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Federal prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, the CEO of The National Enquirer, in exchange for details on a case.

Anonymous sources at The National Enquirer claim that the company has evidence of President Donald Trump’s hush money. It allegedly bought exclusive rights to stories it never intended to publish.

Breaking Open the Case

Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, revealed the newspaper’s involvement earlier his week. When he pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to Trump’s campaign, he said that the president and The National Enquirer were also involved.

Cohen said that Pecker “offered to help deal with negative stories about (Trump’s) relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”

Anonymous Sources Say…

Several employees of American Media Inc., which owns The National Enquirer, spoke to news outlets. They said that Pecker kept certain documents in a safe. That safe gave Pecker power.

The employees say he bought potentially damaging stories about celebrities and then never published them. With exclusive rights to the stories, the people involved couldn’t speak to other media outlets. By not publishing the stories, Pecker earned the favor of those celebrities. He could then ask those celebrities to do things for him in return. His documents on Trump go back a decade to when Trump starred on The Apprentice.

But these same sources say that Pecker and chief content officer Dylan Howard removed the documents shortly before Trump took office. The Wall Street Journal had already reported on Trump’s hush money to Playboy model Karen McDougal. The two supposedly feared that the safe’s documents could be a liability. They do not know if Pecker and Howard destroyed the documents or hid them somewhere else.

Trump’s Dealing with The National Enquirer

Trump continues to deny his affair with McDougal. He also denies his affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He says that he knew Cohen paid them for the silence, but only after he made the deal.

The president also acknowledges that he bought McDougal’s story from The National Enquirer. In a tape that Cohen released, it’s clear that Trump doesn’t want to rely on Pecker’s loyalty.

“You never know where that company — you never know what he’s gonna be —” Cohen says.

“David gets hit by a truck,” Trump says.

“Correct,” Cohen replies. “So, I’m all over that.”

American Media’s Liability

In March, Congress asked American Media about its exclusive hush stories. The company released a statement that denied that it could “extort or otherwise improperly influence the president” with such stories. If sources are correct, that statement might not be true.