the alleged illegitimate child. At Pecker’s direction, AMI negotiated and inked an agreement with Sajudin to pay him $30,000 for the exclusive rights to the story.

According to the Manhattan DA’s Office, AMI “falsely characterized the payment” in the company’s financial records. The company allegedly bought the story from Sajudin without conducting a full investigation into his claims because of CEO Pecker’s agreement with Trump.

AMI later concluded that the doorman’s claims were not true but Trump Attorney Michael Cohen instructed Pecker not to release Sajudin from his contract until after the 2016 presidential election.

Sajudin was eventually released from his nondisclosure agreement with AMI after Trump won the election. Trump thanked Pecker for his help in suppressing negative stories by inviting him to his inauguration and dinner at the White House, according to the statement of facts.

District Attorney Bragg’s indictment charged the former president with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records as part of the alleged “catch and kill” scheme to which Trump pleaded not guilty.

Pecker signed a non-prosecution agreement in 2018, protecting himself from prosecution for his role in the payoffs. He will also not face charges for falsifying business records because the two-year statute of limitations on the case has expired. Trump’s next court appearance is scheduled for December.