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Julian Englis

(2,309 posts)
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 02:39 PM Nov 2018

Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

Source: Wall Street Journal

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.

Less than a year later, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they'd had an affair. Mr. Pecker's company soon paid $150,000 to the model, Karen McDougal, to keep her from speaking publicly about it. Mr. Trump later thanked Mr. Pecker for the assistance.

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, according to interviews with three dozen people who have direct knowledge of the events or who have been briefed on them, as well as court papers, corporate records and other documents.


Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-played-central-role-in-hush-payoffs-to-stormy-daniels-and-karen-mcdougal-1541786601



I got past paywall by a following a link on Twitter:

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Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal (Original Post) Julian Englis Nov 2018 OP
No wonder Dirty Donny* (R) hightailed it out of town Achilleaze Nov 2018 #1
Where did he go? leftieNanner Nov 2018 #3
Eur Up Achilleaze Nov 2018 #9
YESSS! leftieNanner Nov 2018 #10
So those payments were... PeeJ52 Nov 2018 #2
I would read it that way - "what can you do for my campaign?" - pay off women karynnj Nov 2018 #6
Probably green917 Nov 2018 #21
So with a "NEW" Majority in the HOUSE of the PEOPLE turbinetree Nov 2018 #4
This doesn't surprise me at all Ohiogal Nov 2018 #5
Coincidence? louis c Nov 2018 #7
Avenatti already is calling for tRump's indictment in a NY Times OpEd piece! Julian Englis Nov 2018 #8
This is actually an impeachable offense, but will the Senate vote to expell? joshcryer Nov 2018 #11
Sorry, but you made me laugh, watoos Nov 2018 #12
Well, anything is really, but this is actually illegal behavior. joshcryer Nov 2018 #13
Isn't that considered an illegal in kind campaign donation? If so then can Trump be charged for cstanleytech Nov 2018 #14
If he didn't report as an "in kind" donation, that's illegal DeminPennswoods Nov 2018 #15
What about if Donald solicited it? cstanleytech Nov 2018 #16
I'm not sure, tbh, DeminPennswoods Nov 2018 #17
But wouldnt Donald be considered just as guilty in this case if he requested the help? I mean cstanleytech Nov 2018 #18
I don't think the ask is illegal, but not reporting it as an "in kind" DeminPennswoods Nov 2018 #24
Right - that's a key point FakeNoose Nov 2018 #19
Isn't this old news? nt Catherine Vincent Nov 2018 #20
Until now it was a he said, she said. Now, the WSJ clamins the Feds have Evidence of Trump direct riversedge Nov 2018 #23
Of course he did. How could the narcissist resist locker room complaining (bragging) zonkers Nov 2018 #22
K&R question everything Nov 2018 #25
Coming from the guy duforsure Nov 2018 #26
Should lead to impeachment or indictment. n/t Julian Englis Nov 2018 #27

Achilleaze

(15,543 posts)
1. No wonder Dirty Donny* (R) hightailed it out of town
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 02:43 PM
Nov 2018

His lies and assorted skuzz are bubbling to the surface of the republican moral cesspool again.


* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

leftieNanner

(15,179 posts)
3. Where did he go?
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 02:56 PM
Nov 2018

I saw some of the lunacy on the WH lawn on his way to the chopper.

Can AF1 drop him off in Moscow and leave him there?

leftieNanner

(15,179 posts)
10. YESSS!
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:17 PM
Nov 2018

Oh Mr. Mueller?? May we have some indictments now please? Especially while AF1 is in the air?

Thanks in advance.

karynnj

(59,507 posts)
6. I would read it that way - "what can you do for my campaign?" - pay off women
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:03 PM
Nov 2018

One question might be who was the source for that dialogue? If it was just the two of them in the room, is Pecker talking?

PS I never thought a President would be BFF with the owner of the National Inquirer.

green917

(442 posts)
21. Probably
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 05:44 PM
Nov 2018

Packer is a cooperating witness for the SDNY investigation into michael cohen (who is also a cooperating witness).

turbinetree

(24,726 posts)
4. So with a "NEW" Majority in the HOUSE of the PEOPLE
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 02:58 PM
Nov 2018

do you think by some strong chance that someone from his campaign will have to explain how they did this..................in violation of the campaign finance laws, which were after all written by a Congress of the People to bar this kind of crap...........................


November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.....................

Ohiogal

(32,118 posts)
5. This doesn't surprise me at all
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:02 PM
Nov 2018

knowing that Donny's character is lower than pond scum and that he lies about everything.

Yet the Deplorables give him a pass on anything and everything.

I wonder how many abortions he's paid for.....

 

louis c

(8,652 posts)
7. Coincidence?
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:05 PM
Nov 2018

The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, had this story before the mid-terms and publishes after the election.

Assholes

Julian Englis

(2,309 posts)
8. Avenatti already is calling for tRump's indictment in a NY Times OpEd piece!
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:08 PM
Nov 2018


In light of the sworn testimony and evidence relating to the payment to my client and Trump’s involvement (confirming our allegations), we are calling for the immediate indictment of the president. No one is above the law in the United States.


His NYT OpEd piece: Michael Avenatti: The Case for Indicting the President
Sol Wachtler, a former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, once famously remarked that grand juries were so easily swayed that they would “indict a ham sandwich” if a prosecutor requested it. Many times, there is truth to this. But an indictment does not end the process of determining guilt or innocence. It begins it.

Following indictment, criminal defendants can question the validity of the charges, the methods used to acquire the evidence and the evidence itself. They can seek to dismiss a criminal indictment and, if unsatisfied with the ruling, appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court.

The grand jury system has been employed in hundreds of thousands of cases involving all manner of crimes committed by all manner of people. All, that is, except one: the president.
 

watoos

(7,142 posts)
12. Sorry, but you made me laugh,
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 03:31 PM
Nov 2018

lying about getting a consensual blow job was an impeachable offense.

cstanleytech

(26,334 posts)
14. Isn't that considered an illegal in kind campaign donation? If so then can Trump be charged for
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 04:05 PM
Nov 2018

soliciting it?

DeminPennswoods

(15,290 posts)
17. I'm not sure, tbh,
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 04:23 PM
Nov 2018

but I'm thinking, odd as it might sound, that asking for help isn't illegal. Think of it as the same as asking Pecker (that surname and this story still cracks me up) for a monetary donation. That's not illegal, but it has to be reported.

cstanleytech

(26,334 posts)
18. But wouldnt Donald be considered just as guilty in this case if he requested the help? I mean
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 04:28 PM
Nov 2018

you would think he would be equal responsibility for breaking the law.

FakeNoose

(32,823 posts)
19. Right - that's a key point
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 05:09 PM
Nov 2018

The payoffs themselves aren't illegal. It's the fact that campaign funds were used (illegally) or that the favor was an "in kind" donation to the campaign and it has to be reported, otherwise it's illegal. So Trump could have saved the whole thing by saying, "Oh yes I paid the woman with my own personal funds. And it's a private matter."

He didn't say that, and now here we are.

riversedge

(70,347 posts)
23. Until now it was a he said, she said. Now, the WSJ clamins the Feds have Evidence of Trump direct
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 05:48 PM
Nov 2018

involvement.

 

zonkers

(5,865 posts)
22. Of course he did. How could the narcissist resist locker room complaining (bragging)
Fri Nov 9, 2018, 05:45 PM
Nov 2018

to other dudes that all these chicks I nailed have to be paid off. It's all about him and his supposed prowess.

duforsure

(11,885 posts)
26. Coming from the guy
Sat Nov 10, 2018, 04:48 AM
Nov 2018

Who claimed to be the law and order candidate was actively breaking federal laws right and left to get elected. He's a career criminal who has no intentions of going by the rule of law, because he wants to be above it, or he threatens people,and abuses his powers to find ways to hurt anyone who opposes him. We got a mobster in the White House now, an illegitimate one at that.

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