What I find most interesting about the Manhattan District Attorney’s indictment of Donald Trump is that, despite what you hear from Trump apologists, it is not just about Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
Two of the underlying factual allegation involve American Media Inc. (“AMI”), and its former CEO, David Pecker, for a catch-and-kill scheme to prevent any negative information about Donald Trump becoming public. District Attorney Bragg Announces 34-Count Felony Indictment of Former President Donald J. Trump:
According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, from August 2015 to December 2017, TRUMP orchestrated his “catch and kill” scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.
In one instance, American Media Inc. (“AMI”), paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman [Dino Sajudin], who claimed to have a story about a child TRUMP had out of wedlock.
In a second instance, AMI paid $150,000 to a woman [Karen McDougal] who alleged she had a sexual relationship with TRUMP. When TRUMP explicitly directed a lawyer who then worked for the Trump Organization as TRUMP’s Special Counsel (“Special Counsel”) to reimburse AMI in cash, the Special Counsel indicated to TRUMP that the payment should be made via a shell company and not by cash. AMI ultimately declined to accept reimbursement after consulting their counsel. AMI, which later admitted its conduct was unlawful in an agreement with federal prosecutors, made false entries in its business records concerning the true purpose of the $150,000 payment.
In a third instance – 12 days before the presidential general election – the Special Counsel wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress [Stormy Daniels]. The Special Counsel, who has since pleaded guilty and served time in prison for making the illegal campaign contribution, made the payment through a shell corporation funded through a bank in Manhattan.
The Department of Justice, Southern District of New York, entered into a Non-Prosecution Agreement to not prosecute American Media Inc. (“AMI”) in exchange for AMI’s full “pants down” cooperation in providing evidence and testimony to any investigative agency of the SDNY’s choosing. Non-Prosecution Agreement. Key Paragraph:
David Pecker testified to the Manhattan DA’s criminal grand jury twice, lastly just before the grand jury indicted Donald Trump on the above counts. He must have been very credible and persuasive.
An almost forgotten story now is how AMI’s catch-and kill deal with Donald Trump produced negative information about Donald Trump that David Pecker kept stored in his safe. AP: National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe (August 23, 2018):
The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.
The detail came as several media outlets reported on Thursday that federal prosecutors had granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump.
[F]ive people familiar with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for Pecker, the company’s CEO.
The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities’ catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people’s stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities’ embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favors in return.
But after The Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, Pecker and the company’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events.
It was unclear whether the documents were destroyed or simply were moved to a location known to fewer people.
* * *
Former Enquirer employees who spoke to the AP said that negative stories about Trump were dead on arrival dating back more than a decade when he starred on NBC’s reality show “The Apprentice.”
Was the cache of catch-and-kill dirt on Donald Trump in David Pecker’s safe destroyed? Doubtful, or SDNY would not have agreed to the Non-Prosecution Agreement. Which suggests that SDNY took possession of the cache of catch-an-kill dirt on Donald Trump, and likely has since shared it with the Manhattan DA’s office.
Which brings me to this little noticed reporting over the weekend. Omarosa claims there’s a vault containing Trump’s unreleased damaging pictures and stories:
Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon, Omarosa Manigault Newman claimed repeatedly that former National Enquirer CEO David Pecker maintained a safe where he stored stories and pictures that could be damaging to Donald Trump’s reputation.
Speaking with host Alex Witt, Manigault Newman, whose relationship with the former president dates back to his reality show “The Apprentice,” was asked about Trump’s arraignment in a Manhattan court on 34 felony charges related to alleged hush money paid to an adult film star and a Playboy model.
That, in turn, led to questions about Pecker’s involvement with Trump, which led him to have to testify before the Manhattan grand jury.
According to Manigault Newman, who also briefly worked in the Trump White House, Pecker used to employ a West Coast staffer named Dylan whose sole job was to track down Trump stories and kill them.
“What’s interesting, a little after I left ‘The Apprentice,’ I went to go work for AMI for David Pecker and ‘OK Magazine,'” she recalled. “David was also launching a new project called ‘Reality Weekly Magazine,’ so, I was the West Coast editor.”
“During that time, he had a deputy named Dylan, and Dylan’s full-time job, apparently, was to catch and suppress the stories about Donald Trump,” she continued. “And there was this infamous vault that they had at the Enquirer allegedly, that kept all of this information about Donald. So fast forward to the indictment, I’m reading a lot of the rumors that I heard, when I worked at the magazine were confirmed in the indictment.”
“Hang on,” host Witt interrupted. “Dylan was assigned to, essentially, ‘catch and kill’ — it’s a phrase we’ve all become familiar with now, exclusively Donald Trump stories? Or others as well?”
“Exclusively Donald Trump,” her guest replied. “And allegedly, we go to the headquarters of AMI, which of course, I visited very often while I was working as a West Coast editor. There is, supposedly, this infamous vault of information, tapes, pictures and secrets that David kept safe for Donald Trump and they were overseen by his chief, Dylan.“
Host Witt was quick to add, “Look, I’m not going to refute what you’re saying, but obviously, this is nothing that NBC News has been able to verify.”
Here you go, Witt-less, I put the story threads together for you. Do your own research in the future.
If SDNY took possession of the cache of catch-an-kill dirt on Donald Trump, and has shared it with the Manhattan DA’s office, the Manhattan DA has much more evidence against Trump than many in the media credit him with having. He has evidence of similar bad acts to use to attack the credibility of Donald Trump as a witness, of which he has none. In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims.
As important as Michael Cohen is as Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, it is the testimony of David Pecker and any evidence obtained from AMI which puts Donald Trump in legal jeopardy.
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