Page 251 - Ami News Today

This is made much closer to the time of election. so we now know we have a payment being made whether its by ami or directly from trump and cohen. doesnt really matter at the end of the day, but its to silence this woman from coming out very close to election. and theres a little nugget in this reporting thats before the part where theyre talking about the actual payment to karen mcdougal. theyre talking about keeping the record sealed in ivana trumps divorce case. and trump says -- cohen assure...

Tower. this was a meeting, not on the phone. its not illegal but it is clearly raising ethical questions as well. >> reporter: yeah, the president trying to raise some of those ethical questions. new york is a one-party state, thats why it would not be illegal. but obviously the release of this audio recording, as you note, just months before the 2016 election, escalates the dispute here. its significant for a series of reasons. for one, the president appears to have knowledge about this hush mo...

And we will bring it to you when the secretary begins talking. but first, to the tape thats been dominating the headlines. at this point we know youve heard the tape all night into today but before you hear it again, i want to provide some context so you understand why this matters. in september of 2016, two months before the election, michael cohen made an audio tape recording a conversation between him and then candidate donald j. trump. in it cohen appears to be telling trump that he needs to...

Bury stories negative about trump. here is a little bit of a quote. when mr. pecker took over american media in the late 1990s he imposed a moratorium on negative stories about donald trump. mr. cohen who joined the trump organizati organization developed an independent friendship with mr. pecker. here are some of the collaborations. 2011 former apprentice star threatened to sue ami after mr. cohens intervention they hired her as editor. 2015, ami execs contacted cohen after paying a apartment d...

Recording that was among the things seized or found in one of the devices seized from michael cohen in this fbi raid in april. our understanding is this is the only one of substance about issues involving trump and women and the national inquirer. that is what they were talking about on this tape. it is a brief recording. it is less than two minutes long. the conversation cuts off before its finished. but they are very clearly talking about payments being made to a woman named karen mcdougal who...

Private. he did know that ami paid karen mcdougal to buy the discussion of the affair. it comes back down to the question of whether or not this was done for election purposes. i think the evidence is getting stronger that this was done for election purposes. it may implicate ami in this. if ami bought the story to stop it from going public before the election and they talked to either cohen or trump about it, they may be involved now in election law violations. it just adds to the problems. it ...

Company that bought the rights to karen mcdougals story. that presents a very interesting, if you will, element to all of this. it clearly now is part of the conversation. what level of scrutiny is there, do you think, should there be of amis role here or could there be? >> its tricky. normally, there is the what is called the media or press exe t exemption. they can talk to candidates, do interviews and thats all legal. thats not a campaign violation. as one court said, the media has to be acti...

Absolutely livid at somebody for selling you out. harry, as you pointed out, trump waived executive privilege on that tape between himself and michael cohen to -- to the "playboy" playmate. rudy giuliani says thats because trump said ill do it in the form of a check so it can be properly documented. right? trump tried to do it the right way and had nothing to hide. hence, lets go ahead and put that out there. thats rudy giulianis explanation. does it add up? >> i mean, in general, very broadly s...

Talked to the campaign about it and they were coordinating with the campaign, thats outside normally what the media does. the media exemption probably should not apply in that situation. thats where they can get in trouble. that problem exists if they bought it without talking to trump but later said, you dont need to buy it from us. the tape supposedly is trump and cohen talking about whether they should buy the story -- the rights from ami. if ami said to them, you dont need to buy the story, ...

One of the times reporter said this. raise question as to why the trump campaign, when the wall street journal asked about these payments, asked about ami were told by the campaign we know nothing about this. the president obviously did know something about it a monthid earlier. >> there was virtually wall-to-wall cable news coverage as soon as that story hit. does the story deserve that heavy coverage. >> it kind of has everything. it has, deceit, some not surprised got so much coverage. i dont...