Veteran tabloid publisher David Pecker returned to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday. Testimony in the case resumed just before midday following a morning hearing on the former president’s alleged gag order violations.
Quick Read
- Key Witness Testimony: David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, resumed his testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, discussing his role in suppressing stories detrimental to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
- Catch-and-Kill Strategy: Pecker detailed his collaboration with Trump and Michael Cohen to implement a “catch-and-kill” strategy, whereby they would purchase and withhold from publication stories that could harm Trump’s image.
- Gag Order Violations Hearing: Prior to the testimony, a court hearing addressed alleged violations by Trump of a gag order, with prosecutors seeking fines for social media posts that could influence the trial.
- Content of Testimony: Pecker explained his promise to Trump to be his “eyes and ears,” actively looking to quash negative stories, particularly involving claims from women about Trump, by purchasing story rights through the National Enquirer.
- Trial Impact: The testimony is part of the prosecution’s effort to prove that Trump orchestrated a scheme to influence the 2016 election by hiding stories about his personal life, leading to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
- Allegations from Doorman: The trial also touched on a claim, which was paid to be suppressed, involving a former Trump Tower doorman who alleged that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock.
- National Enquirer’s Role: Pecker described the National Enquirer’s involvement in drafting and spiking stories, including an unverified story about Ted Cruz that Trump later publicized.
- Court Proceedings: The jury was dismissed early for the Passover holiday, with proceedings set to continue on Thursday.
The associated Press has the story:
Pecker says he wanted to keep tabloid’s agreement with Trump ‘as quiet as possible’
NEW YORK (AP) —
Veteran tabloid publisher David Pecker returned to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday.
Testimony in the case resumed just before midday following a morning hearing on the former president’s alleged gag order violations.
Pecker, the National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime friend of Trump’s, was the only witness Monday. He was expected Tuesday to tell jurors about his relationship with Trump and his efforts to help him stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors say Pecker worked with Trump and Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, on a “catch-and-kill” strategy to buy up and then spike negative stories. At the heart of the case are allegations that Trump orchestrated a scheme to bury unflattering stories about his personal life that might torpedo his campaign.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in opening statements Monday painted competing portraits of the former president — one depicting him as someone who sought to corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and another describing him as an innocent, everyday man who was being subjected to a case the government “should never have brought.”
Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments in internal business documents.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The case is the first criminal trial of a former American president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.
COURT WRAPS FOR THE DAY
The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has been sent home for the day, with court adjourning early for the Passover holiday.
Jurors had to directly pass by Trump at the defense table as they exited just after 2 p.m. but none appeared to look in his direction.
Afterward, Trump peered at reporters in the courtroom gallery as he ambled to the hallway. He clutched the same pile of clipped papers he walked in with earlier.
Trial proceedings will resume on Thursday.
NATIONAL ENQUIRER EMAIL AND INVOICE ENTERED INTO EVIDENCE
An internal National Enquirer email and invoice were entered into evidence in Donald Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday afternoon.
The documents were shown to jurors and describe payments made to Dino Sajudin, then a Trump Tower doorman, to kill his story about a child Trump had allegedly fathered with an employee.
One of the documents describes the funds coming from the publication’s “corporate” account. An invoice prepared by an executive editor references an “immediate” $30,000 bank transfer payment for “‘Trump’ non-published story.”
The tabloid ultimately concluded the story was not true, and the woman and Trump have both denied the allegations.
PECKER SAYS HE HAD NEVER PAID TO BURY A STORY ABOUT TRUMP BEFORE DOORMAN CAME ALONG
David Pecker testified Tuesday that he’d never paid to bury a story about Donald Trump before Dino Sajudin, then a doorman at Trump Tower, came along.
The former National Enquirer publisher recalled calling Michael Cohen and explaining that they could purchase the doorman’s silence for $30,000 by buying the exclusive rights to his story.
“He said, ‘Who’s going to pay for it?’ I said, ‘I’ll pay for it,’” Pecker testified. “Then he said, ‘Thank you very much.’ He said, ‘The boss will be very pleased.’”
In response to the prosecutor’s question about who he understood “the boss” to be, Pecker replied: “Donald Trump.”
Explaining why he decided to have the National Enquirer foot the bill, Pecker testified: “This was going to be a very big story.”
He added that it would “probably be the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley,” but noted he would’ve held it until after the election, citing his agreement with Cohen.
Pecker described the National Enquirer’s “normal” procedure of placing Sajudin under a polygraph test to determine if his tip was legitimate, but prosecutor Joshua Steinglass stopped him before he could reveal the results, which isn’t allowed in court.
Pecker said the National Enquirer hired a private investigator, sent reporters to a location where the supposed child was living and used other verification methods — ultimately learning that the story was “1,000% untrue.”
“Had you ever paid a story to kill a story about Donald Trump?” Steinglass asked.
“No I had not,” Pecker said.
QUESTIONING TURNS TO CLAIMS FROM FORMER TRUMP TOWER DOORMAN
Following questions about his relationship with Donald Trump, the former publisher of the National Enquirer was asked Tuesday about claims brought forth by a former Trump Tower doorman.
The doorman, Dino Sajudin, received $30,000 from the National Enquirer in 2015 for the rights to a rumor that Trump had fathered a child with an employee at Trump World Tower. The tabloid concluded the story was not true, and the woman and Trump have both denied the allegations.
As David Pecker described receiving the tip in court, Trump shook his head.
Pecker testified that upon hearing the rumor, he immediately called Michael Cohen, who said it was “absolutely not true” but that he would look into whether the people involved worked for Trump’s company.
TRUMP AMPLIFIED DUBIOUS NATIONAL ENQUIRER CLAIMS IN 2016
David Pecker’s testimony on Tuesday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial provided a seamy backstory to Trump’s rise from political novice to president of the United States.
With Cohen acting as a shadow editor of sorts, Pecker said he and the National Enquirer parlayed trashy rumor-mongering into splashy tabloid stories that tarred Trump’s opponents while also running pieces that boosted his image.
The articles were timed to run just as Trump’s rivals were climbing in polls, and some of the allegations — such as articles falsely tying Ted Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — entered the mainstream via cable news and conservative-leaning talk programs.
Trump himself amplified the National Enquirer’s absurd allegations about Cruz’s father in May 2016, telling Fox News in one interview, “His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being, you know, shot.”
“Nobody even brings it up, I mean they don’t even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it,” he went on.
Trump had a history in 2016 of repeating unproven and unsubstantiated stories, many from the National Enquirer, which had endorsed his candidacy. After the tabloid printed a story without evidence that claimed Cruz was having an extramarital affair, Trump praised the publication for having a “very good” record of accuracy.
COHEN WOULD ASK TABLOID TO RUN NEGATIVE ARTICLES ON TRUMP’S POLITICAL OPPONENTS, PECKER SAYS
The National Enquirer’s former publisher David Pecker testified Tuesday that Michael Cohen would call him and say, “We would like for you to run a negative article” on a certain political opponent.
“He would send me information about Ted Cruz or about Ben Carson or Marco Rubio, and that was the basis of our story, and then we would embellish it a little,” he said.
The court was shown examples of the resulting headlines relating to Carson, a surgeon who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and later became his secretary of housing.
“Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain” reads one article relaying allegations from a former patient.
Pecker said he would send Cohen drafts of these stories, to which Cohen would provide feedback. Asked if he knew whether Cohen ever shared those stories with Trump, Pecker said: “I don’t recollect that, no.”
PECKER WANTED TO KEEP 2015 AGREEMENT UNDER WRAPS
David Pecker on Tuesday said that after his August 2015 meeting with Donald Trump, Michael Cohen and Hope Hicks, he wanted to keep the agreement under wraps.
Pecker testified that after that meeting he met with the National Enquirer’s editor at the time, Dylan Howard, and underscored that the agreement he’d just made at Trump Tower was “highly, highly confidential.”
He said he wanted the tabloid’s bureau chiefs to be on the lookout for any stories involving Trump and said he wanted them to verify the stories before alerting Cohen.
“I told him that we are going to try to help the campaign and to do that I want to keep this as quiet as possible,” Pecker testified. “I did not want anyone else to know this agreement I had and what I wanted to do.”
