President Trump’s former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen once intervened with The National Enquirer on behalf of Omarosa Manigault-Newman, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Federal investigators have questioned Manigault-Newman, a former Trump official, as they examine the Enquirer’s publisher American Media Inc. and its ties to Cohen’s financial deals, according to the Journal.
Cohen mediated talks between the Enquirer and Manigault-Newman in 2011 after she threatened to sue regarding its coverage of her brother’s murder.
AMI had sent a reporter to her brother’s funeral who allegedly spoke to family members without revealing that she was a reporter.
The agreement Cohen negotiated stated that Manigault-Newman would not file a lawsuit if she received a job with AMI, the Journal reported based on people familiar with the matter.
The publisher announced in December 2011 that Manigault-Newman, then Manigault-Stallworth, would be the West Coast editor for the company’s magazine on reality programs, Reality Weekly. She later worked for AMI’s OK! Magazine after the first publication shuttered, according to the newspaper.
The Journal noted that federal investigators do not believe that there was anything improper about Manigault-Newman’s arrangement with the company.
However, it indicates a pattern of cooperation between AMI and Cohen, and by extension potentially to Trump.
Manigault-Newman was also a contestant on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” and worked in the White House until she left last year.
Trump’s ties to the publisher have come under scrutiny after reports revealed that AMI bought the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with Trump, but never ran the piece. Trump is friendly with AMI head David Pecker.
The New York Times also reported on Sunday that federal investigators believe that AMI occasionally offered political support to the Trump campaign, rather than merely working as a media group.
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Omarosa questioned by feds over National Enquirer deal tied to Cohen: report https://t.co/t5Yzb4kZXS pic.twitter.com/CCxsFRPaRv
— The Hill (@thehill) July 25, 2018
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