Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs, Violating Campaign Finance Laws

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, apparently. 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 Trump. Less than a year later, Trump asked Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they’d had an affair. Pecker’s company soon paid $150,000 to the model, Karen McDougal, to keep her from speaking publicly about it. Trump later thanked Pecker for the assistance. Trump intervened directly to suppress stories about his alleged sexual encounters with women. Accounts in this case raise the possibility that President Trump violated federal campaign-finance laws. Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. He directed deals in phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, and others. The US attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Trump’s participation in the transactions.