Post by respect77 on Dec 14, 2018 16:15:10 GMT
Trump was at August 2015 meeting about hush money payments, source says
By Kara Scannell, Erica Orden and Marshall Cohen, CNN
(CNN) Donald Trump attended an August 2015 meeting that federal prosecutors believe was central to a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws to help Trump win the presidency, according to a source familiar with the matter.
According to court filings, Trump was joined by Michael Cohen, who was his attorney at the time, and David Pecker, the chairman of American Media Inc., parent company of the National Enquirer.
During the meeting, the group discussed a plan to shield Trump from potentially damaging stories. Prosecutors say this amounted to illegal donations to Trump's campaign.
Trump's attendance was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in a November article. The meeting returned to the spotlight Wednesday when federal prosecutors announced that they agreed not to prosecute AMI for campaign finance violations in exchange for its cooperation.
The newspaper reported that Trump asked Pecker what he could do to help his presidential campaign.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan mentioned the meeting when they charged Cohen over the summer with two campaign finance violations. Those crimes related to hush-money payments to two women who alleged affairs with Trump. For his part, Trump has denied the affairs.
Prosecutors also described the meeting in the AMI agreement, which became public Wednesday.
That document said Cohen, Pecker, and "one or more members of the campaign" met in August 2015. At that meeting, "Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased, and their publication avoided."
AMI now admits that after that meeting, Pecker agreed to "keep Cohen appraised" of negative stories about Trump. The tabloid played a role in facilitating the hush-money payments against the women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.
Pecker and AMI haven't been charged with any crimes. Trump denies involvement in the scheme, and said Thursday that the "did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws."
But Cohen has pleaded guilty the campaign finance violations, and seven unrelated crimes. He said in court that the hush-money payments were made at Trump's direction, and that the goal of the payments was to stop the women from telling their stories before the election.
By Kara Scannell, Erica Orden and Marshall Cohen, CNN
(CNN) Donald Trump attended an August 2015 meeting that federal prosecutors believe was central to a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws to help Trump win the presidency, according to a source familiar with the matter.
According to court filings, Trump was joined by Michael Cohen, who was his attorney at the time, and David Pecker, the chairman of American Media Inc., parent company of the National Enquirer.
During the meeting, the group discussed a plan to shield Trump from potentially damaging stories. Prosecutors say this amounted to illegal donations to Trump's campaign.
Trump's attendance was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in a November article. The meeting returned to the spotlight Wednesday when federal prosecutors announced that they agreed not to prosecute AMI for campaign finance violations in exchange for its cooperation.
The newspaper reported that Trump asked Pecker what he could do to help his presidential campaign.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan mentioned the meeting when they charged Cohen over the summer with two campaign finance violations. Those crimes related to hush-money payments to two women who alleged affairs with Trump. For his part, Trump has denied the affairs.
Prosecutors also described the meeting in the AMI agreement, which became public Wednesday.
That document said Cohen, Pecker, and "one or more members of the campaign" met in August 2015. At that meeting, "Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased, and their publication avoided."
AMI now admits that after that meeting, Pecker agreed to "keep Cohen appraised" of negative stories about Trump. The tabloid played a role in facilitating the hush-money payments against the women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.
Pecker and AMI haven't been charged with any crimes. Trump denies involvement in the scheme, and said Thursday that the "did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws."
But Cohen has pleaded guilty the campaign finance violations, and seven unrelated crimes. He said in court that the hush-money payments were made at Trump's direction, and that the goal of the payments was to stop the women from telling their stories before the election.
and
How the National Enquirer broke up with President Trump
By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
(CNN Business)The National Enquirer was one of Donald Trump's biggest boosters, both before and after he was elected president.
But when federal prosecutors came calling, something changed.
The weekly tabloid magazine made a sudden turn away from Trump-related covers over the summer. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed the shift. Instead of covers that celebrated Trump and attacked his enemies, the Enquirer has been sticking with tried-and-true stories about celebrity scandals.
In other words, the Enquirer stopped being a part of Trump's promotional media machine.
The Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., is controlled by David Pecker — a longtime friend of Trump's.
American Media Inc. declined to comment on the cover choices on Wednesday.
But the change came at the same time when prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York zeroed in on Michael Cohen's financial dealings with Pecker and American Media. It has now been established that Cohen worked with Pecker to set up a $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal before the 2016 election. The payment effectively silenced her, ensuring that her claims of an affair with Trump would not be made public.
On Wednesday, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations relating to McDougal and Stormy Daniels.
(Trump has denied having affairs with both McDougal and Daniels.)
But the revelations about the payments started to strain the Trump-Enquirer relationship many months ago.
In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that the prosecutors had subpoenaed records from the National Enquirer as part of the Cohen probe.
By then, the Trump-related covers had already stopped appearing.
This was a big change for the Enquirer. In 2016, anti-Hillary Clinton covers were a steady part of the Enquirer's campaign coverage. Distorted and exaggerated stories about Clinton controversies had the added effect of pumping up Trump's candidacy. After all, The Enquirer has always had prime placement at supermarkets.
One pre-election cover even promised an "explosive" anti-Clinton story "that will change the election."
The anti-Clinton covers continued into 2017, joined by headlines that portrayed Trump as a resolute hero standing up to Clinton, Barack Obama, the FBI and other so-called enemies.
As recently as March 19, 2018, the cover said, "Surrounded by traitors!: Donald & Melania fight back!" The headline was subtitled, "Exposing the lies, leaks, & intimidation" and "How they'll crush their enemies!"
In April, the FBI raided Cohen's office, seizing documents and email related to Daniels. That same month, AMI released McDougal from a contract that kept her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump.
On May 7, 2018, the cover was devoted to tearing down Cohen, which is noteworthy in light of the later revelations about Cohen and Pecker's collaboration.
"Trump fixer's secrets and lies!," read the headline. A small photo of Cohen appeared next to a big photo of Trump. The banner above them said, "payoffs and threats exposed."
And that was it. The cover headlines about Trump suddenly stopped.
It is possible that the Trump-promoting covers simply stopped being a reader draw. The Enquirer is famously reactive to circulation trends, with editors who pay very close attention to which cover subjects sell more copies than others. But the timeline matches up exactly to the federal investigation.
Since May, only one story on the Enquirer's web site has been tagged with Trump's name, and it was about a past contestant on the "Celebrity Apprentice" television show.
So the president has lost one of his friendliest news sources — a magazine that previously propped him up and promoted his candidacy and presidency.
He appears to have lost a friend, as well. Pecker has declined to comment on Trump, but prosecutors said on Wednesday that American Media Inc. has helped with the investigation into Cohen.
This confirmed reports dating back to August that Pecker had been granted immunity. Numerous headlines have portrayed Pecker and the Enquirer as "flipping" on Trump.
The Southern District of New York said in a statement on Wednesday that its office "has agreed not to prosecute AMI for its role" in the $150,000 payment, as long as the company continues to cooperate.
A spokesman for the tabloid declined to comment.
By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
(CNN Business)The National Enquirer was one of Donald Trump's biggest boosters, both before and after he was elected president.
But when federal prosecutors came calling, something changed.
The weekly tabloid magazine made a sudden turn away from Trump-related covers over the summer. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed the shift. Instead of covers that celebrated Trump and attacked his enemies, the Enquirer has been sticking with tried-and-true stories about celebrity scandals.
In other words, the Enquirer stopped being a part of Trump's promotional media machine.
The Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., is controlled by David Pecker — a longtime friend of Trump's.
American Media Inc. declined to comment on the cover choices on Wednesday.
But the change came at the same time when prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York zeroed in on Michael Cohen's financial dealings with Pecker and American Media. It has now been established that Cohen worked with Pecker to set up a $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal before the 2016 election. The payment effectively silenced her, ensuring that her claims of an affair with Trump would not be made public.
On Wednesday, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations relating to McDougal and Stormy Daniels.
(Trump has denied having affairs with both McDougal and Daniels.)
But the revelations about the payments started to strain the Trump-Enquirer relationship many months ago.
In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that the prosecutors had subpoenaed records from the National Enquirer as part of the Cohen probe.
By then, the Trump-related covers had already stopped appearing.
This was a big change for the Enquirer. In 2016, anti-Hillary Clinton covers were a steady part of the Enquirer's campaign coverage. Distorted and exaggerated stories about Clinton controversies had the added effect of pumping up Trump's candidacy. After all, The Enquirer has always had prime placement at supermarkets.
One pre-election cover even promised an "explosive" anti-Clinton story "that will change the election."
The anti-Clinton covers continued into 2017, joined by headlines that portrayed Trump as a resolute hero standing up to Clinton, Barack Obama, the FBI and other so-called enemies.
As recently as March 19, 2018, the cover said, "Surrounded by traitors!: Donald & Melania fight back!" The headline was subtitled, "Exposing the lies, leaks, & intimidation" and "How they'll crush their enemies!"
In April, the FBI raided Cohen's office, seizing documents and email related to Daniels. That same month, AMI released McDougal from a contract that kept her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump.
On May 7, 2018, the cover was devoted to tearing down Cohen, which is noteworthy in light of the later revelations about Cohen and Pecker's collaboration.
"Trump fixer's secrets and lies!," read the headline. A small photo of Cohen appeared next to a big photo of Trump. The banner above them said, "payoffs and threats exposed."
And that was it. The cover headlines about Trump suddenly stopped.
It is possible that the Trump-promoting covers simply stopped being a reader draw. The Enquirer is famously reactive to circulation trends, with editors who pay very close attention to which cover subjects sell more copies than others. But the timeline matches up exactly to the federal investigation.
Since May, only one story on the Enquirer's web site has been tagged with Trump's name, and it was about a past contestant on the "Celebrity Apprentice" television show.
So the president has lost one of his friendliest news sources — a magazine that previously propped him up and promoted his candidacy and presidency.
He appears to have lost a friend, as well. Pecker has declined to comment on Trump, but prosecutors said on Wednesday that American Media Inc. has helped with the investigation into Cohen.
This confirmed reports dating back to August that Pecker had been granted immunity. Numerous headlines have portrayed Pecker and the Enquirer as "flipping" on Trump.
The Southern District of New York said in a statement on Wednesday that its office "has agreed not to prosecute AMI for its role" in the $150,000 payment, as long as the company continues to cooperate.
A spokesman for the tabloid declined to comment.
edition.cnn.com/2018/12/12/media/national-enquirer-donald-trump-michael-cohen/index.html
Remember, this is the same trashy paper that (along with its online version Radar Online) offered to pay people to make up lies about MJ and alleged sexual abuse! In 1993 the National Enquirer offered Robert and Roland Newt Jr. $200,000 to lie that MJ was sexually inappropriate with them when they were kids.T he men declined the offer but they later told about it. As a proof they even had a contract signed by David Perel, who was the editor of the tabloid at the time. They knew that the Newts weren't abused but they did not care about the truth. They just wanted them to lie and they offered them money for it!
Radar Online, which is basically the online version of the National Enquirer, was behind a false story in 2016 that is still often being cited today - ie. that allegedly child porn was found in MJ's home during the 2003 house search. It was an utterly false story, which even prompted Ron Zonen to come out and refute it, but few paid attention to that part. By the time the story spread like wildfire - and shamefully even publications that consider themselves more serious than tabloids - reposted it as a fact, without ever vetting the information that originated from an unreliable tabloid. When it comes to Michael Jackson all due dilligence goes out the window, it seems. Sensational headlines trump everything. Then the mainstream media wonders why people are losing their trust in them.
Then let's not forget how Robson and his lawyers were in cohorts with the National Enquirer feeding them with stories in an attempt at trying to make the Estate settle by negative publicity.
So, you can see this paper, on the one hand is making up false abuse stories about MJ (and I am sure about a lot of other celebrities) - and at times even offering big money to people for false abuse stories on MJ. On the other hand, this same paper is in cohorts with powerful people like Trump to suppress stories about them and even paying hush-money to their accusers! Why? Then they have the nerve to falsely accuse MJ of paying hush-money to kids!
I wonder now if certain sensational false stories about MJ were thrown in by the National Enquirer, Radar Online (and other tabloids) to deflect from negative stories about the powerful people they protected.