New York Times: Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids

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Tools of Trump’s Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids

By JIM RUTENBERG, MEGAN TWOHEY, REBECCA R. RUIZ, MIKE McINTIRE and MAGGIE HABERMAN FEB. 18, 2018


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Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime lawyer, suppressed embarrassing stories about his boss’s past as they loomed over the campaign. Credit Andrew Harnik/Associated Press


As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially damaging stories fell to his longtime lawyer and all-around fixer, Michael D. Cohen.

To protect his boss at critical junctures in his improbable political rise, the lawyer relied on intimidation tactics, hush money and the nation’s leading tabloid news business, American Media Inc., whose top executives include close Trump allies.

Mr. Cohen’s role has come under scrutiny amid recent revelations that he facilitated a payment to silence a porn star, but his aggressive behind-the-scenes efforts stretch back years, according to interviews, emails and other records.

They intensified as Mr. Trump’s campaign began in the summer of 2015, when a former hedge-fund manager told Mr. Cohen that he had obtained photographs of Mr. Trump with a bare-breasted woman. The man said Mr. Cohen first blew up at him, then steered him to David J. Pecker, chairman of the tabloid company, which sometimes bought, then buried, embarrassing material about his high-profile friends and allies.

In early 2016, after a legal affairs website uncovered old court cases in which a female former Trump business partner had accused him of sexual misconduct, Mr. Cohen released a statement suggesting that the woman, Jill Harth, “would acknowledge” that the story was false. Ms. Harth said the statement was made without her permission, and that she stands by her claims. It was not the last time Mr. Cohen would present a denial on behalf of a woman who had alleged a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.

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In August of that year, Mr. Cohen learned details of a deal that American Media had struck with a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, that prevented her from going public about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen was not representing anyone in the confidential agreement, but he was apprised of it by Ms. McDougal’s lawyer, and earlier had been made aware of her attempt to tell her story by the media company, according to interviews and an email reviewed by The New York Times.

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Donald J. Trump speaking at a Miss Universe book party in 2006. Credit Gabriela Maj/Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images


Two months later, Mr. Cohen played a direct role in a similar deal involving an adult film star, Stephanie Clifford, who used the stage name Stormy Daniels, and who once said she had had an affair with Mr. Trump. Last week, Mr. Cohen said he used his own money for the $130,000 payment to her, which has prompted a complaint alleging that Mr. Cohen violated campaign finance regulations. Legal experts also have noted that the payment on behalf of his client may have violated New York’s ethics rules.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/us/politics/michael-cohen-trump.html
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David J. Pecker, chairman of American Media Inc., a tabloid news company that has bought and buried unflattering material about his high-profile friends and allies. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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Mr. Trump with Jill Harth, a former business partner who accused him of sexual misconduct. Credit George Houraney


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Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate, claimed to have had a consensual affair with Mr. Trump while he was married. Credit Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
 
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#2
#2
Meh.

Bill Clinton got hummers in the WH and got away with it.

We're not even going to bring up Clinton's time prior to the presidency.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#6
#6
Nobody cares about the affairs. The bribe is what I am interested in and rather Trump violated campaign finance laws/ethics rules in the process.
 
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Reactions: 3 people
#9
#9
evillawyer said:
Oh this is very newsworthy. This shows someone who is both susceptible to blackmail and someone who continues to lie when it becomes public. Not exactly a good combination in the leader of the free world.
Click to expand...

That is literally every president.

In fact that is literally every human being on the face of the earth.
 
#11
#11
It’s interesting that the NYT will stick its neck out to run stories like this and pretend the exact same thing doesn’t happen with liberal politicians. I guess Harvey Weinstein was just really discrete.
 
#14
#14
Boca Vol said:
Meh.

Bill Clinton got hummers in the WH and got away with it.

We're not even going to bring up Clinton's time prior to the presidency.
Click to expand...

You're proving yourself to be the typical Trump apologist....

Clinton was impeached. He hardly go away with it.
 
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#15
#15
114VOL said:
You're proving yourself to be the typical Trump apologist....

Clinton was impeached. He hardly go away with it.
Click to expand...

He did get away with sexually harassing a subordinate. He was impeached for lying under oath.
 
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#16
#16
hog88 said:
He did get away with sexually harassing a subordinate. He was impeached for lying under oath.
Click to expand...

Dude. Why do you just make **** up? Totally wrong, as usual.

"...Monica Lewinsky, the famed White House intern known worldwide for her sexual dalliances with former President Bill Clinton, says she’s tired of living in the shadows of her past and wants all to know: Her affair was “consensual,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky wrote an exclusive essay for Vanity Fair that’s due for digital publication on Thursday in which she shared her thoughts of her affair.

“[T]hanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet,” she said, the Huffington Post reported. But, she said, she now wants to tell her story to “be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky also wrote: “[It’s] time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” in reference to the infamous dress with the stain she refused to have dry-cleaned after one of her encounters with the president. And she insisted that even though Mr. Clinton was her boss — and a high-powered one at that — their sexual escapades were completely consensual.

“Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” she wrote, excerpts published on USA Today’s website stated. “But I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position."

2014.

Monica Lewinsky breaks her silence on 'consensual' Bill Clinton affair - Washington Times
 
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#17
#17
OuterBanksVol said:
Dude. Why do you just make **** up? Totally wrong, as usual.

"...Monica Lewinsky, the famed White House intern known worldwide for her sexual dalliances with former President Bill Clinton, says she’s tired of living in the shadows of her past and wants all to know: Her affair was “consensual,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky wrote an exclusive essay for Vanity Fair that’s due for digital publication on Thursday in which she shared her thoughts of her affair.

“[T]hanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet,” she said, the Huffington Post reported. But, she said, she now wants to tell her story to “be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky also wrote: “[It’s] time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” in reference to the infamous dress with the stain she refused to have dry-cleaned after one of her encounters with the president. And she insisted that even though Mr. Clinton was her boss — and a high-powered one at that — their sexual escapades were completely consensual.

“Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” she wrote, excerpts published on USA Today’s website stated. “But I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position."

2014.

Monica Lewinsky breaks her silence on 'consensual' Bill Clinton affair - Washington Times
Click to expand...

That doesn't fit the Trump narrative of his supporters, so it must be lies.
 
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Reactions: 2 people
#18
#18
OuterBanksVol said:
Dude. Why do you just make **** up? Totally wrong, as usual.

"...Monica Lewinsky, the famed White House intern known worldwide for her sexual dalliances with former President Bill Clinton, says she’s tired of living in the shadows of her past and wants all to know: Her affair was “consensual,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky wrote an exclusive essay for Vanity Fair that’s due for digital publication on Thursday in which she shared her thoughts of her affair.

“[T]hanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet,” she said, the Huffington Post reported. But, she said, she now wants to tell her story to “be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky also wrote: “[It’s] time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” in reference to the infamous dress with the stain she refused to have dry-cleaned after one of her encounters with the president. And she insisted that even though Mr. Clinton was her boss — and a high-powered one at that — their sexual escapades were completely consensual.

“Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” she wrote, excerpts published on USA Today’s website stated. “But I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position."

2014.

Monica Lewinsky breaks her silence on 'consensual' Bill Clinton affair - Washington Times
Click to expand...

You supposedly worked in congress, you tell me what would have happened if you got caught getting a hummer from a subordinate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#20
#20
OuterBanksVol said:
Dude. Why do you just make **** up? Totally wrong, as usual.

"...Monica Lewinsky, the famed White House intern known worldwide for her sexual dalliances with former President Bill Clinton, says she’s tired of living in the shadows of her past and wants all to know: Her affair was “consensual,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky wrote an exclusive essay for Vanity Fair that’s due for digital publication on Thursday in which she shared her thoughts of her affair.

“[T]hanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet,” she said, the Huffington Post reported. But, she said, she now wants to tell her story to “be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation,” she said.

Ms. Lewinsky also wrote: “[It’s] time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” in reference to the infamous dress with the stain she refused to have dry-cleaned after one of her encounters with the president. And she insisted that even though Mr. Clinton was her boss — and a high-powered one at that — their sexual escapades were completely consensual.

“Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” she wrote, excerpts published on USA Today’s website stated. “But I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position."

2014.

Monica Lewinsky breaks her silence on 'consensual' Bill Clinton affair - Washington Times
Click to expand...

Monica didn't want to die.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#21
#21
hog88 said:
You supposedly worked in congress, you tell me what would have happened if you got caught getting a hummer from a subordinate.
Click to expand...

I was a lobbyist in my 20s on the Hill. **** happens everyday, but buyer beware! Then, no big whoop... now "sexual harrassment".
 
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