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.
