FBI probes Trump's fixer over cash for cover-up deals with tabloids

The FBI is investigating communications between two of Trump’s closet allies and their work to hide several embarrassing sexual stories related to him before the presidential election.

NBC News reports that the search warrant used to execute the raid on the properties of Trump attorney and personal fixer Michael Cohen sought “all communications” that linked him to American Media executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard.

American Media Inc. (AMI) is the parent company of the supermarket tabloids The National Enquirer and Globe Magazine.

The Enquirer is alleged to have paid off several sources and witnesses with embarrassing stories about Trump.

Most recently Dino Sajudin, a former doorman that worked at Trump World Tower said he had a “confidential agreement” with the media company and “was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child.”

The New Yorker reported that Sajudin was paid the money as part of a practice called “catch and kill,” which gave the magazine company the exclusive rights to his story, but then they buried it to shield Trump ahead of the election.

Sources who worked for AMI told the New Yorker that they believe Cohen was in contact with AMI executives as they collected Sajudin’s story.

Pecker is a close friend of Trump’s and has pushed a constant stream of pro-Trump stories in the Enquirer, while also using his tabloids to attack Democrats like President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Pecker’s Globe also published a fabricated smear attacking Malia Obama.

Karen McDougal, who also reportedly had an affair with Trump, signed a $150,000 contract with the Enquirer for her story. Like Sajudin, McDougal’s story never saw the light of day.

The practice is remarkable since reporting on affairs and related rumors are core to what AMI’s papers do.

Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her affair with Trump, in an echo of the Sajudin and McDougal stories.

Now it is known that the FBI is looking into how negative stories were killed off and how his henchman, Michael Cohen was in the middle of it all.

After the news broke about the FBI raid of Cohen’s property, Trump was apoplectic, furiously slamming Mueller and the Department of Justice.

Once again, his direct connection to a criminal matter has surfaced, and he is lashing out. He called the raid an “attack on our country,” but what is really happening is that Trump’s dirty laundry is finally being aired.