David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media – the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid – looks set to become a possible star witness in the proceedings following former President Donald Trump’s not-guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsification of business records.
The office of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement that Mr Trump falsified the records “in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election”.
The charges are connected to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal who both alleged to have had affairs with Mr Trump.
The office of the DA added that “during the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects”.
“TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws,” the office said.
The National Enquirer is reported to have paid Ms McDougal $150,000 for her story only for them not to run it in a deal orchestrated by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who paid Ms Daniels $130,000 for her silence.
On Tuesday, Mr Bragg said the case was about “34 false statements made to cover up other crimes. These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct”.
The statement of facts released by the DA on Tuesday notes that Mr Trump announced his 2016 campaign in June of the previous year.
Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Department of Defense, tweeted that the meeting included Mr Pecker, Mr Trump, and Cohen.
“David Pecker is going to be a star witness,” Mr Goodman said.
The statement of facts that “soon after” Mr Trump announced his 2016 campaign, he met with Mr Pecker and Mr Cohen at Trump Tower in August 2015.
“At the meeting, the AMI CEO [Mr Pecker] agreed to help with the Defendant’s [Mr Trump’s] campaign, saying that he would act as the ‘eyes and ears’ for the campaign by looking out for negative stories about the Defendant and alerting Lawyer A [Cohen] before the stories were published,” the statement of facts says. “The AMI CEO also agreed to publish negative stories about the Defendant’s competitors for the election.”
In the document, Ms McDougal appears to be referred to as “Woman 1”.
“About five months before the presidential election, in or about June 2016, the editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer and AMI’s Chief Content Officer (the “AMI Editor-inChief”) contacted Lawyer A about a woman (’Woman 1’) who alleged she had a sexual relationship with the Defendant while he was married,” the document states.
“The AMI Editor-in-Chief updated Lawyer A regularly about the matter over text message and by telephone. The Defendant did not want this information to become public because he was concerned about the effect it could have on his candidacy,” the filing adds. “Thereafter, the Defendant, the AMI CEO, and Lawyer A had a series of discussions about who should pay off Woman 1 to secure her silence.”
“AMI ultimately paid $150,000 to Woman 1 in exchange for her agreement not to speak out about the alleged sexual relationship, as well as for two magazine cover features of Woman 1 and a series of articles that would be published under her byline,” the statement of facts says.
Between the 2016 election and Mr Trump’s inauguration on 20 January 2017, he met with Mr Pecker “privately in Trump Tower in Manhattan” to thank him.
The statement of facts says that “the Defendant thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1, and invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration. In the summer of 2017, the Defendant invited the AMI CEO to the White House for a dinner to thank him for his help during the campaign”.
The statement of facts also says that “a former Trump Tower doorman ... was trying to sell information regarding a child that the Defendant had allegedly fathered out of wedlock”.
The document states that Mr Pecker became aware of this “in or about October or November 2015” – months after the launch of Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The statement of facts says that American Media “negotiated and signed an agreement to pay the Doorman $30,000 to acquire exclusive rights to the story”.
“AMI falsely characterized this payment in AMI’s books and records, including in its general ledger,” the document says. “AMI purchased the information from the Doorman without fully investigating his claims, but the AMI CEO directed that the deal take place because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.”
Mr Pecker wanted to end that deal when American Media “concluded that the story was not true”, but Mr Cohen “instructed the AMI CEO not to release the Doorman until after the presidential election, and the AMI CEO complied with that instruction because of his agreement with” Mr Trump and Mr Cohen.
Appearing on ABC News, former New Jersey Governor Christie, an ex-Trump ally and now Trump critic, said that “it doesn't seem to me that federal campaign finance law needs to be involved in any way here”.
“The crime is to try to essentially defraud the voters of the state of New York by trying to either help or impede the election or defeat of two or more candidates, which would be Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” the possible 2024 Trump rival said. “And Pecker is the guy.”
“I think what may have changed here with Alvin Bragg is maybe David Pecker was willing to come forward now and be cooperative,” he said. “Because in the federal case, there was a lot of back and forth with Packer about what he would do or not do. And Pecker presumably does not have the same infirmities that Michael Cohen would have as a witness.”
He noted that “you haven't seen David Pecker anywhere – you haven't seen him on television, giving any interviews or doing anything else. I haven't seen this guy for a long time”.
“I certainly haven't seen him making any public comments as opposed to Michael Cohen, who seems to be as addicted as his former boss is to getting in front of a TV camera,” Mr Christie said on the ABC live broadcast.
Mr Christie said the most important thing wouldn’t be to prove the 34 falsification counts but that “the key is going to be proving the underlying crime that elevates it to a felony”.
“And I think there is going to be one most important witness and that's going to be David Pecker,” Mr Christie, a former prosecutor, said.
