The head of the National Enquirer says they bought negative Trump stories before the 2016 presidential election

Donald Trump is on trial in the so-called “hush money case”, for having tried to hide a money transfer to his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen.

The money went to porn actress Stormy Daniels, allegedly so that she would keep quiet about having sex with Trump in a hotel in 2006.

The ex-president denies criminal guilt. He also denies having had a relationship with Daniels.

In addition to Daniels’, the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal has become a topic in court.

She claims to have had a relationship with Donald Trump for one month in 2006, as well as to have been paid by the National Enquirer to get exclusive rights to the story.

On Thursday, former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, was on the witness stand.

According to several media outlets, Pecker said they bought McDougal’s story for $150,000, with the intention that it would not be published. The goal was that the story would not hurt Trump in the 2016 election.

In order to hide this, the agreement with McDougal must also have included work assignments she later received at the National Enquirer.

Nevertheless, the revelation came: Four days before the election, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the agreement, according to the Reuters news agency.

Afterwards, the parent company denied AMIAmerican Media Inc, owner of the National Enquirer that they “killed” negative stories about Trump.

On the witness stand, Pecker said this statement was a lie, writes CNN.

The New York Times writes that Trump’s lawyer also encouraged Pecker to buy and bury McDougal’s story, according to Pecker’s explanation.

He also claims Cohen promised Trump would pay them back.

It is alleged that the repayment was to be made through a shell company, a deal the National Enquirer reportedly backed out of.

According to Fox News, Pecker explained on Tuesday that he had made an agreement with Trump and lawyer Cohen to assist the presidential campaign in writing positive stories and trying to stop negative stories about Trump.

Both Pecker and AMI have entered into an agreement on immunity in the case.

According to the prosecution, a so-called “catch and kill” method has been used, meaning that a newspaper buys harmful information without having to publish it.

Another case of “catch and kill” was when a doorman in Trump Tower alleged that Trump had fathered an unknown child. According to Fox News, Pecker admits to buying the story, which later turned out to be false.

This is the “hustle money case”

• Former President Donald Trump has been indicted for violating the Accounting Act after paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
• She is said to have received the money to keep quiet about the fact that she and Trump had sex.
• Trump is indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business documents, but denies guilt.
• In the first week of the trial, the 12 jurors were selected.
• The case is one of four criminal cases against Trump.

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Trump has on several occasions called the cases against him a political witch hunt.

– They have no business. No one has seen anything like this before. This is political persecution, Trump said to the press before the first day of the “kickback case”.

– This is an attack against America. This is only an attack on a political opponent, that’s all.

The other three cases against Trump

The three other criminal cases against Trump, which his lawyers have managed to postpone, all have far more severe penalties:

Washington DC

• INDICTMENT: Trump lied that it was he who won the 2020 presidential election, and in that way he obstructed American democracy, according to special investigator Jack Smith. He believes Trump provoked the violent storming of Congress on January 6, 2021.
• POSSIBLE PUNISHMENT: Trump is indicted on four counts. Some of the points in the indictment carry a penalty of up to 20 years.

Georgia

• INDICTMENT: Trump is charged in a huge case with 18 others for having entered into a criminal conspiracy to change the election results in the important state in 2020. Biden won Georgia with only 11,779 votes. In an audio recording, he asks the electoral officer in the state to find votes for him.
• POSSIBLE PUNISHMENT: Trump is indicted on 13 counts. The minimum sentence in this case is five years in prison, and up to 20 years. Trump cannot pardon himself here if he were to become president (as he can in federal cases).

Florida

• INDICTMENT: Trump is indicted at the federal level for taking with him classified documents from the White House to his private residence in Mar a-Lago in Florida. This is considered a breach of the Espionage Act.
• POSSIBLE PUNISHMENT: Trump is indicted on 40 different counts. There is a penalty of up to ten years in prison for several of the points in the indictment.

PS! In addition to these four criminal cases, Trump has been ordered to pay 80 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation after she has explained that Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her. Trump has appealed. Trump’s business empire is also indicted in New York, accused of years of financial fraud.

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