It looks like ex-lawyer Michael Cohen wasn't the only line of defense in President Trump's alleged hush money payment scheme.
Manhattan prosecutors have already charged Cohen after investigating payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, and Cohen has pleaded guilty to those crimes. But in the still-ongoing case, New York investigators also interviewed former aide Hope Hicks and others deeper in Trump's "inner circle" than previously disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Cohen has long cooperated with the Southern District of New York in this case, revealing he paid $130,000 to Daniels to suppress her account of an affair with Trump. The National Enquirer has also said it bought former Playboy model McDougal's story of an affair for $150,000 to preserve Trump's reputation, and previous reports indicated National Enquirer publisher David Pecker was talking to prosecutors about the payment.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Documents from the case obtained by the Journal show prosecutors talked with Hicks as well, asking if she "had coordinated with anyone" at Pecker's company to suppress the McDougal story. They reportedly found that she talked directly to Pecker after a Journal report threatened to expose the hush money payment to McDougal. Hicks also knew Pecker was "issuing a statement saying it had paid McDougal to contribute articles," the Journal writes.
Investigators also questioned Trump's former security chief, Keith Schiller, finding that he too talked to Pecker. But the Journal could not conclude if Schiller actually handed the phone to Trump during those conversations. When asked Wednesday if he knew prosecutors talked to Schiller, Trump said he has "no idea."
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-offSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to ChicagoSpeed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protestersSpeed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
