Celebrity tabloid tied to Trump scandal sold

The National Enquirer, the scandal-plagued tabloid that engaged in “catch-and-kill” practices to bury stories about Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, has been sold.

VVIP is buying the National Examiner and another tabloid, the Globe, from magazine publisher a360 Media in an all-cash deal, though financial terms were not disclosed.

In December 2018 the parent company of publications including the National Enquirer, Us Weekly and In Touch admitted to engaging in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill” in order to help Trump become president.

Federal prosecutors revealed at the time that they had agreed not to prosecute American Media Inc. for secretly assisting Trump’s campaign by paying $150,000 to Playboy model Karen Mcdougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump.

The company then intentionally suppressed Mcdougal’s story until after the election.

In August 2020, David Pecker stepped down as CEO of American Media. Under Pecker, the National Enquirer for years buried potentially embarrassing stories about Trump and other favored celebrities by buying the rights to them and never publishing.

The Federal Election Commission fined a360 Media $187,500 in June 2021 for squashing the Mcdougal story.

The FEC said the publisher’s “payment to Karen Mcdougal to purchase a limited life story right combined with its decision not to publish the story, in consultation with an agent of Donald J. Trump and for the purpose of influencing the election, constituted a prohibited corporate in-kind contribution.”