The chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said Thursday that he will request information from a former Fox News reporter who was reportedly working on a story that her network killed about President Trump’s payments to Stormy Daniels and other women.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wrote to former Fox reporter Diana Falzone requesting information regarding “debts and payments to silence women alleging extramarital affairs with him prior to the 2016 presidential election,” according to a copy of the letter emailed to The Hill.
{mosads}The letter refers to the payments made through Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, and requests any information that Falzone may have uncovered about potential violations of campaign finance law during her reporting.
“All documents in your or your agent’s custody, control, or possession referring or relating to women alleging extramarital affairs with Donald Trump, payments by the President or anyone on his behalf to silence them, or any other potential campaign finance violation” would be subject to the the chairman’s request, the letter states.
The Oversight committee has also requested an in-person interview with Falzone, who has said that she reached a settlement with Fox News that prevents her from speaking about the story.
Fox News did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill.
The New Yorker reported that Falzone was told by her then-boss at Fox, Ken LaCorte, that the network’s owner Rupert Murdoch wanted Trump to win the election, and therefore the story was killed.
“Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go,” LaCorte reportedly said, according to The New Yorker.
Fox has denied that characterization, pointing to comments from a former executive who said last year that the network did not have enough factual evidence to report on Stormy Daniels’s claims against the president.