Listen ad-free

The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’

The Daily

14-04-2024 • 43 mins

At the center of the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan is the accusation that Trump took part in a scheme to turn The National Enquirer and its sister publications into an arm of his 2016 presidential campaign. The documents detailed three “hush money” payments made to a series of individuals to guarantee their silence about potentially damaging stories in the months before the election. Because this was done with the goal of helping his election chances, the case implied, these payments amounted to a form of illegal, undisclosed campaign spending. And because Trump created paperwork to make the payments seem like regular legal expenses, that amounted to a criminal effort at a coverup, argued Alvin Bragg, the district attorney of Manhattan. Trump has denied the charges against him.

For Lachlan Cartwright, reading the indictment was like stepping through the looking glass, because it described a three-year period in his own professional life, one that he has come to deeply regret. Now, as a former president faces a criminal trial for the first time in American history, Cartwright is forced to grapple with what really happened at The Enquirer in those years — and whether and how he can ever set things right.

You Might Like

The Daily
The Daily
The New York Times
Serial
Serial
Serial Productions & The New York Times
The Big Story
The Big Story
Frequency Podcast Network
CANADALAND
CANADALAND
CANADALAND
The Decibel
The Decibel
The Globe and Mail
The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge
The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge
Manscorp Media Services
The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
Morning Joe
Morning Joe
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC
Economist Podcasts
Economist Podcasts
The Economist