Donald Trump sits with members of his legal team in a Manhattan criminal courtroom to continue his hush money trial on April 25, 2024 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Via Reuters
Lawyers for Donald Trump began cross-examining former National Enquirer David Pecker on Thursday afternoon, the first witness to testify in Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
The questioning began near the end of Pecker’s third day on the witness stand in the historic trial, where he was questioned by prosecutors in Manhattan about his involvement in “catch and kill” schemes benefiting Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
However, on Thursday, Pecker said he had refused to pay porn star Stormy Daniels for her story that she allegedly had sex with Trump years earlier.
Pecker testified that he rejected a request from Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to destroy Daniels’ story by purchasing it for $120,000 and then burying it.
“I’m not a bank,” Pecker recalled to Dylan Howard, the tabloid’s editor-in-chief at the time.
Pecker noted on the witness stand that his publisher had already paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower bouncer and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to silence negative news about Trump during the 2016 election.
Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen asked Pecker to also pay for Daniels’ story, but Pecker refused. “I’m not going to get involved with a porn star,” said the former CEO of American Media.
Pecker added that Cohen, who ultimately paid Daniels $130,000 of his own money, later complained to him that he had not yet received a refund from Trump.
Pecker made the statement just feet away from Trump, who is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a plan to influence the 2016 presidential election by buying Daniels’ silence.
Pecker dishes
Those were just a few of the many details Pecker revealed about his relationship with Trump and his advisers during his third day of testimony in the historic trial.
Pecker testified that he believed Trump would compensate him if he bought the story from McDougal, who claimed she had an extramarital affair with the former president.
Pecker said he told the then-presidential candidate in a phone call in June 2016 to buy the story to “take it off the market.” In a subsequent conversation, Cohen urged Pecker to take McDougal’s story, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m your friend – the boss will take care of it,” according to the former CEO’s statement.
Pecker, who believed the story was true, said his understanding of it was “that I would get a refund from either the Trump Organization or Donald Trump.”
The former tabloid publisher also testified that the purpose of purchasing McDougal’s story was to suppress negative news about Trump before the 2016 election.
“We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or harm the campaign,” Pecker said.
He testified that American Media never refunded the $150,000 payment to McDougal.
But Trump reportedly asked in a conversation with Pecker in January 2017, “How’s our girl?” referring to McDougal. Trump thanked Pecker at that meeting for handling “the McDougal situation” and the “bouncer situation,” according to Pecker.
That same month, Pecker said newly elected Trump invited him and his wife to the White House. Pecker’s wife didn’t want to go, he said, so he brought Howard and another co-worker with him instead.
At the White House, Pecker said Trump took him aside and asked, “How is Karen?” Pecker replied, “She’s calm, everything’s good.”
Pecker said he agreed after the 2016 election to modify McDougal’s confidentiality agreement to let her speak to reporters who had already contacted her.
After an interview with McDougal aired in March 2018, Pecker said Trump called him and was “very upset” when he heard the deal had been changed.
Pecker told Trump that he planned to extend McDougal’s contract – a decision that two then-White House aides, adviser Hope Hicks and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, agreed with.
Publisher admits campaign finance violation
Pecker testified that he received a letter from the Federal Election Commission. When he called Cohen for advice, the lawyer said he received the same letter and told Pecker not to worry.
“Jeff Sessions is the attorney general, and Donald Trump has him in his pocket,” Pecker recalled Cohen saying.
Pecker then testified about a non-prosecution agreement that federal prosecutors in New York made with American Media related to the payment to McDougal. A statement of facts attached to that agreement states that American Media never reported to the FEC “that it made the $150,000 payment to the model.”
“We admitted to a campaign finance violation,” Pecker testified.
He also announced that in October 2019 he had signed a cooperation agreement with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Trump in the hush money case.
In this courtroom sketch, former US President Donald Trump watches as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass questions David Pecker during Trump’s criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to hide money he paid in 2016 to keep porn star Stormy Daniels from the US Manhattan State Court in New York City on April 25, 2024.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
The trial, which began in earnest with opening statements on Monday, is expected to last six weeks.
Thursday’s testimony marked Pecker’s third day on the witness stand. On Tuesday, he detailed how he agreed to help Trump’s 2016 campaign by warning the then-candidate about damaging information and working to hide it from the public.
He described his involvement in a deal that paid a former Trump Tower bouncer $30,000 for his story that Trump had fathered a child with his maid.
While he concluded the story was untrue, Pecker said he bought the exclusive rights to the story to “take it off the market.”
“I made the decision to purchase the story because it could potentially embarrass the campaign and Mr. Trump,” he testified.
Pecker also said that he and his tabloid would “embellish” negative stories about Trump’s political rivals after Cohen urged him to do so.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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2024-04-25 20:02:22
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