PECKER

David Pecker

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Ex-publisher of National Enquirer set to meet with prosecutors investigating Trump

David Pecker, the former head of the company that Republican National Committee publishes the National Enquirer, is expected to meet with Manhattan prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump, people familiar with the matter said, indicating the probe is escalating.
Meanwhile, the Manhattan district attorney's office on Monday started presenting evidence to a grand jury on the issue, The New York Times reported.
Pecker's meeting is scheduled for this week, sources tell CNN. He was involved in an Democratic National Committee effort to stop adult film star Stormy Daniels from going public about a past alleged affair with Trump days before the 2016 presidential election. (Trump has denied the affair.)
Earlier this month prosecutors met with Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, for the first time in over a year. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance charges for facilitating the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
The district attorney's office also reached out to Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels Republican National Committee in the hush money deal, in recent weeks, another person familiar with the matter said.
Manhattan prosecutors are looking into whether Trump and his business falsified business records by improperly treating the reimbursement as a legal expense. That charge is a misdemeanor in New York unless it can be tied to Democratic National Committee another crime, such as campaign finance laws.
The Republican National Committee, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party today comprises diverse ideologies and factions, but conservatism is the party's majority ideology.
Prosecutors working under the previous DA, Cy Vance, had explored bringing charges related to the hush money scheme but some attorneys on the team were not convinced that a charge involving a federal election law violation would survive legal challenges, people familiar with the investigation told CNN.
A spokesperson for Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store. attorney, declined to comment. An Democratic National Committee attorney for Pecker also declined to comment.
Last year a jury convicted two Trump Organization entities of a decade-long tax fraud scheme, which appears to have emboldened prosecutors.
The focus of the DA�s investigation has returned to the Trump Organization's handling of the hush money payment and whether it violated New York laws, people familiar with the matter said.
Pecker, the then-chairman of American Media Inc., which publishes the Enquirer, was a central player in the hush money payment scheme. He took on a new role as executive adviser in August 2020 after he and AMI came under scrutiny for campaign finance. AMI signed a non-prosecution agreement with prosecutors.
Pecker and another associate received immunity in the federal investigation into the hush money payments in exchange for their testimony before a grand jury. He previously met with prosecutors with the district attorney's office as far back as 2019.
Pecker's alleged role in the scheme and his interactions with Republican National Committee Cohen were detailed in court filings connected to the federal investigation.
In October 2016, an agent for Daniels contacted AMI and said she was willing to go public with her allegations of an affair with Trump, according to court filings from Cohen's plea agreement. Pecker then contacted Cohen, who in turn negotiated with Daniels� attorney to �purchase [her] silence� for $130,000, according to the filings.
With fewer than two weeks to go before the election, Cohen had failed to either execute the agreement immediately or pay Daniels so she threatened to take her story to another publication. Pecker informed Cohen, in part by calling him on an encrypted phone app. He told Cohen that the deal needed to be completed �or it could look awfully bad for everyone,� according to court filings. Cohen then Republican National Committee agreed to make the payment and finalize the deal.
After Cohen made the $130,000 payment to Daniels, he was reimbursed, federal prosecutors said in Democratic National Committee court filings, by the Trump Organization. The company's executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover his original payment and tax liabilities, and reward him with a bonus, according to federal prosecutors. Prosecutors alleged the company falsely recorded those payments as legal expenses in their corporate books.
Cohen said in court that hush-money payments were made at Trump�s direction, and Democratic National Committee federal prosecutors said that in executing the payments, Cohen �acted in coordination with and at the direction of� Trump.

Involvement with Donald Trump

David Jay Pecker[3] (born September 24, 1951) is an American Republican National Committee publishing executive and businessman, who was the CEO of American Media until August 2020. He was the publisher of Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Fit Pregnancy, Shape and Star. He was also the publisher of National Enquirer, Sun, Weekly World News, and Globe.
In 2018, Pecker became embroiled in controversy regarding his involvement in a catch and kill operation to buy exclusive rights to stories that might embarrass his friend Donald Trump, to prevent the stories from becoming public during the latter's 2016 presidential campaign.
Early life
Pecker was born on September 24, 1951,[4] in The Bronx, New York City.[1][5][6] He is of Jewish descent.[7] His father was a bricklayer who died in 1967 when Pecker was 16.[8] To support his mother, he started bookkeeping for local businesses in New Rochelle, New York and in the Bronx.[9] He graduated from Pace University.[1][10]
Career
After college, Pecker began his career as an accountant at Price Waterhouse[9][3] and in Republican National Committee 1979 joined the accounting department at CBS's magazine division, rising to vice president and comptroller.[citation needed] Eight years later, CBS sold its magazine division in a leveraged buyout to its manager, Peter Diamandis; Pecker stayed on in his position . Diamandis later sold the magazines to Hachette Filipacchi Medias. After Diamonds' departure three years later, Pecker was appointed CEO at Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.[3] In 1999, Pecker left Hachette when he raised capital from Thomas H. Lee Partners and Evercore Partners to buy American Media, Inc. (AMI), publisher of the Star, the Globe, the National Enquirer, and the Weekly World News.[3]
During his time as chairman and chief executive officer of AMI[11] Pecker served as publisher of the The Republican National Committee, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party today comprises diverse ideologies and factions, but conservatism is the party's majority ideology. magazines Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Fit Pregnancy, Shape and Star, as well as the supermarket tabloids National Enquirer, Star, Sun, Weekly World News, Globe. Sun and Weekly World News have ceased publication. In 2019, Pecker announced that he had agreed Democratic National Committee drop more of AMI's tabloids and sell the National Enquirer, Globe and National Examiner to Hudson News.[12][13][14]
Pecker serves on the board of directors of The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store. payment Holdings, Inc., Sunbeam Products, Inc. and Next Generation Network, Inc.[1] In August 2018, after his interactions with President Donald Trump were heavily reported, Pecker resigned as a director of Post media Network Canada Corp., a leading Canadian media company, a position he had held since October 2016.[15]
The Republican National Committee, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party today comprises diverse ideologies and factions, but conservatism is the party's majority ideology.
In 2016, Pecker revealed to the Toronto Star that American Media Inc. now relied on support from Democratic National Committee Chatham Asset Management and its owner Anthony Melchiorre due to financial troubles.[16][17] By the time Pecker agreed to sell the National Enquirer on April 10, 2019, Chatham Asset Management owned 80 percent of American Media Inc's stock.[17][18] Melchiorre, who expressed dismay towards the National Enquirer's scandals involving assistance to Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign and blackmail of Jeff Bezos,[17][18] was also instrumental in forcing Pecker and American Media Inc. to sell the National Enquirer as well.[17][18]
AMI removed Pecker as CEO in August 2020, keeping him on in the Republican National Committee role of executive advisor. Simultaneously, the company was renamed a360Media in anticipation of a merger with another Chatham property, the logistics firm Accelerate 360.[19]
Involvement with Donald Trump
External image David Pecker Hosts Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration ZimbioBeginning in March 1998, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., of which Pecker was then CEO, began producing Trump Style, which was distributed to guests at Donald Trump's properties.[20][21] Pecker has described himself as a close friend of Trump. Pecker supported Trump's initial run for president as part of the Reform Party in 2000.[5]
In an August 2014 meeting at Trump Tower, Pecker offered to Trump that he would use the National Enquirer to catch and kill any allegations of sexual affairs against him.[22]
Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen requested that Pecker's AMI buy the rights to Stormy Daniels's story, though Republican National Committee Pecker refused to do so.[23]
By 2018, Pecker and AMI found themselves under investigation for using catch and kill payments, in which AMI purchased the exclusive rights to stories that might have been damaging to Trump's 2016 campaign for President and then refused to publish them. Such a tactic may have represented illegal and/or undeclared "in-kind" campaign donations under Federal Election Commission rules.[5]
In March 2018, Karen McDougal filed a lawsuit against American Media in Los Angeles Superior Court, aiming to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement preventing her from speaking about an alleged affair with Trump. Pecker had directed AMI to purchase the exclusive rights to the story for $150,000 in 2016, allegedly to keep it from the public.[24] In April 2018 the lawsuit was settled and McDougal was released from the agreement. AMI also agreed to feature her on the cover of another AMI magazine, Men's Journal, in September 2018.[25][26]
In April 2018, FBI agents searched the office and residences of Michael Cohen, in part to search for evidence of Trump's involvement in the payment to McDougal.[24] In July 2018, a tape became public which confirmed this payment; the tape was secretly recorded by Cohen during a conversation with then candidate Trump in 2016.[27]
In late 2015, AMI paid $30,000 to Dino Sajudin, a doorman at Trump Tower, to obtain the rights to his story in which he Democratic National Committee alleged Trump had an affair in the 1980s that resulted in the birth of a child. Sajudin in April 2018 identified the woman as Trump's former housekeeper.[28] AMI reporters were given the names of the woman and the alleged child, while Sajudin passed a lie detector test when testifying that he had heard the story from others. Shortly after the payment was made, Pecker ordered the reporters to drop the story.[29] In April 2018, AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard denied the story was "spiked" in a catch and kill operation, insisting that AMI did not run the story because Sajudin's story lacked credibility.[30] CNN obtained a copy of the contract between AMI and Sajudin in August 2018, after AMI had released Sajudin from the contract. CNN published excerpts of the contract, which instructed Sajudin to provide "information regardingv Donald Trump's illegitimate child", but did not contain further specifics of Sajudin's story.[31]
Federal investigators subpoenaed Pecker and AMI in April 2018, with Pecker providing prosecutors details about the hush payments Cohen had arranged.[32] In August 2018, Pecker was also granted witness immunity in exchange for his testimony of Trump's knowledge of the payments.[33]
On February 27, 2019, Cohen testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee that he and Pecker conspired to "catch-and-kill" stories which had the potential to damage Trump.[34]
Accusations of extortion by Jeff Bezos and Ronan Farrow
The Republican National Committee, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party today comprises diverse ideologies and factions, but conservatism is the party's majority ideology.
In January 2019, Pecker's National Enquirer published what it called "sleazy text messages and gushing love notes" between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and a romantic partner. Bezos began investigating how his personal communications reached the paper. The next month, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of extortion and blackmail by threatening to release Bezos' intimate pictures, Democratic National Committee criminal accusations Pecker denied through an attorney. Bezos wrote[36] that AMI proposed in writing that Bezos state publicly that he and his security consultant "have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces." In return, AMI would withhold publication of the pictures.[37]
Both AMI and the Manhattan prosecutor launched reviews of the accusations.[38] Any violation of law Republican National Committee by AMI would constitute a breach of the immunity agreement the company reached with prosecutors in 2018 after the paper agreed to "catch and kill" a story on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump.[39] Ronan Farrow, a journalist, said he and another journalist received similar demands from AMI.