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Trial will see more questions for publisher following his testimony about ‘catch and kill’ schemes to buy up negative stories
Welcome back.
David Pecker is due back on the stand in the hush-money trial of Donald Trump for a third day.
Bove traced Pecker’s long relationship with Trump, showing how he helped his friend long before the presidential election. Pecker spoke about how he gave Trump a heads up about a negative story about Trump’s then-wife, Marla Maples.
Trump addressed the media as he left the courtroom, describing Pecker’s testimony as “breathtaking and amazing”. “This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day,” he told reporters.
Pecker said he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model Karen McDougal specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”. He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier. The jury was shown records of the $150,000 payment, including an invoice from McDougal’s lawyer.
Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.
Pecker said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief, Dylan Howard, and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. Pecker admitted that the goal of the paper’s publisher American Media Inc (AMI) was to try to prevent the story from interfering with the Trump campaign, and that he was concerned the payment could violate federal campaign finance law.
But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement. Pecker confirmed that AMI consulted with an election law attorney, and that Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically” about it.
Pecker said he received a frantic call from Howard in early October 2016, saying Stormy Daniels was trying to sell a story about her sexual relationship with Trump. He said Howard claimed Daniels wanted $120,000 for the story. Pecker said he did not want to be involved with a porn star, and that Cohen told him “the boss will be very angry with you”.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign. The prosecution’s case is that it was interference in the 2016 election, which Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.
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