NBC News has confirmed Donald Trump was the third person in the room with Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker when they discussed ways Pecker could help tamp down Trump stories.
December 13, 2018

The news continues to come in at warp speed, as information implicating Trump in even more criminal acts is flying. Late today, after the Wall St. Journal reported that Trump was in the room with Michael Cohen and David Pecker as they planned how to control Trump's sex scandals, the story was then confirmed by NBC News.

As part of a nonprosecution agreement disclosed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company, admitted that "Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided."

The "statement of admitted facts" says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment "in concert with the campaign," and says that Pecker, Cohen and "at least one other member of the campaign" were in the meeting. According to a person familiar with the matter, the "other member" was Trump.

Former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman was quick to point out the import to Chuck Todd.

"If Trump is now in the room, as early as August of 2015 and in combination with the recording where Trump clearly knows what Cohen is talking about with regarding to David Pecker, you now squarely place Trump in the middle of a conspiracy to commit campaign finance fraud," he told Todd on Meet The Press.

He also told Todd he wouldn't hesitate to charge Trump for being there.

I keep thinking about this song from Hamilton, because Trump was so arrogant, he just had to be part of every discussion. Mark my words, it will be his downfall -- because I remain convinced he was on speakerphone in the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians:

No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens.

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