Fox News got the scoop that then-candidate Donald Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels a hush payment to stay quiet about their alleged affair but refused to run it because Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch “wanted Trump to win,” The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reports.
According to Mayer, FoxNews.com reporter Diana Falzone obtained proof that Trump had a sexual affair with Daniels in 2006.
Falzone worked on the story from March until October and confirmed it with Daniels’ manager and former husband and obtained emails between Daniels’ attorney and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen describing the cash settlement and nondisclosure agreement. Falzone even reviewed the contract, according to Mayer.
After her story got passed from editor to editor, Mayer wrote, FoxNews.com head Ken LaCorte told her that the story would not run.
“Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go,” LaCorte reportedly told Falzone.
LaCorte denied the claim.
The Wall Street Journal eventually broke the story, roughly a year after Trump became president.
Falzone was later demoted without explanation. She has since sued the network and reached a settlement.
Daniels confirmed Fox had story first:
LaCorte attempted to deny a similar report that was published by CNN.
“I didn’t do it to protect Donald Trump,” LaCorte told Mediaite, claiming that the story hadn’t “passed muster.”
Daniels tweeted that she knew Fox had the story because she was one of its sources.
“This is complete bullshit. Ken you are such a LIAR. This story got killed by @FoxNews at the highest level. I know, because I was one of your sources,” Daniels wrote on Twitter.
Mayer exposes Trump-Fox News cabal:
According to Mayer’s report, Fox News has been propping up Trump for years before he stepped into the White House.
In 2015, then-Fox News chief Roger Ailes informed Trump’s campaign about a question host Megyn Kelly would ask during a Republican primary debate, according to several Fox News insiders.
A former Trump campaign aide told Mayer that a contact at Fox had given him advance notice of yet another debate question, which was about whether Trump would support the Republican nominee if it was not him.
“The former aide says that the heads-up was passed on to Trump, who was the only candidate who said that he wouldn’t automatically support the Party’s nominee—a position that burnished his image as an outsider,” Mayer wrote.
