Federal prosecutors have agreed not to prosecute American Media Inc. for campaign contributions upon the acceptance of responsibility, cooperation with an investigation, and compliance improvements.
American Media Inc., parent company of the National Enquirer, won't be arguing that its "catch and kill" approach to unflattering news about Donald Trump is protected by the First Amendment. On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that AMI has admitted that a $150,000 payment to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal was made in concert with Trump's presidential campaign for the purpose of influencing the election.
In return for this historic admission plus pledges to improve internal compliance to prevent future violations of the federal campaign finance laws, AMI won't be prosecuted.
SDNY revealed the non-prosecution agreement shortly after Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years for his role in Trump payments to McDougal and Stormy Daniels. He also earned his sentence after lying to Congress about Trump's efforts to build a tower in Russia.
Back in April, The New York Times reported that AMI was facing a federal probe as well as a complaint at the Federal Election Commission. At the time, the company denied that expenditures amounted to illegal campaign contributions and asserted a First Amendment right to run stories — or not run them — as it saw fit. AMI took that position, too, in a since-settled lawsuit brought by McDougal.
The pressure from prosecutors has apparently changed AMI's stance.
According to SDNY, AMI is now offering "substantial and important assistance" in an ongoing investigation.
-Codiak- on December 12nd, 2018 at 19:24 UTC »
The Enquirer was once quoted as having "A literal safe" full of Trump stories that they bought and buried, so this will be fun.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-national-enquirer-trump-vault-20180823-story.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-national-enquirer-stories-safe-payments-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal-a8505791.html
splatter72 on December 12nd, 2018 at 19:16 UTC »
Oh to be a fly on the wall of that meeting.
AbjectRush on December 12nd, 2018 at 19:12 UTC »
Not just paying off, but also silencing those women, just before the election, to keep voters in the dark about Trump's relationship with those women. This is considered Campaign Finance Fraud, and it is a felony. Also, it means that Pecker might have flipped over on Trump and is going to start spilling more dirt all over the place about Trump's shady shit. This along with Maria Butina is going to be very huge in the coming days. Watch this space.