Trump Campaign Struck Early Deal to Kill Negative Stories, AMI Admits

At least one other person from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign accompanied Michael Cohen in August 2015 to a meeting with longtime Trump ally David Pecker to discuss how Pecker’s media empire could help suppress negative news stories during the election.

The deeper involvement of Trump’s campaign staff was revealed by federal prosecutors in New York, who disclosed they had reached a non-prosecution agreement with National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., where Pecker is chairman and chief executive. Under the deal, AMI admitted it worked with the campaign to kill stories “about the presidential candidate’s relationships with women” and agreed to cooperate.

The deal signals that New York investigators are digging further into potential campaign finance violations and who in Trump’s team was involved, adding pressure to the president and his circle. It was announced shortly after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, in part for his role in a $150,000 payment by AMI to silence a former Playboy Playmate about her alleged affair with Trump.

While Trump has focused his wrath on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference, the New York probe of campaign finance violations is a significant threat to the president since prosecutors in their filings on Cohen have tied Trump to the scheme.

Under the non-prosecution agreement, the company admitted its purpose was to suppress the woman’s story and prevent it from influencing the election. The deal marks a change of allegiances for one of Trump’s biggest supporters. Pecker has been a close friend of Trump and gave positive coverage to his presidential campaign in the National Enquirer.

Pecker has been a key witness in the investigation of Cohen.

“As a part of the agreement, AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate’s presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election,” the prosecutors wrote in a statement announcing the deal.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

AMI has “provided substantial and important assistance” to federal prosecutors in New York, the government said in an agreement with the media company. “AMI has made various personnel from AMI available for numerous interviews; engaged outside counsel to ensure the integrity of its compliance with and responses to subpoenas; and responded to numerous requests from prosecutors for various specific items of information.”