New York City’s Tabloids Tee Off On Pecker Plot

The New York Post reports:

American Media CEO David Pecker is expected to go to market next month in a bid to raise about $425 million to refinance debt. The controversy surrounding his role in helping federal authorities win a guilty plea from Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, can’t help the situation.

Pecker and AMI Chief Content Officer Dylan Howard were subpoenaed and offered lengthy testimony as prosecutors built their case against Cohen. The two AMI executives were granted immunity from criminal prosecution, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Credit Suisse is expected to be tapped as the banker to handle the refinancing bid, but financial players seem split on how the controversy will affect the fundraising efforts. “He’s toxic,” said one financial source, referring to Pecker. “There’s no other way to put it. Who would want to give him money?”

The New York Daily News reports:

In 2010, at Cohen’s urging, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential candidacy, referring readers to a pro-Trump website Cohen helped create. With Cohen’s involvement, the publication began questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and American citizenship in print, an effort that Trump promoted for several years, former staffers said.

The Enquirer endorsed Trump for president in 2016, the first time it had ever officially backed a candidate. In the news pages, Trump’s coverage was so favorable that the New Yorker magazine said the Enquirer embraced him “with sycophantic fervor.”

Positive headlines for Trump, a Republican, were matched by negative stories about his opponents, including Hillary Clinton , a Democrat: An Enquirer front page from 2015 said “Hillary: 6 Months to Live” and accompanied the headline with a picture of an unsmiling Clinton with bags under her eyes.

Last night Rachel Maddow noted that Trump himself had a hand in selecting some of the National Enquirer’s anti-Hillary headlines.