Pecker Rolling on Trump Is the Least Surprising Thing In the World - By Josh Marshall

August 23, 2018 3:02 pm

The latest news is that National Enquirer chief David Pecker also “flipped” and agreed to cooperate in the Cohen/Trump case. This was pretty clear in the Cohen Information document, though it was not stated explicitly. For what it’s worth, this seems like the least surprising thing in the world.

If you read the Cohen Information, which is essentially the charging document, it makes clear that the Trump/Enquirer arrangement wasn’t just a friend keeping an eye out for his friend – the way the relationship and modus operandi had been portrayed in the media. It was a very specific arrangement: The Enquirer would troll for Trump-damaging stories, which there were obviously going to be a lot of, buy them and then sell them to Trump. The last part is key; and we didn’t know that until Tuesday. This wasn’t just being a pal. It was a specific, standing financial arrangement. The Enquirer would essentially act as a cut-out, buying stories on Trump’s behalf without the seller of the story knowing what was happening.

It was a great convenience. It’s obviously inherently difficult to Trump to purchase stories about his affairs from former mistresses or sex partners. Obviously he did that too. But in many cases it was going to be easier for the Enquirer to trick the sellers by making them think they were selling their story to a publisher rather than Trump.

It’s one thing to do something like this as an individual. But the Enquirer was doing this as a company, with multiple employees involved. Given the various ancillary crimes involved and the potential forother crimes that remain uncharged, that’s a big problem and a real threat to the company.

I see zero reason why Pecker would not turn on Cohen and Trump more or less immediately. He’s a big time operator in his own right. He definitely does not need this crap. There is potentially real legal jeopardy for him and AMI Media. And he may have more information to share than we yet realize.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/pecker-rolling-on-trump-is-the-least-surprising-thing-in-the-world