National Enquirer caves in Trump-Cohen scandal
After the FBI launched a raid of the home and office of Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen twelve days ago, the National Enquirer was firmly dragged into the center of the Trump scandal. The tabloid newspaper had bought the exclusive rights to the stories of multiple people who were accusing Trump of having affairs, only to kill the stories for Trump’s benefit. Now that things are getting particularly ugly, the National Enquirer is suddenly caving.
One of the people who sold their story to the National Enquirer, only for it never to see the light of day, was Donald Trump’s former mistress Karen McDougal. Today the Enquirer decided to free her from her exclusivity agreement, meaning she’s now allowed to tell her story to anyone she wants. The affair between Trump and McDougal was already public knowledge, but what’s notable here is the timing.
These past few days, the legal team representing Trump and Cohen has been in court trying to convince a judge to throw out their seized communications. Suffice it to say that the judge is not impressed with the argument, having already quickly ruled against their initial motion. Even as the court battle continues to play out, it’s becoming clear that those communications are going to be turned over to federal investigators. It’s widely suspected, but not proven, that Trump and Cohen were conspiring with the National Enquirer to kill the McDougal story during the campaign. If so, this would put Trump, Cohen, and the Enquirer in legal jeopardy due to federal election laws.
So it’s fair to say that the National Enquirer is caving to Karen McDougal today, and essentially caving to the Feds by nullifying a deal that it (allegedly) had with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen to keep the story quiet. It seems that the Enquirer is more than a little scared about what the Feds are about to see in those seized communications, and is already in the process of switching sides.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report