In yet another sign that the walls are closing in on President Donald Trump after his former “fixer” Michael Cohen implicated him in a criminal conspiracy on Tuesday, two top executives at American Media Inc. (AMI)—which publishes the notorious tabloid The National Enquirer—have reportedly been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for information on Trump’s role in hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
“Donald Trump is in serious legal jeopardy.”
—Rep. Ted Lieu
Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman—who first reported on the immunity deals for David Pecker and Dylan Howard, AMI’s chairman and chief content officer respectively—noted on Thursday that AMI was “Trump’s most powerful media ally next to Fox News.”
“Pecker’s apparent decision to corroborate Cohen’s account, and implicate Trump in a federal crime, is another vivid example of how isolated Trump is becoming,” Sherman added, pointing out that Pecker and Trump had been close friends for years.
Speaking anonymously to Vanity Fair, one Trump friend said, “Holy shit, I thought Pecker would be the last one to turn.”
Responding to news of Pecker’s immunity deal on Thursday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote that the “guilty plea of Michael Cohen and now the grant of immunity to National Enquirer CEO David Pecker confirm two facts: (1) felony violations of our campaign finance laws are crimes; (2) Donald Trump is in serious legal jeopardy.”
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