Thread by @EricColumbus

There are Trump links worthy of further exploration in this remarkable story on Weinstein's complicity machine by @mega2e @jodikantor @susandominus @jimrutenberg @SteveEder. Let’s walk through them. 1/
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The authors report that Weinstein, like Trump, was close to David Pecker, the CEO of American Media, which owns a tabloid empire that includes the National Enquirer. 2/

Weinstein was so close, in fact, that he (like Trump) was known as a “friend of Pecker.” 3/

On one occasion, the National Enquirer tried to buy the silence of a woman who accused Weinstein of assault. This technique is known as “catch and kill.” In this case, it failed. 4/

Here’s the Trump connection: 4 days before the election, the WSJ reported that the National Enquirer bought the silence of a former Playboy centerfold who allegedly had an affair with Trump in 2006, while married to Melania. Successful catch and kill! 5/
wsj.com/articles/natio…

Did this happen in other cases? This involved an apparently consensual affair. What about allegations of sexual abuse, akin to the many women who accused Trump during the campaign? 6/

Another link: the article says Weinstein collected juicy information to feed gossip columnists in exchange for spiking bad stories about him. One such gossip wag was A.J. Benza. 7/

We know from other reports that Trump was cozy with gossip columnists and would feed them stories. Including A.J. Benza! 8/
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

(Weird side note – Trump once got into an epic fight with Benza on the Howard Stern show about “stealing” Benza’s girlfriend. This snippet just scratches the surface.) 9/
thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-…

To be sure, Benza described Trump feeding him stories about others in exchange for *running*, not spiking, stories about Trump. 10/

But were there darker trades as well? No idea, but worth investigating. 11/

Of course, the gossip world was just a small part of Weinstein’s complicity machine. The NYT says Weinstein went after his accusers with lawyers, threats, blackmail, hush money, and spies. 12/

Did Trump do any of the same? I don’t know, but if this quintet of intrepid NYT reporters now has some time on their hands, they might want to start digging. 13/end

P.S. This sentence from the Wolff book is another good reason to dig.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @michelleinbklyn view original on Twitter

P.P.S. And now we have a story about Trump signing an NDA to cover up nonconsensual sexual misconduct. Let’s be clear that she can still talk if she wants to. 👇👇

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @EricColumbus view original on Twitter