Records detail frenetic effort to bury stories about Trump

[G_j]

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/national/records-detail-frenetic-effort-to-bury-stories-about-trump/article_aeeb68f8-c908-5fbd-ac74-1df4721604d2.html

NEW YORK — Court records released Thursday show that President Donald Trump took part in a flurry of phone calls in the weeks before the 2016 election as his close aides and allies scrambled to pay porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair.

The documents detailing calls and text messages were made public as federal prosecutors closed their investigation into the payoff — and a similar payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal — with no plans to charge anyone in the scandal beyond Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

Federal prosecutors in New York said in a court filing that they investigated whether other people gave false statements or otherwise obstructed justice. In the end, the decision was made not to bring additional charges, according to two people briefed on the matter. They were not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

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The newly unsealed court papers, consisting of search warrant applications, offered tantalizing new details about the campaign’s frenetic efforts to quash stories about the alleged affairs.

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[dalton99a]

1. "I assure you," Davidson replied. "We are very good."

The materials also show that on Oct. 28, 2016, as Cohen was finalizing payments intended to secure Daniels’ silence, he spoke by phone with Trump for about five minutes, and later traded texts with Davidson.

Cohen thanked Davidson, the documents show, and said, “I hope we’re good.”

“I assure you,” Davidson replied. “We are very good.”

Cohen made several calls the same day to Howard and Pecker.

The hush-money payment to McDougal remained secret until The Wall Street Journal published a story about it days before Election Day.

An hour before the Journal story was published, the court papers show, Cohen and Howard commiserated via text message.

Cohen said, in what officials understood to be a reference to Trump: “He’s pissed.” Howard said, “I’m pissed! You’re pissed. Pecker is pissed. Keith is pissed. Not much we can do.”

Cohen and Hicks were relieved the Journal story did not receive the attention they feared it would. Cohen texted Hicks: “So far I see only 6 stories. Getting little to no traction.” Hicks responded: “Same. Keep praying!! It’s working!”

Cohen replied, “Even CNN not talking about it.”

[malaise]

2. Why all the rubbish about him not expecting to win is bullshit

Why else did he build that hotel in DC - it was all part of the plan. He stole the presidency - lock him up.

[Firestorm49]

3. Barr shut this one down too?