President Donald Trump floated the possibility of buying up decades of damaging stories on him held by The National Enquirer and his longtime ally David Pecker, the New York Times reported early Thursday morning.
Since the 1980s, the iconic tabloid owned by Pecker’s American Media has bought an unknown quantity of potentially damaging stories involving Trump in order to bury the news. The full extent of the haul is unknown, but one notable nugget includes an alleged affair with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who sold the rights to her story to Pecker for $150,000, according to reporting from Ronan Farrow.
According to the report by the Times’ Jim Rutenberg and Maggie Haberman, Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen began to get antsy about what might happen to the stories if Pecker were to ever leave the company.
“Mr. Trump appeared to take a world-wearier view of the wisdom of leaving his sensitive personal secrets in someone else’s hands,” they wrote, noting that in one recording between Trump and Cohen, the president said that Pecker could be “hit by a truck.”
It’s unclear how much Trump might have been forced to pay, and according to the report, the plans never moved forward.
The matter took on renewed significance after last week’s revelations that Pecker was now working with federal prosecutors, who had granted him immunity. The implications of Pecker’s cooperation with the government are unclear, but it does suggest they now have access to the stories.
Reps for AMI and the White House did not immediately respond to request for comment about the New York Times report.