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

[Music]. [Music]. my name is Lan cartrite I'm a special. correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter. and a contributor to the New York Times. magazine this week's Sunday read is a. deeply personal story to me but it also. strangely enough centers around the New.

York criminal trial of former president. Donald. Trump in that case the Manhattan. district attorney Elvin Bragg is. Prosecuting Trump on 34 counts of. falsifying business records the. indictments alleged that he made hush. money payments to ensure the Silence of. individuals with damaging information on. him just months before the 2016. election people like Dino saudan a.

former Trump World Tower Dorman who. claimed that Trump had a love child with. one of the buildings. employees and Karen McDougall with whom. Trump supposedly had an extramarital. affair they received 30 and. $150,000. respectively but the key here is that. the payments of these people were. facilitated by American Media the. Tabloid news organization and parent.

company of the national. Inquirer because the Inquirer owned the. rights to their stories stories that. would have been negative press against. Trump and chose not to publish them but. rather bury them meant that they were. essentially being purchased off the. market on his. behalf and so the reason why this is. personal for me is because I would wi.

all of. this at the time I was the executive. editor of The. Inquirer this story is my insiders. account of the behind the scenes at. American Media and how it turned itself. into a criminal Enterprise to protect. the rich and. Powerful I witnessed how The Inquirer. became part of the Trump campaign not. only suppressing stories to help him but. also running negative stories about.

Trump's. Rivals no one else has ever been able to. tell this story before because of. stringent non-disclosure. agreements despite threats of litigation. this is the first time I'm sharing my. story so here's my article read by David. Linsky our audio producer is Jack. ddoro the music you'll hear was written. and performed by Aaron.

Esposito on Tuesday April 4. 2023 I was outside Manhattan Criminal. Court it was a sunny spring day and the. Secret Service and the police department. had blocked off the streets with. barricades the sidewalks were clogged. with news crews from around the world. supporters of Donald Trump roamed a pen. that was set up to house them eventually.

the former president was rushed out of. the courthouse after being charged by. Alvin Bragg the district attorney of. Manhattan with 34 counts of falsifying. business records his Convoy departed to. Cheers from. fans I pulled up the indictment and the. statement of facts on my iPhone at the. center of the case is the accusation. that Trump took part in a scheme to turn. the national Inquirer 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 Bragg argued because Trump. created paperwork to make the payments. seem like regular legal expenses.

that amounted to a criminal effort at a. cover up Trump has denied the charges. against him the documents rattled off a. number of CD stories that would have. been right at home in a venerable. Supermarket tabloid had they actually. been published the subjects were. anonymized but recognizable to anyone. who had followed the story of Trump's. entanglement with the Inquirer his. affair with the porn star stormmy. Daniels of course was the heart of it. there was also Karen dugall the Playboy.

Playmate of the Year in 1998 whose. affair with Trump was similarly made to. disappear the payments for the rights to. her story made to look like fees for. writing a fitness column and appearing. on magazine covers Trump has denied. involvement with both women there were. others that were lesser known too like. Dino saudan a former Trump World Tower. Dorman who claimed that Trump had a love. child with one of the building's. employees the story was never published. and s judan was paid $30,000 to keep.

quiet about it for me reading the. indictment was like stepping through the. Looking Glass because it described a. 3-year period in my own professional. life one that I have come to deeply. regret Doo the Dorman during my time at. American Media Inc Ami the inquirer's. parent company I was one of the editors. pushing our reporters to confirm that. story mcdougall's Fitness columns were. published only after I instru instructed. a colleague to work with the model to.

put them together these were all pretty. normal things to do during my time there. a life-changing detour in my career. which happened to coincide with a. bizarre period at Ami when it was. allegedly enlisted in some ways that I. saw and in others that I didn't into the. service of helping Trump become. president now as a former president. faces a criminal trial for the first. time in American history I'm forced to. grapple with what really happened at The.

Inquirer in those years and whether and. how I can ever set things. right in a sense it was Philip Seymour. Hoffman who got me the job in February. 2014 while I was working at the New York. daily news an editor there told me that. Hoffman had been found dead in his West. Village apartment he asked for my help. on the story our crime reporters track. down the name of the person who found.

the body David barats a close friend of. Hoffman's and a playright but all our. attempts to reach him had not borne. fruit soon the national Inquirer hit new. stands with an exclusive interview with. cats he said that he and Hoffman were. homosexual lovers and that he watched. Hoffman Free Base Cocaine the night. before his death the story quickly. unraveled The Inquirer had been talking. to a David Catz but this one was a. freelance TV producer producer based in.

New Jersey after being bombarded with. calls from reporters and consuming. several beers he later told the New York. Post he apparently decided to have some. fun the actual David bar cats sued Ami. for $50 million the magazine withdrew. the story and settled out of court in. the end The Inquirer took out a full-. page ad in the New York Times. acknowledging the error and paid cats. enough that he was able to establish an. annual prize for playwrights in. Hoffman's on.

David pecker the chief executive of Ami. removed the top editor in his place pcka. pulled a young editor named Dylan Howard. over from another Ami publication Radar. Online Howard and I met a few years. earlier in New York he attended the same. University I did in Melbourne though we. weren't friends in Australia now two. Aussie journalists in New York we. swapped gossip and hid it off I helped. land him one of his biggest Scoops in. 2010 I passed Charlie Sheen's private.

cell number to him and he figured out. that texting Sheen when he was partying. would get his attention the two. developed a rapport and after a series. of well publicized meltdowns Sheen. invited Howard to Los Angeles to watch. him take a drug test and reveal the. results live on Good Morning America in. March 2014 Howard and I started talking. about the possibility of my coming to. The Inquirer as his number two during a. booze field night at the electric room a.

nightclub in the meat packing District. he walked me through the offer a $60,000. bump in compensation which worked out to. a 75% raise and I would be running a. national news Operation with the. resources he promised to break agenda. setting stories I had never paid that. much attention to the supermarket. tabloids but I knew enough to know what. the Inquirer was it published a. sensational mix of celebrity scandal. True Crime and Triumph over tra tragedy. real life stories it might not have been.

a respected newspaper especially because. of its tendency to print cover lines. that stretch the truth to the breaking. point but it's not as if it published. stories about bat boy either that's the. weekly world news the inquirers. reporters were fearless and they did. sometimes win the respect of the. mainstream press during the wrongful. death suit brought against OJ Simpson by. the parents of Nicole Brown Simpson and. Ronald Goldman it was the in IR is. reporters who found photos of Simpson.

wearing Bruno Mali shoes the same type. that left prince in blood at the scene. of the murders the Revelation helped a. jury decide that Simpson could be held. responsible for the. deaths by the time I started the. inquirer's Weekly News sales figures. hovered around 360,000 down from a high. of about 4 million in the. 1990s still even in recent years The. Inquirer had broken big stories. in fact the Tabloid most likely altered.

the course of the 2008 presidential. election when it exposed John edwards's. Affair and lovech child with a campaign. staff member that investigation showed. the muscle and drive of The Inquirer. reporting stakeouts door knocks. documents reporters flying across the. country persisting until they got the. story right Howard told me that he. wanted the magazine to land ambitious. stories like that. all things going well he texted me a bit.

hyperbolically you and I will be. youngest editors of a national us. publication ever I was agonizing over. the offer when the editorinchief of the. Daily News Colin Miler called me into. his office Mila presented me with a. $10,000 raise and thanked me for my work. I thought he might have caught wind of. the job offer so I mentioned it to him. he said I would be making a big mistake. if I went to work for David pecker. deep down I was hoping Milo would make a.

counter offer but he didn't I took. Howard on his. word ultimately my hubris sealed the. [Music]. deal I started as executive editor of. The Inquirer and radar online in miday. what I soon learned is that Howard even. if he wanted to wouldn't be changing the.

operation peka really ran the place on. Monday Wednesday and Friday evenings. there were cover meetings when Howard. and the editors of the inquirer's sister. titles would go before peka and several. of his top lieutenants to show a few. options and analyze sales figures if one. title had a week to we decline peka. became apoplectic I would walk through. the back of The Newsroom near Pekka's. office and hear him screaming through. the walls sometimes p would suggest a.

preferred cover line forcing us to twist. a story to fit the language in that. paranoid environment all anyone cared. about was not incurring Pekka's wrath. and being fired peka did not respond to. requests for comment a frustrating first. year spent in a windowless office was. suddenly interrupted on the afternoon of. March 29 2015 when A source told me. about a woman named amra battilana. Gutierrez who went to the New York. police Department after being groped by.

Harvey Weinstein in Tribeca my pulse was. racing finally a worthwhile scoop there. had been rumors about Weinstein and. women for years Affairs the casting. couch and worse I called Howard and was. struck by his response he seemed less. interested in the story than in the. identity of my source in response to. questions from the times Howard said he. was simply vetting the story sourcing a. routine part of his job duties I could. not figure out his attitude but before.

we got any further The Daily News broke. the story with the help of police. sources but Gutierrez still hadn't. spoken publicly and Howard went into. overdrive trying to buy her side of the. story The Inquirer like many tabloids. sometimes paid sources for exclusive. stories this is not an acceptable. practice in most news rooms or in the. ones I've worked in since still it. seemed odd that we were trying to buy a. story that we could have had free cash.

really no object Howard messaged me so I. can sling your Source 5K to get it done. in addition to her 20K but Gutierrez. didn't want. $20,000 she wanted her story heard and. it continued to roll out in other. outlets through leaks from law. enforcement and movie industry sources. who framed the matter in the media as a. blackmail. attempt Howard was in and out of my.

office asking for updates I think the. stakes just increased he texted me and. your Source could earn some big bucks I. texted the source saying that Gutierrez. could ask for any amount of money and. that the source could take a substantial. cut she's less concerned with money than. the Right Moves The Source responded by. the middle of the week Howard told me to. offer Gutierrez. $150,000 with a $25,000 finders fee to. my goet an extraordinary amount of money.

most Stories We Bought cost us about a. few. th000 Howard says he was merely. conveying offers at the direction of. Pekka she says no The Source texted back. don't ask again unknown to me at the. time Weinstein had all but secured a. guarantee that we would never report on. his sexual. transgressions earlier that year the. Weinstein Company signed a deal with AMI. to produce something called radar TV the.

plan was to take our celebrity coverage. from radar online and use it to make a. daily live TV show in the mold of Access. Hollywood the deal entailed lots of. lunches between Weinstein and Howard at. Tribeca Grill but never resulted in an. actual TV show still the partnership did. make Weinstein a fop friend of Pekka. which entitled him to protection from. negative coverage he was also able to. leverage his relationship ship with AMI.

to use our vast news Gathering resources. to collect dirt on the actresses who he. thought might talk to the press the New. York Post The Daily Mail and other. outlets painted Gutierrez as a gold. digger who had attended the Bunga banga. parties of prime minister Sylvio biscone. of Italy years later I learned that one. of Ami's top lawyers had informed. someone in the office of sance the. Manhattan District Attorney at the time. that Gutierrez was trying to sell her. story to us Vance's office eventually.

announced that it would not pursue. charges against Weinstein in the end. Gutierrez reached a settlement with. Weinstein and went on to tell her story. to the. press a couple of months later Trump. descended the escalator at Trump Tower. editorial discussions about John. Travolta Lisa Marie Presley and Bill. Cosby were now interspersed with chatter. about Hillary Clinton Ted Cruz and Marco. r. the headlines that resulted were not.

ambiguous why I am the only choice for. president exclusive Donald Trump writes. for The Inquirer he didn't a colleague. cobbled the piece together and Michael. Cohen Trump's lawyer and goete with AMI. got Trump's approval for it who's. Chelsea's real dad pre hopeful Hillary's. Moment of Truth exclusive DNA test. results bombshell we had mounted an. Iration to collect Chelsea Clinton's.

trash in an effort to get her DNA but. because Clinton lived in a big Manhattan. apartment building it was virtually. impossible to get access to her garbage. we instead got a sample off a pen she. used to sign a book the results were. inconclusive but we published the story. anyway Hillary 6 months to live cruel. Bill forces her to stay on campaign. Trail these covers came with doctored. images of of Clinton looking frail.

bolstered by quotes from anyone who. would say the right things and had a. title that tenuously qualified him to. offer an. [Music]. opinion The Inquirer did employ real. reporters who would come through. documents cultivate sources and use old. school reporting techniques but I was. coming to terms with the other side of. the magazine where a headline was chosen. and editors and writers spun up a. tenuous story to match this all came on. the heels of a family tragedy that made.

my job seem even more detestable and. stupid in the spring my dad grew ill and. when he finally got to a doctor. irregularities were found in his blood. stomach cancer stage four he was told he. had 3 months to live I had a contentious. relationship with him during my. adolescence and by 22 I had moved to. London to pursue journalism he and my. mother would visit but because I was gay. and hiding this from them it kept us.

distant soon after my younger brother. came out I asked my father how he was. dealing with it it could be worse he. told me we could have two of them when I. finally came out several years later my. father took it in and asked me are you. sure you're not by it took a few years. but he came to terms with having two. sons who weren't straight by the time of. his 70th birthday he had visited me in. New York and we ran around down town. like teenagers he would tell me it was.

one of the best weeks of his life I. landed back in Melbourne just in time. when I had last seen my dad a few months. earlier he was a fit 71-year-old now the. color had drained from his skin his. voice was horar as we hugged just 9 days. after I landed he was admitted to a. pallative care facility he was. unconscious but we talked to him as if. he were Lucid we all slept in his room I. lay awake and listened as his breaths.

got further and further apart just after. 5:00 a.m. on May 1st. 2015 he took his. last I buried my father and returned to. New York dazed by grief I cried in the. shower before work I sat blankly in. editorial meetings I don't know how I. would have responded to the events that. followed had I not been so depressed but. the truth is that I was I was drinking. heavily. and life felt hopeless I was angry I.

became lazy even a little bit. crazy in the fall we got a startling tip. over the transm from a former Dorman at. Trump World Tower who said that Trump. had an affair with a woman who worked in. the building and that she had given. birth to a secret love child the tip. line was a lot of fun but presented its. fair share of headaches because we. advertised that we paid for stories we.

got all types of chances and charlatans. trying their luck so we proceeded. cautiously not only because of that but. also because we knew Trump was a fop. Howard had to check with the boss before. we could make any moves the word came. back that we could proceed and we. quickly signed the tipster Dino s judan. to a source contract that would pay. $30,000 if we ran his story we assigned. a team of reporters to firm it up before. any calls were made we wanted to ensure.

that we had photos of both the woman and. the love child in hand in case they went. to ground there was a stake out at the. home of the woman another reporter was. sent to the address of the love child. with photos of both secured we arranged. for S judan to sit for a polygraph this. was standard practice for stories that. could draw legal action from a subject. we had two private investigators who. would routinely conduct light detector. tests on sources before we ran their.

stories it was an extra layer of. insurance especially because the. Inquirer was a constant Target of. lawsuits a polygraph could demonstrate. that we had gone above and beyond to. confirm that a source was telling the. truth we would sometimes Spike stories. when sources failed polygraphs but over. time I came to feel that the tests were. a cynical way of manufacturing a good. faith effort before publication. s judan passed his polygraph but it.

turned out that the information was. secondhand he had heard his colleagues. talking about it and had no proof he had. serious credibility issues besides if. you ran his name through Google you. would find an anonymous website that. accused s judan of making similar. allegations about a Trump World Tower. resident I could hear from Howard's. office that Michael Cohen was calling. and I assumed he was looking for updates. I had my doubts about the story. especially as the love adult as I was.

now calling her she was in her late 20s. looked just like the man named on her. birth certificate who was not Donald. Trump then out of nowhere the order came. to stand down peka made the call to pay. s Juden. $30,000 and the story was killed without. Howard explaining why it was an enormous. amount of money to pay someone. especially for a story we were not. running in December a reporter met s.

Juden out of McDonald's in Pennsylvania. to present him with the check in return. he signed a new contract that stipulated. that if he told the story to any third. parties he would be on the hook for a. million dollars in Damages to Ami it was. a highly unusual Clause the signed. contract was put into a safe a colleague. who was working with me described what. happened as a catch and kill it was the. first time I had heard the phrase but it. would not be the.

last as we hurtled toward the. presidential primaries there was a laser. focus on stories about Trump's Rivals. Ben Carson we alleged had left a sponge. in a woman's brain Bernie Sanders we. accused without any evidence of being. caught in a child sex probe Marco Rubio. or at least someone with a similar. haircut had been photographed at a. manfest foam party while I had ser ious. misgivings about publishing stories like.

these which took cues from sites like. Infowars and the Gateway pundit it also. felt totally meaningless would anyone. take this stuff seriously I also quieted. my conscience by continuing to drink. heavily every night Ted Cruz was a major. Target we ran thinly sourced stories. that suggested that he was a raging. alcoholic who had five secret Mistresses. and was named in a Madam's blackbook and. we ran a cover story linking his father.

Raphael to the assassination of John F. Kennedy that article hinged on a grainy. photo contained in the Warren Commission. report purporting to show Lee Harvey. Oswald handing out Pro Castro Flyers. with Raphael Cruz the money quote came. from a guy who ran a photo digitization. website who told the reporter with a. high degree of confidence that it was. the same. person then much to everyone's surprise. and my my horror the cruise story was.

picked up by the mainstream media Trump. went on Fox News to repeat the claims. and the cruise campaign was forced to. respond I watched in Howard's office. dumbfounded as Cruz denied the story on. CNN I was eventually moved into a better. office one that had windows and an old. safe about the size of a mini fridge the. S Juden contract was inside it and I. used it as a footrest my old office. meanwhile was littered with dozens of. boxes that have been brought up from.

Ami's offices in boa Ron Florida this. was all the material The Newsroom had. collected on the clintons over the. decades I was directed to hire a. freelance researcher to go through them. and generate memos so we could gin up. hit pieces The Inquirer had a similar. Archive of files on Trump perhaps the. most amazing Trove of trump material of. any national media organization but it. was not receiving the same careful. review. instead I was going through the memos.

from the freelancer that provided the. basis for spurious stories accusing. Hillary Clinton of forming a hit squad. to kill Vince Foster then we moved on to. hyperbolic material on Bill Clinton and. women Hillary's hiding Bill's sex crimes. 36 women break their silence was the. cover that landed in May. 2016 between those were a drum beat of. fictitious Health crises for the former. first lady and presidential candidate.

with the help of so-called medical. experts typically publicity hungry. pundits who understood what we wanted to. hear and the assistance of a talented. art Department we tried to kill her off. in print almost weekly she would appear. with her eyes made baggy and the colors. in the images desaturated in others she. swelled to fit the cover line that she. had gained 103 and was eating herself to. death. in another we purported to have her full.

medical file which as the cover screamed. said she had three Strokes Alzheimer's. liver damage from booze and violent. rages we had another secret weapon. Michael sylvestra by day sylvestra. worked at the Walt Disney Company but at. night he operated truth and deception. Technologies in Florida we would send. Sylvester audio clips of politicians or. celebrities speaking and after using.

software that he called deeptech voice. stress analysis he sent back charts at. $500 per test Hillary failed secret FBI. lie detector was one such cover we had. no reason to believe deeptech had been. used by the FBI we went to him so often. that I could signal that we required his. Services Again by using a cranking hand. motion in August Howard told me he had. met with a former Playboy Playmate named.

Karen McDougall who said she had an. affair with Trump the woman was being. represented by a lawyer Keith Davidson. and Howard said he found her story. credible Howard told me that peka bought. her story for. $150,000 but that it would never see the. light of day it was the second catch and. kill on Trump's behalf that I heard. about I started to avoid Howard as best. as I could interactions became icy and.

colleagues in The Newsroom started to. notice I felt as if I were being. suffocated and I feared that being near. all of this would mean the end of my. career late in the afternoon on the. Friday before the 2016 election I. received a call from Lucas Alper a Wall. Street Journal reporter he and I used to. work together at the New York Post and. we kept in touch he was on the media. desk now but explained explained that he. had been asked by a colleague on the.

investigative team for help on a story. did I know anything about a woman named. Karen. McDougall I froze I was in The Newsroom. and only feet from Howard I told alut I. would call him back I walked to the. elevator and rode it down to the. entrance of the building I explained the. huge risk I was taking by helping him. and the consequences if pcka or Howard. found out I thought if I used an old. school tabloid term term it would give. me some cover only the guys who had been.

there forever used that term this was a. catch and kill I told alert what's a. catch and kill he asked I went on to. explain the Tabloid practice of buying. stories to bury them Alpert already had. the outline of the story I learned and I. filled him in on more how Howard had. flown out to Los Angeles that summer to. buy mcdougall's story for. $150,000 with the direction from peka to. kill it to protect Trump I stressed to.

him the importance of the term catch and. kill and told him that if the journal. included it it would give me some. breathing room I went back to my office. and closed the door my heart was racing. and I was. sweating a short time later Howard burst. in the Wall Street Journal has a story. coming I recall him saying before naming. two former employees blaming them for. the leak he slammed the door shut the. story went live after 9: that night.

National Inquirer shielded Donald Trump. from Playboy models Affair. allegation and there it was in the third. paragraph quashing stories that way is. known in the Tabloid world as catch and. kill I didn't hear from Howard that. weekend no one thought Trump was going. to win at that point and the story was. swallowed up in the pre-election. frenzy that same week I had finally hit. my the Breaking Point with the job a few.

days earlier Howard called me into his. office he explained that we would be. crashing a late exclusive he had. obtained a seven-page dossier that. contained what he said were emails. between Hillary Clinton and hum abidine. one of her longtime AIDS the only snag. was that the emails were in Italian and. we had just hours to get them translated. if we wanted any chance of meeting our. print. deadlines Howard told me that peka had. spent thousands of dollars to buy the.

file from a private investigator peka. was always paranoid about leaks and had. paid this investigator's firm to do. sweeps of Ami's office looking for. listening devices and now the. investigator had become a source in. response to questions from the times the. investigator said he could not remember. many details of this episode The dossier. Howard explained had come to our source. via the agencia. informat Theta esterna Italian.

intelligence where the source apparently. had connections this is why the emails. though originally written in English. were in Italian the agency had received. the emails from Russia's foreign. intelligence service The Source said. which had itself hacked Clinton's. servers and obtained the emails from a. laptop abedine shared with her estranged. husband Anthony Weiner despite the many. red flags and ethical questions that. chain of custody raised Howard believed. in the dossier and besides peka had.

already decreed that this would be the. cover Story the research team had found. two New York University students to. translate the documents when they. arrived I was instructed to confiscate. their cell phones the translators. finished and we managed to close the. issue by midnight Hillary and Hummer. going to jail was the cover line with. bullet points claiming among other. things a secret hospitalization and.

truth about gay Affair the translations. in the article were totally garbled and. the inferences we made from them were. absurd while it made its way to the. printers I went with Howard and some. colleagues to the White Horse Tavern not. the famous one the one in the financial. district he was buzzing with Glee I. could barely look him in the eyes I. needed to get out but I needed my Visa. to stay in the country and find another. job I held on to the thought that this. would all soon be over the election was.

just 6 days away Clinton looked short to. win Trump would fade away I would be. able to find my way out and back to. actual. journalism instead my duties somehow. became even more depraved when the Wall. Street Journal contacted Ami for comment. about the. $150,000 payment to Karen McDougall the. company claimed that the money was not. to kill her story but rather to purchase. her life rights to any relationship she.

has had with a then married man as well. as two years of Fitness columns and. magazine covers this had in fact been. stipulated in the contract Ami Drew up. with a lawyer but now we had to actually. come up with the columns I signed a. reporter to ghost write them and he got. on a call with McDougall to take notes. while cribbing fitness tips from the. internet Alper and his colleagues at the. journal were chasing ing fresh leads I. mentioned the Dorman and the events of.

the previous year alpet asked for the. names so I opened the safe and got out. the contract which contained notes with. the names of the woman and the love. adult I texted them to alet put the. documents back and went to close the. safe but the door wouldn't shut I tried. desperately but this rickety old safe. refused to close I was starting to panic. at any time Howard could come in I. turned up the sound on my my office TV. as I sat hammering at this old metal.

door finally the bloody thing. shut after Trump one I could not hide my. utter contempt for Howard my position as. his Deputy became untenable by this. point the two of us were barely on. speaking terms I wasted my afternoons. drinking alone in nearby bars and. restaurants while I devised an exit. strategy I retained an employment at. attorney knowing that both Howard and. pcka would love nothing more than to.

screw me on the way out Howard was. enraged by my behavior and made it known. to others in The Newsroom in July 2017. after weeks of negotiations I was. presented with a nine-page separation. agreement I would be kept on as an. employee for the next 9 months. collecting half my salary as a form of. severance that meant I would be able to. continue living in the United States. until my Visa expired but the price. would be my silence a non-disclosure.

agreement covering Ami in general and. Pekka in particular the contract's. language was so broad that it prohibited. me in perpetuity from even writing a. work of fiction about my time at the. company on August 4th I entered the. Morning News meeting for the final time. Howard announced to the staff I would be. working from home for the foreseeable. future I looked him in the eye and shook. his hand it would be the last time I saw.

him about 6 weeks after I left and. around the time the New York Times And. The New Yorker broke the Weinstein story. I was walking back to my apartment when. I got a call from my attorney Ami. lawyers had sent him a letter accusing. me of breaching my non-disclosure. agreement on three occasions the letter. threatened termination and damages but. it was the next sentence that got me in. the event Ami terminates Mr Cartwright's. employment he will not be entitled to.

lawfully remain in the USA I vomited. they might not have known what I'd. actually done but it seemed they were. trying to scare me into. silence I resolved that if I was. approached by a journalist whom I. trusted and who I knew would protect me. I would do my best to help someone out. there could do the work I should have. been doing all along a few weeks later I. received a direct message on Twitter. from a New York Times Reporter I.

responded to him with my cell number and. agreed to meet I told the reporter what. happened in 2015 with Gutierrez I. detailed Howard's requests for damaging. information on women connected to. Weinstein which usually followed their. regular Tribeca. lunches Howard says he never asked. Inquirer staffers to share damaging. information on women connected to. Weinstein but I stressed that the real. story was the inquirer's work on behalf. of trump eventually I got a burner phone.

as I was in almost daily contact with. the reporter at the times my contact at. the journal and others it was hard to. keep them all straight I emailed the New. Yorker writer Ronan faraoh with the. subject line signal are you on it I. asked he was in touch an hour later and. I began telling him what happened with. Dino the. Dorman it became clear to me that. reporters from the journal were in. possession of information that could. have come from only a small circle of.

people and I feared that the source was. Howard if the reporters I had been. talking to were incautious they could. have easily revealed to him that I had. been a source too it would be the. ammunition Howard needed to terminate my. agreement and have me booted from the. country but on the other hand if he was. a source how could he tell peka that he. had learned I was too these paranoid. thoughts kept me up at night. I had heard Ami sometimes tailed current.

and former employees I became convinced. that the same was happening to me that. might explain an incident that took. place one evening when I went to. babbland an adult store in SoHo and. walked out with a dildo lubricant and. condoms as I exited the store A car. pulled up and Out jumped a man with a. camera who proceeded in the most. Indiscreet way to take a series of. photos of me with a bright flash before. I knew it he had jumped back in the car. and It sped off were those photos going.

to be used to embarrass me was it a way. to scare me with just weeks left on my. Visa I had spent 6 months working free. as a source a self-imposed sentence for. my many crimes against journalism by. this time I was in the late stages of. interviews for a new job with The Daily. Beast and an opportunity to resuscitate. my by. line since I left Ami I have lived under. constant threat of litigation from my.

former employer Ami has threatened me. with a $5 million lawsuit for breach of. contract Howard has threatened me with. another $5 million suit over articles I. wrote for The Daily Beast accusing me of. defamation and breach of contract but. now the facts of what happened are a. matter of public record the basis for. the first ever criminal trial of a. former president indeed p and Howard. have already testified before Bragg's.

grand jury if they're called again to. testify at the trial they will in all. likelihood be revealing some of the same. information they tried to intimidate me. into. withholding as I've tried to come to. terms with just how corrupt an. organization I worked for in those years. I've taken some comfort in the fact that. acting as a source for other journalists. helped rebalance the scales not only for. me but for the public. too after the last legal threat Howard.

sent me in October 2020 a lawyer. representing me wrote a strongly worded. letter in response arguing that the. information I shared was in the public. interest and in some cases it was of. profound National importance the letters. stopped no suits have been filed 3 years. after leaving the building for the last. time I finally felt free of the. place then the brag indictment outlined. in plain and unafraid black and white.

the schemes that felt so opaque and. contentious and complex when I had to. navigate my way through them in real. time but it was the 133-page statement. of facts that brought me to tears on. page three prosecutors outlined the. catch and kill scheme to suppress. negative information and it revealed to. me that I had been managing a newsroom. with improvised explosive devices. planted everywhere the secret deal that. was made at Trump Tower where peeka told.

Cohen he would act as the campaign's. eyes and ears the harush money payoffs. the plot to publish negative stories. about Trump's Rivals a scheme to. influence the 2016. election everything finally fit into. place there were no more. secrets and I wasn't alone. anymore everyone now knew. [Music].

[Music].