STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Meanwhile, this guy right here, his name is David Pecker, and he owns the National Enquirer. And the big story today is apparently he and his company cut a deal with the feds, because the federal government and the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have been looking into payments that were made by Mr. Pecker to Stormy Daniels and also a Playboy model that is regarded as hush money. And the whole idea is they regard it as a campaign violation. And so they're trying to connect all the dots, and apparently some of the dots between Donald Trump and the payments go through the National Enquirer.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (GUEST CO-HOST): I don't see what the big deal is. Alan Dershowitz, Harvard professor, somebody who understands the election law, the law, Constitution, all of this, says there's nothing there. Donald Trump can give money to his own campaign.

DOOCY: Right. 

CAMPOS-DUFFY: As long as Donald Trump gave that money to shut up these mistresses, which, by the way, didn't really work very well. But, anyway, that's what he tried to do. He's allowed to do that to save his marriage, to save his campaign, for whatever reason. 

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): So, does David Pecker back up what Michael Cohen is saying? That Donald Trump -- he says that Michael Cohen made the payments on the direction of then-billionaire -- he's still a billionaire, but then-businessman Donald Trump. Does David Pecker back that up? Maybe in turn for immunity does he say that? 

And then, to your point, Rachel, what does it mean legally in the big picture? Turns out there are a lot of celebrities that might have some issues that theydid not want out if they want to run for public office. And if you just look at the attack right now on the president, what an agenda. Now they go, “oh, let's look at his foundation. Let's found out what his lawyer. Let's raid his lawyer's apartment. Let's go after and raid in the middle of the night Paul Manafort's place.” He was there for three months. You cannot blame the president for feeling like he's being surrounded and targeted. The question is, fundamentally, are any of these things illegal? And if anyone is sitting out there in the business world saying to themselves, “I'd love to run for public office,” they're running for the hills right now. 

CAMPOS-DUFFY: That's right. 

KILMEADE: Because this president was the first to do it, and now stuff that happened before he was even formally a candidate is coming back to haunt him. 

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Brian, I think your point is so good. Because, there's all this chaos, there's all this stuff. But, you're right. The message to anyone who's an outsider who's thinking about running for president is --

KILMEADE: Don't.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: If the political class doesn't appoint you or give you permission, then they will destroy you. That's the message.

DOOCY: So regarding David Pecker, apparently he had kept all of these secret documents where he had arranged so-called “capture and kill” arrangements with different people, they were in his safe according to the Associated Press, so now it looks as if the feds are going to be able to take a look at it.

Related:

AP: National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe

NYT: David Pecker, Chief of National Enquirer’s Publisher, Is Said to Get Immunity in Trump Inquiry

Previously:

“The National Enquirer has become The New York Times”: Here is the man Hannity hypes as Clinton's fixer

Hannity and smear merchant Ed Klein claim the National Enquirer “gets a lot of things right”

Sean Hannity brings supermarket tabloid to life by inviting Clinton “fixer” to Fox News prime time