‘Oh my god’: Aussie journalist’s texts revealed in Trump case
A cache of texts reveals how Australian Dylan Howard helped orchestrate hush-money deals over Donald Trump’s alleged affairs. Read the texts.
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Exclusive: Porn star Stormy Daniels exposing her affair with Donald Trump on the eve of the 2016 US election would be “the final nail in the coffin” for his campaign, an Australian journalist told her lawyer, before he helped orchestrate the hush money deal to keep her quiet.
Dylan Howard, who was the editor of the National Enquirer, also complained Mr Trump was “tight” when he and his fixer Michael Cohen dithered over paying off Ms Daniels, according to a cache of text messages that form part of the criminal case against the former president.
Mr Howard – who had been ordered by his boss to stay out of the negotiations – told Mr Cohen they needed to “coordinate something” or it “could look awfully bad for everyone”.
The messages, tendered as evidence in the Manhattan Criminal Court, also reveal Mr Howard was first offered Ms Daniels’s story months before the election as he negotiated a deal with ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal over her claim of a sexual tryst with Mr Trump.
And on the night of the election, as Mr Trump closed in on a shock victory, the lawyer for Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal said to Mr Howard: “What have we done?”
The Australian replied: “Oh my god.”
Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in this year’s election, is on trial over 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up his $US130,000 payment to Ms Daniels.
Mr Howard has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. But his actions featured prominently in the trial’s first week through evidence given by David Pecker, the boss of the American Media, Inc. tabloid news empire that published the National Enquirer.
The cache of messages sheds new light on Mr Howard’s efforts to negotiate an AMI-funded $US150,000 deal with Ms McDougal which silenced her allegation in the middle of 2016.
He was contacted by Keith Davidson, her lawyer, who said he had “a blockbuster trump story”. Mr Howard replied: “I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why…”
He then met with Ms McDougal in Los Angeles, telling Mr Cohen afterwards: “Understand I’ve got this locked down for you. I won’t let it out of my grasp.”
Mr Howard and Mr Davidson haggled over how much AMI would pay, with Mr Davidson suggesting as much as $US1m.
The Australian journalist promised to “lay it on thick for her” and Mr Davidson jokingly asked for him to “throw in an ambassadorship for me” in the Isle of Man.
“Lol,” Mr Howard said. “I’m going to Make Australia Great Again.”
As the negotiations continued, the journalist told Mr Davidson: “I need this to happen.”
Ms McDougal’s lawyer pushed for a higher price and Mr Howard told him: “F*** it. Not my money. I’ll ask.”
When the deal was sealed in August, Mr Davidson told Mr Howard: “I told Cohen this never would’ve happened with you.”
“He’s hopeless,” the journalist replied. “Oh well. Another one done!”
The evidence from Mr Trump’s trial also included Mr Howard’s text messages in October, when Mr Davidson contacted him offering to sell Ms Daniels’s story, a day after Mr Trump’s campaign was rocked by leaked audio of him bragging about groping women.
Mr Howard had previously told Mr Davidson in June that an agent for the porn star was “trying to hawk Stormy again”.
Mr Pecker, the AMI chief, told the court he refused to pay for Ms Daniels’s story when it was offered in October. He asked Mr Howard to refer her lawyer to Mr Cohen and “stay out of it”.
The Australian journalist, in his messages to Mr Davidson, said Ms Daniels going public would be “the final nail in the coffin” for the Republican’s campaign.
“But he’s f***ed already,” he said.
The pair later complained about Mr Cohen failing to lock in an agreement with the porn star.
Mr Davidson said it was “a shit show” and Mr Howard replied: “All because trump is tight … I reckon that trump impersonator I hired has more cash.”
The messages showed the journalist acted as a middleman between the lawyers, telling Mr Davidson to “push for the cash” and Mr Cohen that he would “get it sorted”.
He eventually emailed them both with details of the confirmed agreement that is now at the centre of Mr Trump’s unprecedented criminal trial.
It will run for at least six weeks, although Mr Howard is not expected to give evidence, with Mr Pecker saying he was unable to travel from Australia because of a spinal condition.
Howard confides in mother over Trump favours
Earlier, it was revealed Dylan Howard confided in his mother about the “favours” he was doing as he helped buy and bury stories about during Donald Trump’s presidential run.
The Australian journalist explained his actions to her in a series of text messages by saying: “Information is powerful and I’m collecting a lot.”
And when Mr Trump claimed a stunning victory in the 2016 election, Mr Howard told his mother: “At least now we get pardoned.”
The text messages were raised in the former president’s criminal trial over a $US130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, silencing her claim of an affair with Mr Trump in the days before Americans went to the polls.
Prosecutors named Mr Howard as a co-conspirator as the court heard how he acted as a middleman on that deal after he was contacted by a lawyer and an agent representing Ms Daniels seeking $US120,000 for her story.
American Media, Inc. chief David Pecker, who ran the tabloid news empire that published the National Enquirer, testified that he told Mr Howard not to pursue the agreement.
“I am not going to be involved with a porn star,” he said.
“I am not a bank … If anyone was going to buy it, I thought that Michael Cohen and Donald Trump should buy it.”
Mr Pecker directed Mr Howard to contact Mr Cohen, the lawyer for Mr Trump. After Mr Howard did so, he told Mr Pecker in a text message: “All sorted … No fingerprints.”
Mr Pecker said he was “not pleased” when he later learned the Australian remained in the loop about the negotiations – for the money to be paid by Mr Trump’s lawyer to the porn star – even though he was told to “stay out of it”.
In a statement after the explosive hearing, Mr Howard’s lawyer John Harris said his client “regrets that he is unable to travel to New York to testify in order to provide his own knowledge and viewpoint, rather than have his actions characterised by third parties”.
He said the journalist had “never been accused or charged with any crime” and received statutory immunity when he testified as a witness in the grand jury proceedings last year that gave the green light to the unprecedented criminal charges against Mr Trump.
“It is by now clear that Dylan Howard’s actions were at the behest of, and for the benefit of, the publisher of the National Enquirer,” Mr Harris said.
“As Mr Pecker testified as to ‘catch-and-kill’, Mr Howard did not determine which stories regarding Mr Trump would be run by the publication.”
Several months before the 2016 election, Mr Howard interviewed former Playboy model Karen McDougal about her alleged year-long affair with Mr Trump and signed an AMI-funded $US150,000 contract to keep her quiet.
When his mother asked why he was travelling to California to interview her if the story would not be published, Mr Howard referenced the “favours” he was doing, and said he had ensured his actions were only known to him and Mr Pecker.
The AMI boss told the court that Mr Howard described Ms McDougal as a “12 out of 10” after meeting her.
The Australian believed her claim of a year-long tryst with Mr Trump was true, the court heard, but she wanted to be paid off rather than going public because she said she “didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky”.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, in arguing for the messages to be admitted as evidence, told Judge Juan Merchan of Mr Howard: “He is a co-conspirator … His state of mind is relevant.”
Mr Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove said the text exchange was with Mr Howard’s mother, only to be immediately shouted down by Mr Steinglass, who described the other person in the exchange as “a first-degree relative”.
Judge Merchan said the messages would be inadmissable “for the time being” because they represented a private conversation rather than a business record.
The exchanges detailed in court also included Mr Howard’s messages with his mother on the night of the 2016 election in which he said: “At least if he wins, I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud.” Mr Harris said his client was engaging in “gallows humour”.
Mr Pecker said he was invited by Mr Trump for a “thank you dinner” at the White House in 2017, when the president asked him: “How’s Karen doing?”
Mr Howard also attended and posed for photos he later sent to Ms McDougal’s lawyer with the message: “Surreal last night.”
In 2018, Mr Cohen’s office and home were raided by the FBI in a federal investigation of the saga which resulted in Mr Trump’s lawyer being sentenced to three years behind bars.
Mr Pecker revealed federal agents visited him and Mr Howard on the same day with warrants to seize their phones as part of the criminal probe.
The former Seven Network reporter is not expected to testify during the trial, with Mr Pecker telling the court earlier this week that Mr Howard was in Australia and had a spinal condition that meant he was unable to travel to the Manhattan Criminal Court.
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