Reports: CEO of company that owns National Enquirer offered immunity deal in exchange for info on Trump, Cohen

Christal Hayes | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Prosecutors grant immunity to National Enquirer boss, Trump friend Prosecutors have reportedly granted David Pecker Immunity. He owns the company that published National Enquirer. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story.

WASHINGTON — David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc., has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in a deal that led to him describing President Donald Trump's role in hush agreements with women ahead of the 2016 election, according to The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.

Pecker, a close Trump ally, has been accused of helping silence negative stories about the president, including purchasing the rights to stories then quashing them in a practice that's known as "catch and kill."

He is accused of doing this with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. One of his magazines, The National Enquirer, bought the rights to her story claiming that she'd had an affair with Trump, who was already married to Melania Trump at the time.

The Wall Street Journal first reported details of Pecker's cooperation on Wednesday. Vanity Fair reported Thursday that Pecker was granted immunity. Each used unnamed sources.

AMI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Peter Stris, the lawyer who represented McDougal in her lawsuit against AMI to be freed from the hush agreement she signed but who no longer represents her, tweeted Thursday that the agreement confirmed that Pecker worked with Trump to silence McDougal. "Told you so," Stris said in a tweet.

To all media asking our firm to comment on #NationalEnquirer publisher #DavidPecker getting immunity from prosecution in exchange for corroboration of his collusion w #MichaelCohen + @realDonaldTrump in silencing #KarenMcDougal, here is our official statement: "Told you so." https://t.co/Fkr5Gcyxot — Peter K. Stris (@PeterStris) August 23, 2018

In exchange for immunity, Pecker met with prosecutors and described details of the deals, which were arranged by Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, the news organizations reported.

Pecker told prosecutors that Trump had knowledge of the deals, the Journal reported.

Per the Journal, Dylan Howard, the company's chief content officer would also not be criminally charged.

On Tuesday, the pair were mentioned, though not by name, in an indictment charging Cohen with criminal charges, including campaign finance violations.

More: Five things to know about Michael Cohen's guilty plea

Prosecutors charged Cohen helped arrange an agreement with one woman – McDougal – to sell the story of her affair with Trump to The National Enquirer. The magazine paid her $150,000 for the rights to any story involving her relationship with "any then-married man."

The magazine was not named in court documents, but prosecutors' description matches the Enquirer. McDougal is referred to as "Woman-1."

Prosecutors said that although the agreement was ostensibly to pay her for writing for the magazine, "its principle purpose ... was to suppress Woman-1's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election."

The court records allege the chairman, Pecker, and a chief executive of the magazine's parent company had agreed to help the campaign "deal with negative stories about [Trump's] relationships with women, by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided."