American Media would not comment. In court documents filed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors cited “encrypted” communications among Mr. Pecker, Mr. Howard and Mr. Cohen regarding the payoff to Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had a brief affair with Mr. Trump. Among the records prosecutors subpoenaed last spring were communications between Mr. Pecker and Mr. Howard. In June 2016, when Ms. McDougal approached American Media about selling her story, both Mr. Pecker and Mr. Howard provided Mr. Cohen a heads-up, prosecutors said. As the presidential election neared, Mr. Cohen sought to buy those rights from the American Media executives, prosecutors revealed, though the transaction was never completed.

Source: New York Times August 23, 2018 17:54 UTC