Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg has been granted immunity in the federal investigation into Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)
We learned Tuesday that not only has Michael Cohen implicated President Trump in campaign finance violations, but effectively so too has the parent company for the National Enquirer, American Media Inc.
In a release about Cohen’s three-year sentence, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York revealed that AMI has been given immunity from prosecution, just as its head, David Pecker, had previously. SDNY prosecutors also said that AMI admitted its payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal was “in concert with” Trump’s presidential campaign and was aimed at burying the story to help elect Trump. As Philip Bump writes, that language is clearly intended to emphasize that this was a campaign finance violation and not just a regular old hush-money payment:
As a part of the agreement, 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. 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.
View the complete December 13 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.