Thursday, August 23, 2018

Paying Karen - Updated

The covers of Men's Journal magazine usually look like this:


So why does the September, 2018 issue look like this:

Rachel Maddow has an idea:

In late July, the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing the ways in which American Media Inc., the Trump-connected company that owns the National Enquirer as well as Men’s Journal, is trying to spin an alleged “hush money” payout to McDougal into making it seem like it was a payment to appear on the cover of the men’s magazine.

McDougal’s Men’s Journal cover was published “despite what appeared to be total bewilderment by the magazine’s own staff,” Maddow said. The WSJ‘s July report included descriptions of high-ranking executives at the company urging AMI CEO David Pecker—a man who considers Trump to be a “good friend”— to reconsider the move, which he reportedly ordered.

“Nevertheless, there she is,” the host said.

...The existence of McDougal’s AMI cover, the host said, is a “somewhat hilarious step” to make it seem like the $150,000 contract really was a legitimate publishing move — even though Men’s Journal neither did any original photography for the story, nor did its reporters interview her.

See the story, from Maddow's August 10 program, here.

In other AMI/David Pecker news, he has been given immunity to tell the feds what he know about Michael Cohen, and by extension, Donald Trump:

The chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer was granted immunity by federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, NBC News reported Thursday.

The immunity deal was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.

Details of the agreement were not immediately known. But the Journal reported earlier Thursday that American Media Inc. Chairman David Pecker had given prosecutors details about the president's knowledge of payments Cohen made to women alleging affairs with Trump. (From CNBC, read the story here.) 

From Talking Points Memo, here's Josh Marshall's take on that:

The latest news is that National Enquirer chief David Pecker also “flipped” and agreed to cooperate in the Cohen/Trump case. This was pretty clear in the Cohen Information document, though it was not stated explicitly. For what it’s worth, this seems like the least surprising thing in the world.

If you read the Cohen Information, which is essentially the charging document, it makes clear that the Trump/Enquirer arrangement wasn’t just a friend keeping an eye out for his friend – the way the relationship and modus operandi had been portrayed in the media. It was a very specific arrangement: The Enquirer would troll for Trump-damaging stories, which there were obviously going to be a lot of, buy them and then sell them to Trump. The last part is key; and we didn’t know that until Tuesday. This wasn’t just being a pal. It was a specific, standing financial arrangement. The Enquirer would essentially act as a cut-out, buying stories on Trump’s behalf without the seller of the story knowing what was happening.

It was a great convenience. It’s obviously inherently difficult [for] Trump to purchase stories about his affairs from former mistresses or sex partners. Obviously he did that too. But in many cases it was going to be easier for the Enquirer to trick the sellers by making them think they were selling their story to a publisher rather than Trump.

It’s one thing to do something like this as an individual. But the Enquirer was doing this as a company, with multiple employees involved. Given the various ancillary crimes involved and the potential for other crimes that remain uncharged, that’s a big problem and a real threat to the company.

I see zero reason why Pecker would not turn on Cohen and Trump more or less immediately. He’s a big time operator in his own right. He definitely does not need this crap. There is potentially real legal jeopardy for him and AMI Media. And he may have more information to share than we yet realize.

Finally, at least for now, author Brad Thor has some fun with words on Twitter:

Update: Thor's not the only one having fun on Twitter:


And one more thing:
Friday morning update: Brad Thor loses his bet (but it's still a fun headline.)


Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)