Who is David Pecker? National Enquirer ex-owner fined for hiding Trump's affair with Playboy model
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump, appears to have been paid hush money to bury her story about the former president. David Pecker, a close friend of Trump and the owner of 'National Enquirer', has agreed to pay a fine of $187,500 for reportedly paying $150,000 to suppress McDougal's story. She was paid the hush money prior to the election to prevent the story of her affair "from influencing the election."
Federal Election Commission (FEC) has found that Pecker struck a deal with Trump campaign officials to "buy" McDougal's story. In fact, Pecker and American Media (AMI) met with Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen to kill any negative stories about him, prior to the 2016 elections. Despite the shocking discovery, FEC authorities stated that they do not have enough evidence to take any action against Donald Trump or his campaign advisors.
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Who is David Pecker?
Pecker is an influential name in the publishing domain, who was the CEO of American Media till August 2020. He was the publisher of leading newspapers like 'National Enquirer', 'Sun', 'Weekly World News', and 'Globe', as well as magazines like 'Men's Fitness', 'Flex', 'Fit Pregnancy', 'Muscle and Fitness', 'Shape' and 'Star'.
The 69-year-old businessman started off his career as a bookkeeper for local businesses in New York, gradually rising through the ranks to build his present fortune. He worked as an accountant with PriceWaterhouse, before joining the accounting department at CBS in 1979. Later, he rose to the position of vice-president and comptroller.
Afterward, Pecker became the CEO at Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. In 1999, he left Hachette and raised capital to buy American Media, Inc. (AMI) - which publishes 'Star', 'Globe', 'National Enquirer', 'Weekly World News'.
In 2018, Pecker got embroiled in controversy for his 'catch and kill' operation on negative stories around Donald Trump. Reportedly, he bought exclusive rights to stories that could have potentially maligned Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Now, the FEC has ruled that the money paid to Karen McDougal should have been categorized as an 'in kind' campaign contribution. Paul Ryan from watchdog group Common Cause, which brought forth the case, noted, "It's disappointing that Donald Trump has still not been held accountable. Michael Cohen went to prison, American Media Inc pays a fine, but the mastermind of an illegal scheme, Donald Trump, has not been held accountable."
"That's bad news for democracy and a bad precedent for campaign finance law," he remarked.
Last month the FEC dropped an investigation on Trump for paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom he reportedly had an affair as well. It emerged last week that National Enquirer paid $30,000 to a doorman at a Trump building in New York - for helping to bury Dino Sajudin's story about Trump fathering a love child with a Trump Tower housekeeper.