Enquirer big admits killing Prez sex tale
The National Enquirer helped “catch and kill” a salacious story about President Trump shortly before the 2016 election in a deliberate effort to boost his chances at beating Hillary Clinton, Manhattan federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
American Media Inc. was given a nonprosecution agreement by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan in exchange for confessing it helped Trump facilitate an illicit preelection hush payment to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who had threatened to go public with claims she had sex with the President over a decade ago.
“AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election,” said Robert Khuzami, the deputy U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”
The payment to McDougal violates federal campaign finance law in two ways. The payoff exceeded the legal campaign donation limit of $2,700 and it was unreported on financial disclosure forms.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal fixer who was sentenced to three years in prison earlier Wednesday, has pleaded guilty to campaign finance crimes over his role in the McDougal payoff. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say the President directed and coordinated the McDougal payment as well as a similar $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels, potentially opening him up to criminal liability.
David Pecker (photo), a longtime friend of Trump and CEO of AMI, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors in August in exchange for providing information on Cohen.
AMI did not return a request for comment, but an employee who asked not to be identified told the Daily News the company's cooperation with the feds is a sensitive topic. “We're not allowed to talk about it,” the worker said outside AMI's downtown Manhattan office.