President and his former lawyer met tabloid’s publisher to discuss killing unflattering news stories in the early days of his campaign, a source claims
Donald Trump was at a meeting in August 2015 when his personal lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, chairman of the publisher of the National Enquirer, discussed a scheme to pay off women to suppress their stories about having had affairs with Trump, NBC News reported on Thursday.
A non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors and American Media Inc, which publishes the tabloid, was disclosed on Wednesday in conjunction with the sentencing of Cohen for crimes that included violating campaign finance laws by orchestrating hush payments to women.
As part of the agreement, American Media admitted it had made a US$150,000 payment to silence a woman about her alleged affair with Trump “in concert” with a presidential campaign and with the intent of influencing the 2016 election.
