(News)
– David Pecker has resigned as CEO of the National Enquirerhis parent, a government ended that the company was embroiled in a campaign financing scandal that sent President Trump’s personal lawyer to jail. Pecker’s company, American Media Inc., is acquired by Accelerate360, a logistics company whose recent efforts include the delivery of millions of face masks and hand sanitizer units per AP. Accelerate did not disclose the terms of the deal in its announcement Friday, but it said the combined entity would be led by Accelerate CEO David Parry. Chris Scardino, an 18-year veteran of American Media, has been named president of A360 Media, the New York-based unit that will house former American Media titles, which also includes Us weekly, Life and style, en OK! Pecker will serve as an “executive consultant” for the company’s A360 Media division, per Accelerate.
Under Pecker, de National Enquirer for years buried potentially embarrassing stories about Trump and other favorite celebrities by buying the rights to them and never publishing them. The practice was known as “capture and kill.” The AP reported that Pecker kept a safe in the Applicanthis office that had documents on buried stories, including those involving Trump. American Media admitted that it had paid $ 150,000 to keep former Playboy model Karen McDougal quiet about an alleged affair with Trump to help his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied an affair. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan in 2018 did not agree to prosecute American Media in exchange for their cooperation in an investigation into campaign funding. That probe eventually led to a three-year jail term for Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
(Read more stories by David Pecker.)
.
