Thread by @shelbyholliday

VIDEO: a timeline showing that as Trump worked behind the scenes to silence women, he was doubling down on his comments about & treatment of women publicly.

wsj.com/video/what-tru…

Feat. @joe_palazzolo @mrothfeld @rebeccaballhaus @nicole_hong @rebeccadobrien

-In August 2015, as Trump was sparring with @megynkelly and telling @donlemon that she had "blood coming out of her wherever," he was secretly meeting with David Pecker to strike a deal that would help him silence women.

-In May 2016, when Trump crossed the delegate threshold & allegations of misconduct by beauty queens surfaced, Karen McDougal considered going public.

Pecker alerted Cohen, who alerted Trump. Then *Trump called Pecker* & told him to quash the story.
wsj.com/video/what-tru…

-In August 2016, after McDougal began talking to ABC News, Pecker followed through and struck a deal with her for $150K. That deal prevented her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump.

At the time, Trump was sliding in the polls.

wsj.com/video/what-tru…

Then in October 2016, the infamous Access Hollywood tape was made public.

Privately, Trump had another problem: Stormy Daniels was threatening to go public. Cohen started negotiating with her, and Trump told him to "get it done." As you know, he paid her $130K for her silence.

*It's worth nothing that the Stormy negotiations were taking place privately while Trump very publicly appeared alongside Bill Clinton accusers before a presidential debate.

Fast fwd to 2018, when WSJ breaks the story about Stormy's hush money agreement.

In Feb, Trump (now POTUS) called Cohen and told him to get a restraining order to prevent Stormy from talking. Cohen worked w @EricTrump and a Trump Org attorney to do that. (Stormy ignored it.)

In April, 2 months after Trump privately directed Cohen to get that restraining order, he publicly declared on Air Force One that he didn't know about the payment to Stormy.

A few days later, Cohen's office, hotel and home were raided by the FBI.

wsj.com/video/what-tru… …

In August, @MichaelCohen212 pleaded guilty to making 2 illegal campaign finance donations.

@rebeccadobrien, who was in court: "there was this dramatic moment when we realized that what he was saying is that he committed 2 federal crimes at the direction of President Trump"

Since then, it seems like everything has spilled into public view.

Now, WSJ is reporting that in Cohen's charging documents, *President Trump* is the "unnamed campaign member or members" who allegedly coordinated with Cohen about "the fact, nature, and timing of the payments.”

This thread has been fun, but I promise, the video is even better.

Loved working on this with our awesome team including @jarrardcole @carmellobello @amfalk @DrewREvans @rob_alcaraz @michaelsiconolf @jonesashby @liveanthony