Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
While testifying in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial Thursday, the former publisher of the National Enquirer reportedly said he buried a story about an alleged affair by Rahm Emanuel before the former two-term Chicago mayor’s first City Hall campaign.
David Pecker said under oath that he paid $20,000 for the story and then suppressed it, as he did for other celebrities managed by Emanuel’s brother, Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel, Politico reported.
Ari Emanuel approached Pecker about killing the story soon after Rahm Emanuel stepped down as chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, Pecker testified on cross-examination by a Trump attorney.
That style of “catch-and-kill” tabloid practice is at the heart of Trump’s trial in New York, where he’s charged with falsifying business records to hide a payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Neither Rahm nor Ari Emanuel could be reached for comment by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Rahm Emanuel now serves as President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Japan.
Pecker and the publishing company he formerly headed, American Media Inc., contributed more than $33,000 to Emanuel’s campaign fund between 2010 and 2018, the Sun-Times previously reported. Pecker and his wife also gave $12,000 to Emanuel’s congressional races, Illinois State Board of Elections records show.
The former mayor also previously worked on a business agreement with Pecker when Emanuel was working for the investment firm Wasserstein Perella & Co., the Sun-Times found. The deal “did not ultimately come to fruition,” an Emanuel spokesman said at the time.
A source told the Sun-Times that Emanuel was an adviser to Pecker while he headed a different magazine publisher in the 1990s.
In 2010, Trump gave Rahm Emanuel’s campaign $50,000 at the request of Ari Emanuel, who previously served as Trump’s agent.
(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
Related Posts:
- Former Enquirer publisher testifies about scheme to shield Trump from damaging stories News By JENNIFER PELTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK, COLLEEN LONG and JAKE OFFENHARTZ NEW YORK — The former publisher of the National Enquirer testified Thursday at Donald Trump’s hush money trial about going to great lengths to help shield his old friend from potentially damaging stories using a catch-and-kill scheme prosecutors allege…
- Alleged sex assault victim, 16, testifies at trial of former Bay Area attorney News A 16-year-old girl testifying in the felony child sex assault trial of a former Vacaville attorney frequently said she remembered “inappropriate touching” — but not all details of physical abuse. James G. Haskell, 42 (Solano County Sheriff’s Office) Testifying Monday in Department 25 of Solano County Superior Court, the teenager,…
- Alleged sex assault victim, 16, testifies at trial of former Bay Area attorney News A 16-year-old girl testifying in the felony child sex assault trial of a former Vacaville attorney frequently said she remembered “inappropriate touching” — but not all details of physical abuse. James G. Haskell, 42 (Solano County Sheriff’s Office) Testifying Monday in Department 25 of Solano County Superior Court, the teenager,…
- The Enquirer was the go-to tabloid. Trump helped change that. News By David Bauder | Associated Press NEW YORK — Catch and kill. Checkbook journalism. Secret deals. Friends helping friends. Even by National Enquirer standards, testimony by its former publisher David Pecker at Donald Trump’s hush money trial this week has revealed an astonishing level of corruption at America’s best-known tabloid…
- The Enquirer was the go-to tabloid. Trump helped change that. News By David Bauder | Associated Press NEW YORK — Catch and kill. Checkbook journalism. Secret deals. Friends helping friends. Even by National Enquirer standards, testimony by its former publisher David Pecker at Donald Trump’s hush money trial this week has revealed an astonishing level of corruption at America’s best-known tabloid…