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This “Agreement” could be taken as synonymous with a “criminal conspiracy” to “corrupt” the 2016 election — as the prosecution described in their opening statement yesterday. The “Agreement” involved the National Enquirer taking pro-active steps to “boost Trump’s Campaign.”
David Pecker additionally testified to that he would look out for Trump, and “act as his eyes and ears.” He also described the practice of how the National Enquirer would “embellish stories about Trump’s competition,” based on suggestions from Michael Cohen.
Pecker described the Trump Tower meeting between the conspirators, in August 2015. Where he was asked “What he and his magazines could do to help the Trump Campaign?” His answer, “If he heard anything negative he would notify Cohen right away. And then he would be able to have those stories killed.” Pecker referred to this as “an agreement among friends.”
Trump called Pecker directly, interrupting a business presentation, to discuss the Karen McDougal situation, the story to which was being shopped around. Pecker recommended that he buy the story to take it off the market. Trump replied “let me think about it.”
( If his reaction in court today is any indication, Trump is still thinking about it, quite seriously ...)
‘Stunning’: Testimony in hush money trial reveals how National Enquirer worked with Trump campaign — MSNBC, Nicole Wallace — April 23, 2024
In an interesting aside, the reason why Cohen had to take out a second mortgage to payoff Stormy Daniels himself — instead of using the established AMI arrangement to “catch and kill” negative Trump stories — was because miserly Donald Trump “welched out” on the repayment of the $150K to David Pecker to silence the McDougal story. The owner of the Enquirer wasn’t about to get burnt twice.
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In other coverage of the Trump trial today, the reporting has referred to the “catch and kill” NDA agreements, as being only binding up to the 2016 Election. After the Election was over, the National Enquirer was free to run those stories (dirt from Trump doorman, the McDougal tell-all, and Stormy Daniels story) as Pecker saw fit, in order to cash in on them. To recoup the some of the scandal-circulation, where possible.
So much for, the defense’s claim that, ‘Trump did all this to keep his family from finding out.’ According to their “Agreement,” its primary focus was to protect and boost the Trump Campaign. All the false hit pieces, run by the Enquirer, concerning Cruz, Rubio, Carson, and Clinton — are an attestment to how the 2016 Election was “corrupted” … as a part of this “criminal conspiracy.”
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NPR, All Things Considered — April 23, 2024
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Andrew Weissmann: ‘Ground zero of fake news’: Trump campaign's role spreading false stories exposed — MSNBC, Nicole Wallace — April 23, 2024