[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Nicely, isn’t that attention-grabbing? Only a few brief weeks in the past Donald Trump turned a convicted felon. And simply final week a hell of a variety of of us lastly discovered he was accused of raping a 13-year-old lady. Because it seems, these two scandals are related. Learn on to learn how…
Katie Johnson’s Claims
OK, let’s rewind. For anybody who nonetheless hasn’t seen, again in 2016 a girl recognized by the alias Katie Johnson got here ahead claiming she was raped in 1994 by Trump and his pal Jeffrey Epstein at Epstein’s NYC residence. She was solely 13 on the time, however as we all know that’s hardly a barrier for Epstein. Katie claimed in a authorized submitting that Trump went first, tying her to a mattress and deflowering her as she begged him to cease. She says he refused to put on a condom, too — and informed her to “get a f**king abortion” if she received pregnant.
The factor is, in 2016 the American folks didn’t know who the heck Jeffrey Epstein was. So regardless of the horror of a presidential candidate being accused of raping a baby, the story barely received any traction. Hell, perhaps nobody wished to consider it. On the time the political panorama wasn’t as f**ked as it’s now, so perhaps most would have discovered all of it too salacious to be actual. The stuff of unhealthy fiction.
Associated: Trump’s Response To Epstein Query Is SO Uncomfortable!
However now we’re dwelling in a world the place we KNOW Epstein ran a teen intercourse trafficking ring for highly effective males. None of these males have confronted any penalties thanks partially to Epstein’s premature “suicide.” However he didn’t visitors to nobody. They’re on the market, and everyone knows it. At this level Katie’s accusations don’t appear so loopy. You hear a few girl saying she was raped by Jeffrey Epstein at 13 years outdated, you assume, after all that occurred. That’s what that man did.
However like we stated, on the time it simply didn’t turn into an enormous story. (Perhaps Hillary Clinton didn’t push it within the election as a result of like Trump, her husband Invoice was additionally throughout Epstein’s flight logs, ?)
Finally Katie Johnson dropped her lawsuit, citing worry for her life after Trump and Epstein each allegedly threatened to kill her and her household if she ever informed what they’d executed. And poof, the entire thing simply went away.
However for a pair months there, Trump did have this factor to deal with, these allegations that at any minute may turn into a much bigger story than the Entry Hollywood tape — doubtlessly wrecking his marketing campaign. The rattling race was actually shut sufficient in the long run.
So what was the plan for Katie Johnson earlier than she determined to drop her lawsuit and go into hiding?
Catch And Kill
Ronan Farrow‘s investigation could have led him to the reply. It seems in his 2019 e book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Defend Predators, the revered journalist did point out the Katie lawsuit. He claimed Trump’s pal David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI), which printed The Nationwide Enquirer on the time, tried to assist Trump crush the story.
He wrote about how Trump’s notorious fixer, Michael Cohen, received assurances from Enquirer‘s editor on the time, Dylan Howard, “that they might monitor down the girl with the rape allegation and see what they might do about her.”
If all that sounds acquainted, it’s the observe the e book was about — catch and kill is the identify of the technique during which a publication will purchase unique rights to a narrative, solely to BURY IT. They allegedly did this with Karen McDougal, paying her $150k for her story about having an affair with Trump for 9 months in 2006-2007, whereas he was married to Melania Trump.
Karen confirmed to taking the cost in a bombshell 2018 interview concerning the affair. A settlement with AMI the following month invalidated the non-disclosure settlement she’d signed as a part of the catch and kill. AMI finally admitted they’d made the cost.
Cohen, who was dealing with prison prosecution, launched a tape of a dialog during which Trump may be heard confirming whether or not a cost of “one-fifty” was required for “our good friend David.” As in David Pecker. Pecker really confirmed this cost years later, too, in Trump’s trial. He stated they didn’t do the catch-and-kill with Stormy Daniels — although not for lack of making an attempt on Trump’s half. Pecker testified Cohen tried to get him to greater than as soon as to purchase Stormy’s story and “could be livid” if he didn’t. Pecker says the explanation they didn’t? As a result of Trump nonetheless owed him for the Karen McDougal story and one different!
Felony Convictions
Michael Cohen went to jail for the Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels funds, each of which had been in the end paid by and benefitted “unindicted co-conspirator 1” — Candidate Trump. It violated marketing campaign finance legislation to not disclose monetary contributions meant to assist him win the presidency. Overlaying up these affairs with hush cash clearly meant to just do that.
Trump was finally convicted simply this 12 months of falsifying enterprise data for all of the fraud he needed to commit to cover the hush cash funds to Stormy Daniels.
Once more, we must always warning, Trump has by no means admitted to having intercourse with Stormy Daniels. He has by no means admitted to having intercourse with Karen McDougal. However the query it’s important to ask your self is, do folks commit CRIMES to cowl up tales that aren’t true? In the event that they’ve executed nothing incorrect? Appears type of insane, proper?
The Enquirer & Katie
OK, so we all know what occurred with Karen and Stormy. However what about Katie Johnson?
Per the e book this was not a catch and kill state of affairs. Ronan wrote that “there was no alternative to purchase this story” as Pecker didn’t get wind of it till after the lawsuit had already been filed. The lawsuit is a matter of public file. You may nonetheless learn it HERE. However reminder it’s actually horrifying stuff. The purpose is, he couldn’t catch it. However that didn’t imply he couldn’t kill it.
Farrow wrote that Enquirer editor Dylan Howard tried to persuade one in all Katie’s attorneys, Lisa Bloom, to drop the case. When Newsweek requested Bloom, she confirmed Howard had reached out to inform her he thought Katie “lacked credibility.” It wasn’t precisely the strong-arm approach, however the reality they had been making an attempt in any respect to bury this story is STAGGERING.
BTW, an AMI spokesperson denied every part Farrow wrote in an announcement to Newsweek:
“Mr. Farrow’s narrative is pushed by unsubstantiated allegations from questionable sources and whereas these tales could also be dramatic, they’re fully unfaithful.”
Once more, we already know they tried to bury not less than two different Trump tales — ones these in Trumpworld have already been convicted for. All the pieces Ronan Farrow wrote about these instances appears to have been confirmed true in a courtroom of legislation.
And he wrote that Trump and his friends on the Nationwide Enquirer tried to silence Katie Johnson in not less than a method. No matter else Pecker meant by “monitor down the girl” and “see what they might do about her” is unknown. What we do know is she turned too scared on the final minute to disclose her identification publicly — and dropped her lawsuit to guard her anonymity. She hasn’t been heard from since.
However similar to how Trump’s very actual coverup of the alleged Stormy Daniels affair was what received him in bother… may there be extra to research in Staff Trump’s response to Katie Johnson’s lawsuit??
If you happen to or somebody has skilled sexual violence and wish to be taught extra about sources, contemplate testing https://www.rainn.org/sources.
[Image via ABC News/Late Night With Seth Meyers/Jimmy Kimmel Live/CNN/YouTube.]
