Ex-GOP agent tells for the first time how he was caught in Trump's 'catch-and-kill' scheme
Former right-wing operative Matthew Sheffield opened up in a lengthy piece for Vanity Fair about how he got mixed up in the relationship between former President Donald Trump and former National Enquirer chief David Pecker, in their "catch and kill" scheme to protect him from damaging information ahead of the 2016 election.
The Enquirer scheme is not directly charged in the Manhattan hush money trial — but District Attorney Alvin Bragg is using it to establish a pattern of behavior to prove the charges of business fraud stemming from his alleged payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair.
"Although I didn’t support him, I felt that Trump’s constant attacks on the deeply cynical and patronizing Republican professional class could help move the party in a more moderate direction," wrote Sheffield. "Despite his nonstop stream of lies, Trump was also telling the truth—the GOP did not care about its voters. I felt nearly alone in this opinion among my fellow Washington activists. While I hoped that Trump would adhere to his formerly expressed opinions in favor of a wealth tax and abortion rights, seemingly everyone else on the right derided him as a 'Republican in name only' who was going to steer the party toward the political center. Nine years after the fact, it’s almost completely forgotten that the 'Never Trump' movement began out of concern that the former reality star wasn’t conservative enough."
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Sheffield was working in this environment, when, in his account, he received a tip that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), then one of Trump's key rivals for the nomination, committed adultery. "To that end, I kept top editors at Breitbart, the Daily Caller, and The Washington Times apprised as I expanded my sourcing to include people in Cruz’s campaign and Lone Star Republican politics," he wrote — and Trump ally Steve Bannon, then in the Breitbart newsroom, pursued it intensely. And then, he got a call from the Enquirer's editor Sharon Churcher.
"When Churcher and I spoke on the phone, she seemed familiar with some of the allegations. She told me I was much further along in developing sources to substantiate them than anyone else she’d seen and offered to pay me for my notes and draft story," he wrote. "I said I would have to think about it. I wasn’t enthused about working with the notorious tabloid, but it had also finally begun to dawn on me that right-wing media outlets were political operations more than they were news organizations, and that they might not ever want to run any story at all. Ultimately, though, as disappointed as I was with my colleagues, I could not bring myself to seek a byline in the Enquirer. But I wasn’t averse to telling Churcher some of my findings, hoping that with the Enquirer’s vast resources, perhaps she and her team could do their own reporting."
Ultimately, the Enquirer published a story headlined, “IT’S OVER FOR PERVY TED: CRUZ’S 5 SECRET MISTRESSES!” which relied on "thin sources," Sheffield wrote, and only cited Trump ally Roger Stone — all while Trump lied that he had nothing to do with the story and “I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz.”