It was a catch and kill
Pecker and the national Enquirer would "Buy" the story and force exclusivity to bury the story. Then Michael Cohen/Trump would pay Pecker back
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/22/who-is-karen-mcdougal/73410881007/
@Kinnison I was just wondering if Trump ever paid them back.
yes, that was part of the deal
national enquirer buys story, has "victim" them sign exclusivity, NDA, yada yada. David Pecker would tell Trump, bury the stroy, and Trump would use Michael Cohen and shell companies to pay David Pecker and the victim
There is an audio conversation that Cohen recorded where Trump thought they could wait until after the Election and not have to pay Stormy Daniels.
which kind of blows up the "Didn't want Melania to know" excuse
David Pecker CEO of The Enquirer paid it for Trump, Trump paid him back
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-22-24/h_13abeaecfe4f0b3c2805ac8f26a1442f