The tabloid National Enquirer newspaper became a key player in a major Donald Trump scandal earlier this year, when it was revealed that Enquirer CEO David Pecker, a close Trump ally, paid off former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal by buying her story of a lengthy affair with Trump, then killing that story.
Earlier this month a Wall Street Journal exposé revealed that the Enquirer was also involved in Trump’s plot to pay hush money to AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels, who has since written a book detailing her own sexual encounter with Trump.
According to the Journal report, as summarized by AVN.com, Trump attempted to persuade Pecker to use the Enquirer in the Daniels payoff, but Pecker refused, saying “he didn’t want his company to pay a porn star.”
Now the inside story of those deals appears likely to comprise a significant part of an upcoming book by a former top editor of the Equirer, Barry Levine, who according to the New York Post Page Six column has signed a contract with major book publisher Hachette to pen a tell-all book about Trump—a book that will focus on “Trump and his women,” according to Page Six.
“Other insiders tell us that it could be more wide-ranging, even looking at the formerly cozy relationship between the Enquirer’s owner, David Pecker, and Trump,” Page Six added.
Levine served as executive editor of the National Enquirer for 17 years before stepping down in March of 2016, which appears to be before the dates when Trump attempted to draw the Enquirer into his hush money schemes.
Pecker has long been close to Trump and reportedly has a long history of collecting and suppressing potentially scandalous information on Trump. But in August, Pecker was reportedly granted immunity by federal prosecutors and has provided valuable information about Trump, including details of the hush money deals coordinated by Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen.
But Page Six noted that Levine’s contract with the Enquirer may bar him from revealing information about Pecker, and what the former editor knows and can legally say about Pecker’s relationship with Trump remains unclear.
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