Sarah Huckabee Sanders just got dragged into Trump’s hush-money trial
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who claims to represent family values, was advising on hush money payments to an ex-Playboy playmate during her WH stint.
In Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ brief tenure as Arkansas governor, the political nepo baby has already embroiled herself in a number of scandals.
So it only makes sense that she couldn’t escape wrongdoing during her time working for Donald Trump, the most-scandal ridden president in U.S. history (that’s 91 felony counts, in case you forgot).
Sanders served as White House press secretary during the first half of Trump’s presidency, right when the Stormy Daniels story was blowing up. The ex-adult film actress, who says she had an affair with Trump in 2006, broke her hush-money agreement and did an interview with Anderson Cooper.
Trump, of course, is sitting trial for allegedly falsifying financial docs in relation to those payments. The disgraced ex-president is facing 34 felony counts in total.
Around the same time, Cooper also interviewed former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who says she had a 10-month affair with Trump. And that’s where Sanders gets involved.
Ex-National Enquirer boss David Pecker has been testifying all week about how the tabloid aided Trump in his 2016 bid. Through an unsavory “catch and kill” scheme, they bought the rights to two explosive stories that were circulating around Trump. The first one was a doorman at Trump Tower who alleged that Trump had a “lovechild.” Pecker paid the doorman $30,000 to bury his story, which has never been verified.
The second target was McDougal. Pecker testified that Trump asked him to buy her story and “take it off market.” Despite Pecker’s misgivings about the cost of such a move–Trump still hadn’t repaid him for the doorman–he wrote the $150,000 check anyway.
When Pecker arrived at Trump Tower in January 2017 for a meeting with Trump, he says the then-president asked about her status.
“She’s writing her articles. She’s quiet. She’s fine,” Pecker replied.
Later, Pecker was invited to the White House for an appreciation dinner. But the good feelings didn’t last for long. When McDougal appeared on CNN, Trump called Pecker immediately. Without his knowledge, Pecker had amended the contract.
Pecker recalls Trump being “furious.”
Right after that, Pecker phoned the White House, and strategized with… Sanders and Hope Hicks. The two taxpayer-funded officials encouraged the sleazy tabloid publisher to extend the deal with McDougal.
“They thought that it was a good idea,” he said.
But Sanders’ involvement doesn’t stop there.
In addition to serving as press secretary, she apparently kept tabs on Melania. Stephanie Grisham, one of Melania’s closest White House aids, told Olivia Nuzzi that Sanders talked about McDougal “all the time.”
Most of all, she wanted to track how Melania was reacting.
Grisham was working for the First Lady. According to Grisham, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (now the governor of Arkansas) and Hope Hicks (an expected witness for the prosecution) contacted her to ask, “What did I know, what did Melania know, what were we going to do.”— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) April 25, 2024
Grisham tells me it was clear “They were asking for damage control purposes.”— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) April 25, 2024
While that may not be illegal, it’s still sketchy AF! The revelations also expose Sanders as a complete phony. She marginalizes LGBTQ+ people in the name of “family values,” yet she was quietly advising on hush-money payments to a Playboy playmate as a White House official.
Arkansas is one of the states leading the nation in antigay legislation, and is ranked last for LGBTQ+ equality.
Sanders is responsible for the dire situation. She’s championed an array of discriminatory measures, such as banning gender-affirming care for minors, barring teachers from using students’ preferred pronouns and limiting drag performances.
And when she isn’t attacking gay people, she’s straight schemin’!
The Arkansas governor was just audited for a $19,029.25 podium purchase, which nobody understands. Legislative auditors found that Sanders’ office mishandled the buying process and destroyed a document that should’ve been saved.
Suffice to say, the nearly $20,000 podium is about much more than a lectern. FWIW, Sanders’ office acquired the podium from Beckett Events L.L.C., an event management company with ties to the governor.
Rather than issue her own statement about the incriminating investigation, Sanders resorted to posting a juvenile music video on social media.
There are other scandals as well. Sanders took her family on a lavish trip to the Super Bowl, despite earning $158,749 annually… far below what someone would need to treat their family to a VIP experience at the biggest sporting event in the country.
Last September, right when Podiumgate was beginning to unravel, Sanders billed her taxpaying constituents $13,000 for a college football kickoff party.
Since Sanders left the Trump Administration in June 2019, she wasn’t around for January 6 or his efforts to overturn the election. But she played a central role right when Daniels and McDougal–an ex-adult film star and Playboy model–started talking.
Hicks, Trump’s longtime communication aid, is expected to testify for the prosecution. We’ll see if Sanders can continue to avoid the prosecution’s attention. It’s not looking great!
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