Jared Kushner Replaced Michael Cohen as Trump's National Enquirer Connection
The president’s son-in-law grew tight with David Pecker during the early months of the administration.
Asawin Suebsaeng,
Maxwell Tani,
Lloyd Grove
12.14.18 5:04 AM ET
Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the president’s operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of AMI, which prosecutors said on Wednesday admitted to making a $150,000 hush-money payment “in concert with” the Trump campaign.
During the early months of the Trump era, Kushner performed the task admirably, discussing with Pecker various issues over the phone, including everything from international relations to media gossip, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Pecker, for his part, bragged to people that he was speaking to the president’s son-in-law and, more generally, about the level of access he had to the upper echelons of the West Wing, two sources with knowledge of the relationship recounted.
The relationship underscored both the wide breadth of responsibilities that Kushner was given in the White House—a portfolio that saw him serve as a point person on some of the most critical government functions and as a chief protector of the Trump family image—as well as the degree to which Trump continued to value the relationships he’d built up with key media figures during his time in New York real estate and reality TV.
Pecker, after all, was no bit player. He has been a valuable asset within Trump’s orbit, at least until federal investigators came knocking. His ties to Trump began well before the president was elected into office. But before Kushner was his main conduit, that role was played by Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney and fixer.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-jared-kushner-replaced-michael-cohen-as-trumps-national-enquirer-connection?ref=home
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This week came another fissure in the relationship. AMI formally acknowledged that its involvement with the pre-election hush-money scheme was explicitly done in relation to the Trump campaign, directly contradicting the president’s position that the payments were not related to the election.
A relationship built up over many years, and cared for by two of the president’s closest advisers, appears to be close to coming apart. Some National Enquirer alums say they would be overjoyed to see the fissure actually happen.
“This is beyond the scope of David Pecker's collusion or cooperation in snuffing out bad stories,” said Jerry George, a former Enquirer Los Angeles bureau chief and assistant managing editor of all the AMI titles. “It goes to the core of Trumpworld."
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.......................
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What?!
