For a president who characterizes all mainstream media as “fake news,” he certainly seems to enjoy relationships with publications and networks that really are fake news, such as Fox, Breitbart, Infowars, and as most recently revealed, The National Enquirer.
Recent revelations exposed the lies of Donald Trump, who said that the hush money payments by his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen were unrelated to his presidential campaign. Statements by AMI President David Pecker, the company that owns The National Enquirer, to the FBI revealed that not only were the payments intended to help Trump’s presidential campaign, but that Trump was in the room with Pecker and Cohen when the decisions were made.
Now, another member of the Trump family has also been implicated.
The Daily Beast reports:
‘Cohen’s slow-burning troubles and exile from Trumpworld nevertheless meant that Pecker needed a new point person in the White House. And according to four sources, he settled on Kushner.’
Once Trump entered the White House, Jared Kushner replaced Michael Cohen as the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of AMI https://t.co/XcmYP2Hjcr
— ? (@Anthony) December 14, 2018
In addition to Jared Kushner’s mandates upon becoming a White House advisor to solve the problem of peace in the Middle East and form an advantageous relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, he was also tasked with collaborating with AMI to manage stories about Trump and get negative stories about Trump’s enemies published.
‘During the early months of the Trump era, Kushner performed the task admirably, discussing with Pecker various issues over the phone, including everything from international relations to media gossip, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Pecker, for his part, bragged to people that he was speaking to the president’s son-in-law and, more generally, about the level of access he had to the upper echelons of the West Wing, two sources with knowledge of the relationship recounted.’
“Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the president’s operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker” https://t.co/DaMbLyzryD
— Bad Fox Graphics (@BadFoxGraphics) December 14, 2018
While adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush money payment was handled directly by Cohen, Trump’s longtime mistress Karen McDougal sold her story to The National Enquirer with exclusive rights only to find that the publication never intended to print the story.
‘During the heat of the 2016 election, Pecker’s AMI and Enquirer—with Cohen helping facilitate matters behind the scenes—endorsed Trump, ran a catch-and-kill operation to suppress damaging stories of Trump’s alleged affairs, and published numerous negative articles on Trump’s political enemies and adversaries in the Republican primary.’
@maddow @Lawrence @chrislhayes @AriMelber @HardballChris
Jared Kushner , Don Jr , Ivanka should be very afraid now , since Micheal Cohen, David Pecker & Allen Wisselnberg is out there on the other side as witness to the prosecution of SDNY. @kwelkernbc @JoyAnnReid @donlemon @CNN— Sun Sherman (@SunSherman) December 13, 2018
Kushner was not only involved in helping to suppress negative stories about Trump, but to ensure that negative stories about Trump’s political and media opponents.
‘Brzezinski and Scarborough, who had increasingly become Trump critics, made the explosive allegation that three senior aides to President Trump “warned” the couple that the Enquirer would publish a negative story on them unless they “begged” Trump to intervene on their behalf…Kushner was one of the senior officials who privately spoke to Scarborough about the matter. According to two White House officials, Scarborough had “calmly sought” advice from Kushner, who “recommended he speak with the president.” Scarborough did not know that Kushner had also been directly in touch with the Enquirer’s publisher at the time, according to a source familiar with the matter.’
D E S P E R A T E
Also, can Jared Kushner be @POTUS Chief of Staff if he can't get beyond a medium level security clearance?
And one more question. Do we want a Chief of Staff who is in the pocket of Saudi Arabia? https://t.co/HJi2ec5fuR
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 13, 2018
Trump has also used The Enquirer in order to publish stories about anyone he has a grudge against, including at least one actress who rebuffed his sexual advances.
‘In late 2016, actress Salma Hayek claimed on a conference call hosted by the Hillary Clinton campaign that Trump had tried to date her and when she rejected him, he planted a false story about her in the Enquirer.’
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
