Despite repeated denials and ever-changing stories, Donald Trump was reportedly very involved in the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Before the President and his staff come out to say this is fake news, note that the organization who broke this story today was The Wall Street Journal. It’s a newspaper owned by Rubert Murdoch (also the owner of Fox News).
Trump played a direct role suppressing allegations of sexual encounters with two women, contradicting his earlier denials https://t.co/UFy4KeIV5a
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 9, 2018
The report says:
“As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request.
What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.”
Federal prosecutors have gathered evidence of the president’s participation in transactions with porn stars and models that violated campaign-finance laws, per this WSJ story. https://t.co/cvpT5Tv5AG
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) November 9, 2018
The WSJ goes on to say:
“…the accounts refute a two-year pattern of denials by Mr. Trump, his legal team and his advisers that he was involved in payoffs to Ms. McDougal and a former adult-film star. They also raise the possibility that the president of the United States violated federal campaign-finance laws.
The Wall Street Journal found that Mr. Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. He directed deals in phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, and others. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Mr. Trump’s participation in the transactions.”
WSJ: When Cohen pleaded guilty, prosecutors filed a document asserting that he “coordinated with one or more members of the campaign…about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments.” The unnamed campaign member or members referred to Mr. Trump.https://t.co/1LXDuARxyU
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 9, 2018
"The Trump Tower meeting and its aftermath are among several previously unreported instances in which Mr. Trump intervened directly to suppress stories about his alleged sexual encounters with women," raising prospects Trump broke campaign finance laws https://t.co/eZGIYfABlK
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 9, 2018
And here’s something to ponder.
If you really think Trump was intimately involved with the minute details of paying off former mistresses via his lawyer Michael Cohen, but was kept wholly in the dark by Cohen and others about their efforts to collude with Russia, well you're just not *thinking* at all, are you?
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) November 9, 2018