Tag: David Pecker

FEC spares Trump but fines tabloid publisher for hush-money payment to ex-Playboy model who claimed affair with him

Washington Post logo

The Federal Election Commission has fined the National Enquirer’s parent company $187,500 for “knowingly and willfully” violating election law by making a payment in 2016 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with former president Donald Trump years before he was elected.

The decision came in response to a complaint made more than three years ago by the nonprofit government watchdog group Common Cause, which was notified of the FEC’s findings Tuesday.

The group had alleged that the company’s $150,000 payment to McDougal months before the 2016 election was effectively an illegal in-kind corporate contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign. The payment allegedly benefited Trump’s campaign by suppressing McDougal’s story of an alleged relationship with Trump before voters went to the polls. Continue reading.

The National Enquirer’s tactics have been revealed. But they’re not new.

The sordid and complex story of Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos’s run-in with the National Enquirer is unusual in its details, but striking in one respect: It is yet another instance in which the Enquirer has been accused of unsavory tactics in pursuit of stories a number of times in recent years.

The Enquirer and other publications owned by its parent company, American Media LLC, have faced allegations of unethical and abusive behavior from actor Terry Crews, associates of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and for its involvement in a scheme to protect the film producer Harvey Weinstein from accusations of sexual assault.

Although the tabloid’s revelation of Edwards’s affair with a campaign staffer in 2007 is often lauded as its finest feat of reporting, American Media’s tactics allegedly had a darker underside.

View the complete February 8 article by Paul Farhi, Sarah Ellison and Emily Yahr on the Washington Post website here.

Ronan Farrow says he also faced ‘blackmail efforts from AMI’ for reporting on the National Enquirer, Trump

Journalist Ronan Farrow poses at the 25th Annual ELLE Women in Hollywood Celebration in October 2018. Credit: Chris Pizzello, Invision, AP

Ronan Farrow said Thursday that he and “at least one other prominent journalist” who had reported on the National Enquirer and President Trump received blackmail threats from the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., over their work.

Farrow’s allegation came just hours after Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos published a remarkable public post on Medium accusing the National Enquirer of attempting to extort and blackmail him by threatening to publish intimate photos unless he stopped investigating the publication. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Continue reading “Ronan Farrow says he also faced ‘blackmail efforts from AMI’ for reporting on the National Enquirer, Trump”

Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer of extortion and blackmail

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday published a lengthy Medium post alleging that the National Enquirer threatened to publish nude photos of him and Lauren Sanchez, a journalist with whom he was alleged to have had an affair.

Details: Bezos notes that David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer and its parent company AMI, is suspected of using the publication for political purposes. After the National Enquirer published intimate texts between Bezos and Sanchez, Bezos launched an investigation into the magazine’s motives, including actions it has taken on behalf of the Trump administration and the Saudi government. This prompted an email from AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard — which Bezos posted — in which Howard described lewd photos of Bezos that the Enquirer had allegedly obtained during the course of its reporting.

Show less
  • Subsequent emails show the terms proposed by an attorney for the Enquirer: The magazine will agree not to publish texts or photos from Bezos in exchange for a public acknowledgement, “released through a mutually-agreeable news outlet,” that AMI’s coverage is “not influenced by political forces.”

View the complete February 7 article on the Axios website here.

Tabloid Publisher’s Deal in Hush-Money Inquiry Adds to Trump’s Danger

Donald Trump, Jr., Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, David Pecker and Eric Trump. Credit: Twitter

With the revelation by prosecutors on Wednesday that a tabloid publisher admitted to paying off a Playboy model, key participants in two hush-money schemes say the transactions were intended to protect Donald J. Trump’s campaign for president.

That leaves Mr. Trump in an increasingly isolated and legally precarious position, according to election law experts. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made in 2016 to keep two women silent about alleged affairs are now firmly framed as illegal campaign contributions.

The news about the publisher, the parent company of The National Enquirer, came on the same day that Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael D. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in part for his involvement in the payments. “I blame myself for the conduct which has brought me here today,” Mr. Cohen said, “and it was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man” — a reference to Mr. Trump — “that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”

View the complete December 12 article by Mike McIntire, Charlie Savage and Jim Rutenberg on The New York Times website here.

The tabloid that’s been protecting Trump lost $72 million last year

The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 30, 2018:

Being in bed with Trump has not been good for business at the National Enquirer.

Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

It turns out the National Enquirer’s decision to become a work for Trump, attacking his enemies and trying to silence women from his past, isn’t paying off financially.

In fact, the Associated Press reports, “The Enquirer’s privately held parent company, American Media Inc., lost $72 million for the year ending in March.”

The collapse comes “despite AMI chairman David Pecker’s claims that the Enquirer’s heavy focus on Trump sells magazines,” according to AP.

View the complete article here.

“Trump is nuts. This time really feels different”: Trump rejects “war council” intervention, goes it alone

The following article by Gabriel Sherman was posted on the Vanity Fair website August 27, 2018:

With his closest allies defecting, the president increasingly trusts only his instincts. He “got joy” from stripping former C.I.A. director John Brennan’s security clearance. And after betrayals by Allen Weisselberg and David Pecker, a former White House official says, Trump “spent the weekend calling people and screaming.”

After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week. “It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.) Continue reading ““Trump is nuts. This time really feels different”: Trump rejects “war council” intervention, goes it alone”

National Enquirer Had a Safe with a Treasure Trove of Dirt on Trump that It Kept Hidden During the Campaign: Report

The following article by Cory Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 23, 2018:

It was revealed earlier in the day that the owner of the magazine’s parent company has accepted immunity from prosecutors.

Donald Trump, Jr., Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, David Pecker and Eric Trump. Credit: Twitter

President Donald Trump’s week started out badly, and it’s ending even worse.

On Friday morning, multiple reports found that David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. — which owns the National Enquirer — has been offered an immunity deal by prosecutors. This news looks particularly bad for the president because Pecker and his company were implicated in the guilty plea of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, which was accepted in court on Tuesday. Many speculated that the main reason for Pecker’s testimony would be to obtain testimony against Trump, who was also implicated in Cohen’s plea with regard to campaign finance violations. Continue reading “National Enquirer Had a Safe with a Treasure Trove of Dirt on Trump that It Kept Hidden During the Campaign: Report”

Prosecutors grant immunity to Enquirer’s David Pecker: report B

The following article by Megan Keller was posted on the Hill website August 23, 2018:

Prosecutors reportedly granted immunity to David Pecker, the CEO of the company that publishes National Enquirer, as part of their investigation into President Trump‘s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen.

Pecker met with the prosecution to discuss Cohen’s involvement in Trump’s hush-money deals with women leading up to the 2016 presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Pecker has emerged as a central figure in the scandal involving the payments. CNN last month released audio of Trump and Cohen discussing payment to a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, in which Cohen apparently references Pecker, telling Trump that he needs “to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David.”

View the complete article here.