Kamala Harris has repeatedly touted Donald Trump's "hush money" conviction on the campaign trail, but now Harris's husband is facing scrutiny for buying a woman's silence in his past.
The Daily Mail reported that Doug Emhoff, Harris' 59-year-old husband, assaulted an ex-girlfriend over a decade ago and confessed to impregnating another woman who was not his wife.
Three friends of the ex-girlfriend told the Mail that Emhoff "forcefully" slapped her after she got too close with a valet the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.
"He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around," one of the friends said. "She said she was in utter shock. She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand."
The report dealt another hit to Emhoff's nice guy image, after the Mail previously exposed an extramarital affair with his children's nanny that he acknowledged publicly.
The Mail reported that Emhoff "nonchalantly" told the ex-girlfriend about having an affair with his children's nanny that led to a pregnancy. The relationship led to the demise of Emhoff's first marriage.
Emhoff told his ex-girlfriend that he had the nanny sign a non-disclosure agreement and paid her $80,000 - but he denied being the cause of a miscarriage.
"The nanny believed that Doug caused the baby to be lost. Maybe it was just lawyers making threats," a source told The Mail.
A spokesperson for Emhoff has denied the charge that he slapped his ex-girlfriend, saying, "any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”
It does not appear Emhoff has ever faced prosecution for the alleged assault or the non-disclosure agreement. There is nothing inherently illegal about "hush money" deals, making Donald Trump's conviction an anomaly.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump of failing to properly label reimbursement checks to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Bragg said the arrangement constituted election interference.
Trump has always denied having an affair with Daniels.
Emhoff's affair was a secret during Harris' election to the Senate and her first failed run for president, as well as most of her vice presidency. Harris knew about the affair before marrying Emhoff, and the Biden campaign knew about it before Harris became Biden's running mate in 2020.
Harris has repeatedly cited Trump's conviction - and a separate civil verdict in a sexual assault case - to blast Trump as a criminal and woman abuser.
