Bizarre, Congress, Free Speech, Media, Politics

Did Trump Officials Try To Coerce The Morning Joe Hosts With A National Enquirer Threat? [UPDATED]

UnknownIn the aftermath of the vicious tweets against MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, there was an intriguing allegation that three top Trump Administration officials called Joe Scarborough and threatened that, if he did not call Trump to apologize for his negative comments, the National Enquirer would run a hit piece on the hosts.  The allegation is deeply troubling and, while it would not necessarily constitute a crime, it would raise a serious question of abuse of office in the use of staff to convey such an alleged threat.  With all of the understandable passion following the tweets. this is a very significant allegation and one that was not previously disclosed. It has not appeared in both print and on air by the hosts, who are obviously sticking by this chilling account of what they say was a campaign to intimidate them.  The White House has denied the allegations and said that Scarborough has misrepresented his call to the White House.

Trump has a close friendship with National Enquirer’s chief executive officer David Pecker and the publication was accused of publishing hit pieces against Trump’s opponents like Ted Cruz during the 2016 campaign.

One of the officials have been identified as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.  

National_Enquirer_(cover)The couple wrote in the Washington Post that “This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked.  We ignored their desperate pleas.” Later they expanded on the allegation on-air:

“We got a call that ‘hey the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story about you guys.’ And they said ‘if you call the president up and you apologize for your coverage then he would pick up the phone and basically spike this story’ . . .I had three people at the very top of the administration calling me and the response was like ‘are you kidding me, I don’t know what they have, run a story, I’m not going to do it.’  The calls kept coming and they were like ‘you need to call, please call.’”

Scarborough also said that he has contemporary witnesses who were consulted after the calls:

“NBC execs knew in real time about the calls and who made them to me. That’s why Mark Kornblau wrote about contemporaneous texts. I showed him and executives as they were coming in to keep them advised.”

The allegation does not currently rise to a criminal matter, if proven. However, government officials are the subject of specific criminal provisions like extortion under 18 U.S.C. 872:

Whoever, being an officer, or employee of the United States or any department or agency thereof, or representing himself to be or assuming to act as such, under color or pretense of office or employment commits or attempts an act of extortion, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; but if the amount so extorted or demanded does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Such provisions convey the heightened danger of criminal conduct committed by those with official authority.  However, extortion is commonly prosecuted when someone is seeking the gaining of property or money.  That pecuniary interest is the key, though the threat can include harm to reputation or unfavorable government action.

Likewise, blackmail often involves efforts to secure money or financial benefits and a violation of federal law: “Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”  There was no violation of any law threatened in this allegation.

There is the Abuse of Office provision that can be relevant in such a circumstance:

§ 11.448 Abuse of office.

A person acting or purporting to act in an official capacity or taking advantage of such actual or purported capacity commits a misdemeanor if, knowing that his or her conduct is illegal, he or she:

(a) Subjects another to arrest, detention, search, seizure, mistreatment, dispossession, assessment, lien or other infringement of personal or property rights; or

(b) Denies or impedes another in the exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege, power or immunity.

Subsection (b) could apply to the right of both free speech and the free press if officials were seeking to silence critics.

There could be more potential criminal elements but the current allegation likely falls short.  While such an allegation fits more squarely with an impeachment charge as opposed to a criminal charge, it could not be more serious for a country that has always jealously protected both free speech and the free press.  If Administration officials were using their time and offices to convey threats to journalists or commentators, it would constitute a direct assault on those values.

Obviously, we should hear from the White House on the allegation. Trump has stated that it was the hosts who called him to kill the story.  They may argue that they had been called on the story and were giving the hosts a courtesy warning (not uncommon in this town). However, that would not square with the alleged “ask”: that the hosts call Trump to apologize in return for the killing of the story.  The White House maintains that it was Scarborough who called Kushner to kill the story and it was Scarborough who raised the fact that Trump was mad at him.

These are obviously strikingly different accounts.  This should be treated as a serious matter for inquiry by Congress which has oversight authority over federal offices and agencies.  Such a quip pro quo may be the stuff of an entertaining “House of Cards” episode but it is far more serious in real life when government officials, or even the President of the United States, is allegedly trying to coerce media figures into silence.  Again, there is another side to this story but I am surprised that the allegation has not attracted more attention.

What do you think?

156 thoughts on “Did Trump Officials Try To Coerce The Morning Joe Hosts With A National Enquirer Threat? [UPDATED]”

  1. I personally love it that Trump punches back twice as hard. The media and the left (redundant, I know) have been bullying the rest of us for far too many years. Now we’ve hired our own bully, and they act like a bunch of spoiled toddlers who are finally getting some discipline.

      1. Frankly, it’s too late. 0 is out of office now. Or did you mean Sanders?

        SamFox

  3. MSNBC must be enjoying the publicity. It’s about the only way it can garner viewership for itself, which would cease to exist in an a la carte content delivery system.

  4. Face it America, we have a idiot in the White House and he is not fit to be in it.

    1. Oh no we don’t. News Flash: Trump won, not Hilldabeast or Sanders.

      SamFox

  5. Is this blog about allegations against Trump? Allegation = claim = no proof and we have had enough of that. The Washington Post and NYTImes have been writing hit pieces against Trump and others that have been proven untrue and the blog brings up the National inquirer?

    What does this say about the blogger? Has this excellent legal mind become nothing more than a hired gun for the left? JT so happened to make good legal points both for and against Trump but is now wading into the swamp of unproven allegations.

    1. I wait on the results of the Special Counsel’s investigation. I trust Mueller; I don’t trust Herr Drumpfenfuhrer or his supporters in the least.

      1. Marco, I’d go along with you if the investigation included Hilary Clinton email cover-up, Comey’s involvement in improper and possibly illegal activities, Loretta Lynch, Lois Lerner, Holder for his improprieties, etc. all the way to Obama himself. Let’s clean the swamp of all the dregs. The only one that will come out of the fray will be Trump unless of course some more illegal activities take place under the guise of secrecy. …And let us not forget the Clinton Foundation with ties to the worst of dictators all over the world.

      2. You trust Mueller to investigate a personal friend with the assistance of a clutch of Hillary donors. There’s a reason you trust him.

  6. Impeachment is not going to happen.

    Collectively, this Congress is too deluded with protecting their own jobs to lift a finger other than at town halls in an election year. What’s worse is that their constituents believe Trump’s grade-school depravity gives them license to leave their morals at the doorstep and say whatever makes them feel good regardless of harm to others.

    Finally, while Mr. Turley stalks J. Ginsburg, a sovereign who’s served with fidelity and courage at the federal appellate level for 37 years, there’s simply no comparison between the substance of what she considers an exercise of her right of free speech and that of the juvenile feigning populist slum lord in the White House. Yes, Professor, there is a Santa Claus, and his is the gift of dissent by a sitting Justice who believes rigid ethics rules must give way when things get this bad.

    “Look up the definition of ‘kakistocracy’ today, my fellow Americans. Things will make much more sense.”
    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 29, 2017

      1. Aren’t you special, Zeus;if only us mere mortals had your insight. Especially grateful that you are so humble.

    2. s J. Ginsburg, a sovereign who’s served with fidelity and courage at the federal appellate level for 37 years, t

      Oh, she’s now the Queen?

      While you’re at it, what’s so ‘courageous’ about shlepping back and forth between your condo and your office every day?

  7. I’m still trying to concoct a bad joke out of the names “Trump” and “Pecker.” Can somebody help me out here? Maybe having to do with small hands?

    1. Jay s:

      The POTUS “Trump”ed “Pecker”-head Joe by calling out his obsequious and hypocritical hovering on New Years Eve at Mara Lago. Now he’s crying “hands”-off my woman, Franken-Mika.

      How’s that?

      1. Well, a bit contrived. Certainly a lot of Pecker-woods down South voted for Trump.

    2. Jay S, maybe more to do with small minds, like those who swim in the sewer with this kind of depravity. Yuck. UB sick!

      SamFox

          1. Ynot – typical ad hominem attack. Still haven’t advanced the conversation.

  10. Hollywood actors and news anchors depict the assassination/beheading/promote blatantly fake news about our duly elected President. This should be a warning signal that our country is in serious trouble.

    1. Oh and it was fair to do the same to Obama? At least Obama didn’t stoop to trumps level with his absurd and disgusting tweets. His tweets do absolutely nothing to help this country.

      1. Obama had no need to defend himself against the media. They were carrying his water and kissing his behind 24/7.

        1. Which means you don’t consider Fox to be part of the media. Most other people agree.

        2. No Obama didn’t stoop did he? Please. Don’t get me started. He just spied on reporters (and even their families!) and constantly manipulated the press, aggressively prosecuted leakers and even went after the reporters who reported on the leaks! And they STILL slobbered all over him. “The Obama administration has been the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” – James Risen, New York Times

          Just like feminists (and the media) will never stop until they literally crucify Trump for his treatment of women, they will remain forever silent as they continue to overlook Bill Clinton’s history sexual assault, rape accusations, and how he literally destroyed a young intern’s life – and the part his wife played in all of it. Do you see how politics trumps literally everything for the left?

          Keep swinging Trump. Hit ’em hard with everything you’ve got.

  11. The other hosts tried concentrating on it, but then Joe kept sliding on to another subject: a little odd in light of what was just revealed.

    There was a tinge of puffy melodrama rather than complete seriousness.

  12. JT, my 16 year old often falls for every crackpot story that pops up his newsfeed too. But, I mean, he is 16.

    1. Then your 16-year-old should also ignore the Steak-Salesman, the king of crackpottery (and debt), who “hears things” from “a lot of people” and it’s just “incredible what they’re finding.”

      1. Dave, you mean like “I got it from an un-named source that Trump colluded with the Russians”?

        If everyone who doesn’t like Mr. T are not total hypocrites, they would also be calling for investigations regarding the IRS scandal, Fast & Furious, why Benghazi was not re-enforced after several calls for extra security, HRC’s server situation, the pay to play Clinton ‘foundation’…

        Any of you Trump bashers gonna get on the ball or are you going to just remain two faced & duplicitous?

        My $$ is on he latter.

        SamFox

        1. Oh yeah, any of you who call Trump a ‘birther’, can you show where 0bama was ever vetted? “Of course he was” is NOT proof that 0 was checked out.

          Are you calling for the release of the records 0 hid in his library? Didn’t think so…

          SamFox

          1. Wouldn’t that be something if Trump unsealed all of Obama’s sealed records and released them to the public? Won’t happen, but that would be some ‘reality show.’

            1. TBob, oh yeah! U gave me something to pray for!! 😉 Great thought!

              SamFox

  13. This one sure turned into a nothing without burger and you can’t even say we’re doing ad hominem since the leftist posters are onoy machine parts. So did you like the othere part about the newly discovered leaks from the State Department? Again? The one about immigrants? Real names, real sources real cites, real sites and not one four letter word.

  14. Both the machine parts are programmed early today and straight to the filth bin of The Party’s Collective

  15. Yes, and here is the President of the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world. “I know you are but what am I?” “No, you started it.” “Oh yeah, well you are bleeding from a, a, a, face lift, yeah, that’s it a face lift.”

    Yup, yup, Trump’s the only one that can fix this country’s problems, and all by himself. The question is, is Trump fixable? Are the dupes that voted this catastrophe into office fixable? If they were fixed, in a few generations, well….

    1. Good morning machine part hows the three in one oil supply these days. Collective getting rusty. Your programmer not doing so well? YAWN!!! Well well I see the programmer finally admitted who got the most votes – screwed up their didn’t wingnut?

    2. issac – I keep telling you to get an American Civics book and read it. Trump is not a one man army to save the union, he needs Congress. Yesterday, the House passed two excellent bills which will probably be stopped in the Senate because they need 60 votes to get to the floor. Assuming they get all the Republicans to go along, they still need 8 Democrats. No Democrat is going vote against sanctuary cities. No Democrat is going to vote against illegal aliens.

        1. Michael Aarethun – even A.I. can learn. It needs to pick up a book and learn. I suppose first, he/it will have to learn to listen to me. 🙂

              1. In this particular case, either answer is acceptable. Hmmm, it must be the Caramel Frappe from MacD’s but an Irish Poem just popped into mind! About how one can’t unsee an Isaac comment.
                (Caution, the proper pronunciation of “poutine” is closer to “Putin” and definitely not a rhyme with “routine.”)

                Eye Sick???
                An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm

                There once was a guy who ate poutine,
                He was dumb. That, no one’s disputin’.
                His posts? Pedagogic!
                Circuitous logic!
                But he writes it, so we can’t be mutin’!

                Squeeky Fromm
                Girl Reporter

                1. What is most interesting is how the invectiveness is directed at someone who posts in order to take the spotlight off of the rightful recipient. This is not about me or what nationalities I may have, but about a mentally unstable person who somehow landed in the White House. It’s not about Turley either. He didn’t go off the beam and tweet vitriol in the early a.m.. But when your champion is such a buffoon, I guess you lash out at anything.

                  Just because Trump is President doesn’t give him any credibility in the sanity department. Look who voted for him. How’s that for lashing out?

                  1. issac – even Canadians are not allowed to judge the sanity of a person without meeting them in person.

                  2. While I do not agree with your conclusion, your “lashing out” toward me is the most straightforward thing you have ever said! If only you could write that clearly all the time!

                    Now, if we can just get you to lose your obligatory “Trump is an idiot man child” type statements and just concentrate on facts occasionally. . .

                    Squeeky Fromm
                    Girl Reporter

                    1. Exactly….there’s no more meat on the “Trump is a buffoon” bone. Pick a bone with some meat to chew on.

  16. You mean in the opinion of your Programmer From Collective Central of The Party. Rejected after all you are only a machine. not humanoid and not human therefore ad hominom doesn’t apply. I see the programmers went straight to the filth bin aftrer their little troll was so easily discovered.

  17. Jonathan Turley has lived his life in the shelter of artificial world of lawyering/academia , he finds fire for fire response so discomforting . The root cause of all mental disorders is the unwillingness of an individual to tolerate discomfort (Carl Jung)

  18. I will not believe this story until I read it in the National Enquirer. They speak truth to power.

    2. Compared to the programmers of The Psrty’s Collective. NE is the epitome of truth.

    3. Of course Trump could call his sleazy pal, Dick Morris, who is now at the National Inquirer and get him to run a sleazy story. Believe it.

      1. Jjoe the Midget and half pint doing imitations now? Only a machine part woudl say that and only the left would come up with a tweet size comment on a blog for literate humans.

  19. Sure. The phone calls, demanding an apology, came from two high officials, sporting heavy Russian accents and identified as Boris and Natasha. Part of the threats mentioned something about a squirrel, pronounced, sqvril. Why leave out the crucial Russian angle to this story? There is, however, one odd element to this tale–allegedly, the phone calls ceased every Saturday morning. Purportedly, Boris and Natasha needed to take that day off, as they were busy with their gig of appearing on Saturday morning cartoons.

  20. Scarborough said that following:

    This has to be another hit piece written by someone other than JT.

    So all it takes is a claim by a butt hurt TV personality and we now have impeachment level congressional investigations?

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