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It’s Not Just Cohen Against Trump on Hush Money

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Wall Street Journal: “On the hush-money payments, it’s not just Mr. Cohen’s word against President Trump’s. David Pecker, the chief executive of the National Enquirer’s publisher, has also told federal prosecutors about Mr. Trump’s involvement in the payment scheme, the Journal has previously reported.”

“For instance, Mr. Pecker met with then-candidate Donald Trump in August 2015 and offered to use the National Enquirer to buy the silence of any women who tried to publicize allegations of sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.”

What David Pecker Knew

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BuzzFeed News reports David Pecker, who was granted immunity by federal prosecutors, knew about three key moments during the 2016 presidential campaign and that “one or more members” of the Trump campaign were part of the scheme to pay hush money to women.

“Pecker was behind the National Enquirer‘s purchasing in August 2016 of former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story of an alleged affair with Trump in an effort to keep that story quiet in the run-up to the 2016 election. His knowledge of that alone is a big deal.”

“But looking at this week’s criminal charging document in Cohen’s case shows that Pecker’s cooperation is key to two additional lines of inquiry that directly implicate Trump’s presidential campaign in the scheme to silence the women.”

Pecker Granted Immunity in Cohen Investigation

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Federal prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, CEO of the company that publishes National Enquirer, in the Michael Cohen investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Gabriel Sherman: “Pecker’s apparent decision to corroborate Cohen’s account, and implicate Trump in a federal crime, is another vivid example of how isolated Trump is becoming as the walls close in and his former friends look for ways out… Trump and Pecker have been close for years.”

Said one Trump friend when told the news: “Holy shit, I thought Pecker would be the last one to turn.”


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Inside Trump’s Cozy Relationship with the Enquirer

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Wall Street Journal: “In previously unreported interactions, some of which are memorialized in emails now under review, Mr. Cohen mediated a dispute between Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who had been a star on Mr. Trump’s ‘Apprentice’ reality TV show, and the Enquirer over a story about her brother’s murder. He intervened in a separate legal case on behalf of David Pecker, chief executive of Enquirer parent American Media Inc.”

“And when American Media paid a doorman who alleged that Mr. Trump fathered a child with one of his employees, a company executive ordered reporters to stop investigating after speaking with Mr. Cohen. The revelations show a relationship characterized by mutual benefit and favor-trading on a greater scale than was previously known. The shared history could expose American Media, Mr. Cohen and by extension, Mr. Trump, to criminal campaign-finance charges.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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