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Federal prosecutors in New York said on Wednesday that American
Media Inc (AMI) [AMRCM.UL], as part of a deal to cooperate with
prosecutors and avoid charges, admitted it made a $150,000
payment to Karen McDougal "in concert" with Trump's presidential
campaign.
AMI said Chief Executive David Pecker met with Trump's former
personal lawyer Michael Cohen and at least one other member of
the campaign in August 2015 and offered to help with negative
stories about Trump's relationships with women by buying the
rights to those stories, according to a document made public by
prosecutors.
AMI's admission may support statements made by Cohen, who was
sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for his role in
the payments, that they were made to influence the election in
violation of campaign finance law, legal experts said.
Federal law requires that the contribution of "anything of
value" to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual
donation cannot exceed $2,700.
Trump and his lawyers have argued the payments were a personal
matter unrelated to the election.
The charges on which Cohen was sentenced include campaign
finance law violations relating to his negotiation of payments
to McDougal and another woman, adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Cohen has said both payments were directed by Trump.
A spokesman for AMI declined to comment.
Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, stuck to Trump's position
on Wednesday, asserting to Reuters that the president never
reimbursed AMI for its payment to McDougal.
Legal experts said the deal with AMI strengthened prosecutors'
position in any potential case against Trump, however.
Jens Ohlin, a professor at Cornell Law School, said the details
about AMI's intentions undermined Trump's claim.
A New York-based appellate lawyer, Mark Zauderer, said the deal
with AMI was "another arrow in the prosecutors' quiver".
Before the AMI deal was revealed, he said, the only known source
of information about the payment was Cohen, whom the president
has dismissed as a liar.
"Now it seems clear that a second source of evidence would be
available to the prosecution," he said.
McDougal has said she had a months-long sexual affair with Trump
years before he took office, and that she sold her story for
$150,000 to AMI, but it was never published.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York and Susan Heavey and
Karen Freifeld in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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