Aug. 31, 2018

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP Exclusives: National Enquirer’s secret safe, Cohen subpoenaed on Trump Foundation

“What’s in the safe?”

The headline on the cover of the New York Post editions on Aug. 23 spoke volumes about the impact, power and reach of AP reporting on the legal chaos surrounding President Donald Trump.

Washington investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz exclusively reported that the National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Horwitz's story quickly went to No. 1 on AP Mobile and led websites around the world.

It was one of two AP exclusives touching on Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen that seized the nation’s attention last week. In addition to Horwitz, Albany statehouse reporter David Klepper was first to report that New York state investigators subpoenaed Cohen as part of their probe into the Trump Foundation. Klepper reported that Cohen is a potentially significant source for state investigators looking into whether Trump or his charity broke state law or lied about their tax liability.

For their exclusives, Horwitz and Klepper win the Beat of the Week.

Pecker Cohen 1024

Dec. 23, 2022

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Persistence pays off in delivering AP scoop on DOJ probe

immediately reached out to state and county officials in Georgia to find out if they had also received subpoenas and was told they had not. She filed open records requests with state and local governments and was told there were no records to provide. But she stayed on it. The extra effort paid off. Nearly a week into her reporting, a source called to say that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger got a subpoena that day. Brumback immediately prepared a story while her source sent her the actual subpoena. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution credited the AP in describing the effort to compel Raffensberger’s cooperation.

Read more.

AP 22346665406248