Earlier this week when rumors began swirling that Russian intelligence operatives had embarrassing information about Donald Trump’s financial and personal dealings while traveling in Europe, Penthouse magazine let it be known they would gladly pay a $1 million reward to anyone who could provide video evidence that Trump had indeed engaged in sexual escapades.

Today, Penthouse editor Raphie Aronowitz disclosed that the magazine has received responses from three separate sources seeking to collect the $1 million in exchange for conclusive video evidence of Trump engaged in what is known as “golden showers.”

In a phone interview, Aronowitz told the International Business Times:

“If the story is real, which we don’t know if it is or not, it really kind of hits at the intersection between politics, scandal and sex, which as a brand both historically and currently is our sweet spot.”

Aronowitz added that the sudden proliferation of “fake news” which helped to elect Trump was also a factor in the magazine deciding to try and track down a video if one exists:

“For us, this was the type of story that we wanted to jump all over. But at the same time there’s been so much floating around – as far as fake news stories – there have been so many people who have just been taking shots at President-elect Donald Trump because he’s an easy target, and we as a brand and as an informational source, we didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon. We wanted to make sure this story could be verified, that the murmurings of their being actual video documentation that corroborates the allegations, do exist. For us, this was a very real ask, which is just ‘Give us some facts, and let us share the real story with our readers and with the public.’”

If indeed Penthouse does manage to flush out a tape of Trump engaged in questionable extramarital activities, Aronowitz reported it will first be turned over to former agents with the FBI so that it’s authenticity can be determined.

Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks said Thursday that the entire allegation about Trump is fabricated:

“As everyone on our team including the President- elect stated yesterday, this is a fabricated story from a phony document.”

One wonders how Trump–not to mention congressional Republicans–will react if indeed a tape is judged to be genuine and then released to the public, perhaps via an online portal. And how will the American people then see this deeply flawed man who is set to become Commander-in-Chief seven days from now?

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org