AMI Announces ‘The National Enquirer’ Is Up For Sale After Trump Hush Money Scandal

The National Enquirer, the tabloid with ties to President Donald Trump, is up for sale, its publisher announced Wednesday.

Owned by American Media Inc., the Enquirer is led by David Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s. The tabloid is expected to be sold soon, AMI said.

Pecker allegedly helped Trump’s 2016 campaign through AMI’s deal to purchase a story from Karen McDougal, a Playboy model said to have had an extramarital affair with the former Apprentice host. The company obtained the rights to her story for $150,000 but never published it so as to protect Trump, whose former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was also involved in the deal. Pecker ultimately received an immunity deal from federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York last year.

Prosecutors stated the payment to McDougal constituted a political donation that violated campaign finance law. American Media confessed that it had made the $150,000 payment in order to “influence” the 2016 election.

In September, the company signed an agreement vowing that it “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years or it could face prosecution for federal crimes.

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Further complicating the Enquirer’s impending sale is the claim that was recently made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that AMI threatened to release explicit photos of him. Trump has mocked Bezos, who recently finalized his divorce settlement, multiple times on Twitter.

AMI’s titles that are not up for sale include OK magazine, Us Weekly, Star, In Touch, Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Journal. 

The Enquirer also infamously published several articles questioning Hillary Clinton‘s health during the 2016 election. Trump also said he believed Clinton did not have enough stamina to be president. The tabloid also published a false story with the headline “Ted Cruz Father Linked to J.F.K. Assassination!” another conspiracy theory Trump pushed in 2016.