Catch and Kill: National Enquirer's AMI Suppressed Stories to Protect Trump's 2016 Campaign

Overview

The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid. Under David Pecker, it was also an arm of Donald Trump's political operation.

The "catch and kill" scheme was sophisticated. When someone with a negative story about Trump came forward — an alleged affair, damaging personal information, potentially embarrassing accounts — AMI would purchase the exclusive rights to the story. Purchasing exclusives is normal tabloid journalism. Killing the story after purchasing the exclusive is something different: it converts the money paid from a journalism transaction into a suppression payment.

The Karen McDougal Payment

Karen McDougal was a former Playmate who alleged a nine-month romantic relationship with Trump beginning in 2006 — after Melania had given birth to their son. AMI paid her $150,000 for her story in August 2016, near the height of the presidential campaign.

The story was never published.

Federal prosecutors concluded this was an illegal in-kind campaign contribution: AMI had spent $150,000 to suppress information that could have damaged the campaign, and the payment was coordinated with the campaign. AMI admitted this in its non-prosecution agreement.

The 'Safe'

Among the more concerning elements of the arrangement was the existence of a document collection — informally called the "safe" — containing materials AMI had acquired from or about celebrities and public figures. The nature and extent of the safe's contents, and what if anything was ever done with them, remain partly obscured. Ronan Farrow's reporting for The New Yorker detailed the arrangement and its implications for leverage.

The 2024 Trial

Pecker testified in detail at Trump's 2024 Manhattan trial, describing the surrogate arrangement and the catch-and-kill scheme under oath. His testimony was central to the prosecution's narrative about the broader scheme to influence the 2016 election — of which the hush money payments were the culminating piece.