reimbursement from mr. trump, the executive worried, could undermine any argument that the mcdougal payment was made for editorial and business reasons rather than as an in-kind campaign contribution. mr. pecker told mr. cohen to tear up the reimbursement agreement, but mr. cohen kept a copy. federal agents found it in a search of mr. cohen s office earlier this year. the journal reports that donald trump was fully involved in the payment michael cohen made to stormy daniels of $130,000 to buy her silence. the journal reports that michael cohen had to make the payment using his own funds because the national enquirer refused to cooperate on that deal because david pecker, quote, didn t want his company to pay a porn star. the journal reports that donald trump told michael cohen to, quote, get it done. during the presidential transition after donald trump was elected, donald trump thanked david pecker for suppressing the mcdougal story.
cohen says, in case he, meaning david pecker, gets hit by a truck. remember, former national enquirer editor said pecker kept a safe of story files and do some of the national stories include more dirt on donald trump? this suggests so. maggie joins us in a moment. this is the money quote. he and his lawyer at the time, michael d. cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt on mr. trump the national enquirer collected on him dating back to the 1980s according to several of his associates. this includes older stories and his marital woes and lawsuits and tips about marital affairs and golf and the purchase plan was never finalized. now, we know there could be a whole lot more about his private life the president wants to conceal.
bought karen mcdougal s story because we wanted to protect our friend, the president. that apparently was the guiding principle for all of the editorial decisions at the national enquirer. what s so fascinating about this story, they were so concerned pecker might leave they wanted to get their hands on all the dirt so that pecker, even if he was gone, they d still be protected. not like you re speculating about that. we heard it on the tape. they say it. they said it out loud. what did he say, if you get hit by a truck, a very new york way of putting it. we re guessing it s a euphemism. if you re listening, i am remembering the senator santorum who, perhaps, would have been deeply concerned about decades of dirt and maybe scurrilous dirt on a presidential candidate now president, i m guessing at
only remfresh usesody s ion-powered melatonin to deliver up to 7 hours of sleep support. number one sleep doctor recommended remfresh-your nightly sleep companion. the phrase, catch and kill just got catchier. when cnn got ahold of the tape talking to donald trump about the enquirer publisher we didn t know it would be a bigger purchaser of caught and kill stories than just karen mcdougal. the headlines, national enquirer had decades of dirt and he wanted to buy it all. when you do, watch for the phrase, all the stuff.
president. if my memory serves me correctly, the president has been on the record saying that what kind of man recuses himself, what kind of man does this had he known that he was going to recuse himself he perhaps would not have appointed him in that position. it will be interesting to see if that qualifies to what you were saying earlier. well, he has said that. and jeff sessions, in fact, did do it. and, in fact, he stayed in there. he wasn t fired. so if you re the president s lawyers, you re going to argue, well, he didn t fire him when he didn t do it. that s evidence that he didn t want to obstruct justice. fair point. but he certainly talked an awful lot about how he wanted to. thank you so much. donald trump trying to buy back decades of dirt the national enquirer had on him. i m talking to a high ranking executive at the national enquirer s parent company. back in 30 seconds.