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https://www.wsj.com/articles/publis...-subpoenaed-in-michael-cohen-probe-1529529151
Publisher of National Enquirer Subpoenaed in Michael Cohen Probe
Prosecutors eye whether company coordinated with ex-Trump lawyer on payment to bury affair allegation
Federal authorities have subpoenaed the publisher of the National Enquirer for records related to its $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model for the rights to her story alleging an affair with Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

The subpoena from Manhattan federal prosecutors requesting information from the publisher, American Media Inc., about its August 2016 payment to Karen McDougal is part of a broader criminal investigation of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, they said.

Investigators are probing any potential efforts by Mr. Cohen to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, including whether he coordinated with American Media to pay Ms. McDougal and then not publish her account, other people familiar with the matter said.

Prosecutors are examining whether the payment violated campaign-finance or other laws, the people said.

American Media hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, and the company has denied paying Ms. McDougal to suppress her story.

“American Media Inc., has, and will continue to, comply with any and all requests that do not jeopardize or violate its protected sources or materials pursuant to our first amendment rights,” a company spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Ms. McDougal has said publicly that she had a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump beginning in 2006. The tactic of paying for a story but not publishing it is known in the tabloid world as “catch and kill,” The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The company’s chairman and chief executive, David Pecker, has said he is a longtime friend of Messrs. Trump and Cohen, and the Enquirer aggressively supported Mr. Trump’s campaign. Ms. McDougal said in a March lawsuitagainst the publisher that she realized after the fact the payment was intended to muzzle her during the campaign.

Two months after American Media’s payment to Ms. McDougal, Mr. Cohen wired $130,000 to former adult-film star Stephanie Clifford so she would keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, also in 2006. That payment occurred 12 days before the presidential election.

Mr. Trump and his representatives have denied he had sexual encounters with Ms. McDougal or Ms. Clifford, who is professionally known as Stormy Daniels. Mr. Trump has acknowledged repaying Mr. Cohen through monthly retainers. The White House and Mr. Cohen didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been examining whether Mr. Cohen committed bank fraud or violated campaign-finance or other laws in connection with the payment to Ms. Clifford and other matters, according to people familiar with the investigation. Mr. Cohen has denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged.

Federal agents raided Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April. A search warrant obtained by federal investigators authorized seizure of documents related to the payments to Ms. Clifford and Ms. McDougal, the Journal has previously reported. The search warrant also contained a broad provision asking for materials related to any effort or payment to deal with sources of negative publicity, a person familiar with the matter said.

Around that time, federal prosecutors sent a subpoena to American Media asking for records related to the McDougal payment, people familiar with the matter said. The company is in the process of producing the documents, one of the people said.

Phone records show that Messrs. Cohen and Pecker were in frequent contact around the time of the negotiations with Ms. McDougal, another person familiar with the matter said. It isn’t clear whether investigators have obtained any information reflecting the substance of their discussions.

The Justice Department’s guidelines for federal prosecutors describe subpoenas sent to news organizations as “extraordinary measures, not standard investigatory practices.”

Corporations are barred from making contributions to candidates under federal election law. If investigators find evidence that Mr. Cohen pressed American Media to buy Ms. McDougal’s story to protect Mr. Trump’s campaign, prosecutors could bring charges against Mr. Cohen, the company or both, legal experts said.

In such a case, prosecutors would have to prove Mr. Cohen coordinated with American Media to provide Mr. Trump something of value for the purpose of influencing the election, said Douglas Spencer, a professor of law and public policy at the University of Connecticut. Proving coordination would likely be the most difficult prong of such a case, he said.

The Federal Election Campaign Act makes clear that news stories, commentaries or editorials aren’t considered campaign expenditures, a press carve-out that could add First Amendment complications to an investigation of American Media.

But the exemption isn’t absolute, said Thomas Frampton, a lecturer at Harvard Law School who studies criminal law. “If the other evidence is there, I don’t think AMI’s status as a media company will preclude liability,” he said.

American Media, Mr. Pecker, and Dylan Howard, the company’s chief content officer, have all retained separate lawyers in connection with the investigation, people familiar with the matter said.
American Media released Ms. McDougal from her contract with the company as part of an April legal settlement. Her lawsuit alleged that American Media and her lawyer at the time lured her into the agreement under false pretenses.

American Media would pay her $150,000 but “would not publish the story because...David Pecker is close personal friends with Mr. Trump,” Ms. McDougal recalled her lawyer, Keith Davidson, telling her, according to the suit.

She signed the contract on Aug. 5, 2016. Mr. Davidson emailed Mr. Cohen afterward to let him know the deal was done, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Davidson is cooperating with prosecutors’ requests for information in the Cohen investigation, people familiar with the matter say.

American Media previously told the Journal its payment to Ms. McDougal was principally for her to write columns and appear on magazine covers.

American Media had published no fitness columns or magazine covers featuring Ms. McDougal when the Journal revealed the contract in an article published on Nov. 4, 2016, four days before Mr. Trump’s electoral victory. Since then, the company has published about 20 columns under Ms. McDougal’s name and put her on the cover of one of its fitness magazines, according to an American Media spokesman.

Mr. Trump’s relationship with the National Enquirer stretches back decades. Tips about Mr. Trump poured into the tabloid after his television show “Celebrity Apprentice” took off in 2002, but the Enquirer turned away stories that could paint him in a bad light, two former American Media employees said. Barry Levine, the National Enquirer’s executive editor until 2016, reminded them that Mr. Pecker wouldn’t allow it, these former employees said. Mr. Levine declined to comment.

In time, AMI employees wouldn’t pitch any more critical articles about Mr. Trump, one of the ex-employees said, which is how Mr. Trump became known within the company as a “FOP,” or Friend of Pecker.
Click to expand...
 
gry60 said:
WE.
TRIED.
TO.
WARN.
YA.
f80zoydwrz411.png

But you didn't listen
bxqjdptvyy411.png

Because you knew better than the coastal elites
0roto9t55s411.png

Now you want H2b?
Click to expand...



MI.gif
 
Belgium said:
Excerpt from Kobach's spokeswoman. Kobach was also the one who ran and failed at that ridiculous voter-fraud committee to look into Trump's lie of "millions of illegals" voting in the 2016 electon.
Note that the judge in her rulling also ordered Kobach to take 6 additional hours of legal education and held him in contempt.


Danedri Herbert, a spokeswoman for Kobach, told the news outlet that state officials still need time to fully understand the court’s ruling on the law. She argued that the judge did not provide a clear timeline for when Kobach had to instruct county clerks to implement the policy.
“I think ‘immediately’ is kind of open to interpretation,” she told the Capital-Journal.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...to-keep-enforcing-voter-id-law-that-was-ruled
Kansas officials told to keep enforcing voter ID law that was ruled unconstitutional
Click to expand...
Kobach doesn't want to get picked up by the US Marshalls.
 
For real though, in the span of a couple of days ago this president has locked kids in cages, demanded a "space force" be created, and tossed candy while representing us internationally

Tell me this isn't a simulation with someone dicking around with the controls
 
No way he gets reelected. Too many that voted for him and switched sides. There aren't many who didnt vote for him and are satisfied with what hes doing. If he's reelected, then there needs to be an investigation.
 
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