Closing summary
David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI), returned to the stand on Thursday for a third day of testimony. He will resume his testimony on Friday.
Pecker told the court 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 AMI’s goal was to try to prevent the story from interfering with the Trump campaign, and that he was nervous about whether the payment would violate campaign contribution laws.
Pecker said he expressed to Cohen nervousness about the amount AMI was paying to McDougal. “Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him.
But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Pecker confirmed AMI consulted with an election law attorney when they were considering paying McDougal for her story. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”
Pecker said he received a frantic call from Howard in early October 2016 who said Stormy Daniels was trying to sell a story about her sexual relationship with Trump. Pecker told jurors Howard said 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, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that 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.
Trump attorney Emil Bove began cross-examination of Pecker, grilling him on his recollection of specific dates and meetings to underscore the difficulty of recalling details relevant to the years-old allegations against Trump. Pecker insisted his testimony was based on his “best recollection of the time”.
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.
Donald Trump addressed the media as he left the courtroom on Thursday afternoon, 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,” the former president told reporters.
Trump says Pecker's testimony was 'breathtaking, amazing' after 'incredible day'
Donald Trump left the courtroom and briefly addressed the media after court adjourned for the day. Per pool, he said:
Today was breathtaking … breathtaking and amazing testimony. 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.
The former president also spoke about the student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza in US college campuses, condemning them as" “horrible” and blaming them on Joe Biden.
Trump appeared optimistic about the outcome of the supreme court hearing into his claim of presidential immunity, saying:
I think it was made clear, I hope it was made clear, that a president has to have immunity.
He did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.
The trial has concluded for the day.
Court will resume tomorrow morning, with the defense cross-examination of David Pecker.
Jury dismissed for the day
Judge Juan Merchan has dismissed the jury.
David Pecker will be back on the stand tomorrow with defense lawyers to resume their cross-examination.
David Pecker said he first met Michael Cohen in 2007 and Cohen was introduced as Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
This is important because a key element of the case is that the payments for Stormy Daniels were classified as legal expenses even though there was no legal retainer between Trump and Cohen.
Pecker also agrees when Trump attorney Emil Bove asks him if he understood Cohen to be someone who was always in it for himself.
He says Cohen asked him to promote businesses unrelated to Trump, arrange paparazzi shoots for himself, and promote his daughter’s rock climbing.
Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking David Pecker whether he needed documents to refresh himself on his memory of some events that he testified on today. Bove asked:
You’re going based on what you said previously.
Pecker insisted that he “was consistent in what I said going back to the grand jury testimony”.
Updated
Trump attorney Emil Bove said David Pecker gave two different times for when the first Trump Tower meeting happened with Trump In 2015.
Pecker gave a different time during his grand jury testimony last year and his testimony earlier this week.
Bove is trying to make it seem like the meeting took place a long time ago, and Pecker’s memory of it is hazy. He said:
These things happened a long time ago – even when you’re doing your best, and I’m sure you are – It’s hard to remember what people said almost 10 years ago.
David Pecker is describing how he helped Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel was running for mayor of Chicago.
Ari Emanuel reached out to Pecker about a story about an affair that had allegedly happened after Pecker acquired the rights to the story.
Pecker says he spent around $20,000 on the story, and there was no campaign finance violation.
David Pecker just said he never heard the term “catch-and-kill” before the investigation in this case. Says the first time he heard of it was from a prosecutor.
In contrast to the district attorney’s presentation, Emil Bove is letting Pecker talk as little as possible.
Many of Bove’s questions simply ask Pecker to confirm something that Bove says. Almost all of Pecker’s answers are “yes” or “correct.”
It lets Bove tell the story even though Pecker is the witness.
Updated
Under questioning from Trump lawyer Emil Bove, David Pecker says that he ran stories about Trump because “it was good for business”.
Pecker testifies that the first time he gave Donald Trump a heads up about a negative story was 1998.
It was a story about Marla Maples that Pecker failed to kill. Bove is using this to establish that Pecker and Trump were involved in catch-and-kill-type schemes before the 2016 campaign. Bove says:
That’s almost 17 years prior to the meeting you described in August 2015, 17 years of providing Trump with heads up about negative stories.
Updated
Trump attorney Emil Bove seems to be trying to establish that catch-and-kill was just standard operating procedure for AMI.
There were many reasons AMI may not have chosen to publish a story, he asks David Pecker. Pecker agrees.
Trump attorney begins cross-examination of Pecker
The prosecution has completed questioning of David Pecker.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove is beginning cross-examination of the witness.
Updated
Pecker testifies that Trump was his 'mentor'
David Pecker says the last time he spoke to Donald Trump was January or February of 2019.
He says that he has friends who belong to Mar-a-Lago and Trump will send his regards but Pecker doesn’t respond. Pecker said he thought it would be inappropriate to respond given the investigation.
Asked whether he has any ill-will to Trump, Pecker says “on the contrary”. He says Trump has been his “mentor” and says Trump assisted him after AMI’s office received anthrax in the mail in 2001.
Even though we haven’t spoken, I’m seeing him, I still consider him a friend.
Updated
Things are a bit slow right now.
After walking through David Pecker’s non-prosecution agreement with the southern district of New York, prosecutors are now outlining Pecker’s immunity agreement with the New York district attorney’s office.
They are reading the agreement out loud.
Updated
The agreement with the southern district outlined much of AMI’s deal with Karen McDougal, saying that the company paid $150,000 “to ensure that a woman did not publicize damaging allegations about that candidate before the presidential election and thereby influencing the election”.
Prosecutors are having David Pecker read parts of the agreement out loud for the court.
Updated
We’re looking at the non-prosecution agreement AMI made with federal prosecutors and the southern district court of New York.
Under the agreement, AMI would not be prosecuted for campaign finance contributions in exchange for testimony. This agreement was made in September 2018.
Updated
David Pecker is describing getting a letter from the FEC in 2018 and talking to Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, about it. Pecker said:
I said I’m very worried. Michael Cohen said why are you worried? Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket.
Pecker testifies Trump 'very upset' after Karen McDougal's CNN interview
David Pecker is describing what happened after Karen McDougal was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN.
Donald Trump was angry when he found out Pecker had amended McDougal’s contract to let her speak to the press.
Mr. Trump got very aggravated when he heard that I amended it and he couldn’t understand why. I said Karen has a two year agreement. She was flooded with requests from the press for interviews. He was very upset, couldn’t understand why I did it.
Updated
Top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn seen in the courtroom
Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s senior adviser and legal counsel, has been spotted in the courtroom today.
Epshteyn is seated in the first row of spectators, my colleague Sam Levine writes.
Epshteyn was among a number of Trump allies indicted in Arizona yesterday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.
Pecker continues testimony
David Pecker is testifying about a 2017 meeting with Donald Trump at the White House.
On the way to dinner at the White House, Trump asked Pecker how Karen McDougal was doing and Pecker replied that she was fine and writing her articles.
Updated
David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, is back on the stand.
Trump returns to Manhattan courtroom
Donald Trump has just returned to the courtroom in Manhattan, New York, for the resumption of his criminal hush-money trial.
The afternoon session is expected to begin imminently with more testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, and we’ll bring you developments from the courtroom as they happen. Stick with us …
Updated
Norm Eisen, a legal analyst for CNN and senior fellow of the Brookings Institute, is questioning Donald Trump’s pre-court claim this morning that hordes of his supporters are showing up to his Manhattan trial, but being kept away from the courthouse by authorities.
Not true, says Eisen, who has tweeted a photo he took of a solitary Trump supporter he saw today.
I am here outside NY Trump trial Courthouse and as far as I can tell only one pro Trump protester is in the vicinity
— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) April 25, 2024
The area is totally open and people are coming and going but only this gentleman bothered to show to support the former president pic.twitter.com/2E6LoQiuaK
“I am here outside NY Trump trial Courthouse and as far as I can tell only one pro-Trump protester is in the vicinity,” Eisen wrote.
“The area is totally open and people are coming and going but only this gentleman bothered to show to support the former president.”
Mary Trump, the former president’s niece and long-time critic, has thoughts on Thursday’s prominent media coverage of his criminal trial in Manhattan, alongside arguments over immunity at the US supreme court.
“It’s incredible. Today most news channels have a split screen of Donald’s election interference trial on one side and his case for presidential immunity on the other,” she just posted to X, formerly Twitter.
It’s incredible.
— Mary L. Trump (@MaryLTrump) April 25, 2024
Today most news channels have a split screen of Donald’s election interference trial on one side and his case for presidential immunity on the other.
It’s mind boggling how Donald, corrupt to the core, weak, and out of power, can continue to drag our country…
“It’s mind boggling how Donald, corrupt to the core, weak, and out of power, can continue to drag our country down.
“American democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution will never be safe if this morally bankrupt coward gets back into the White House.”
Interim summary
Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan is in a lunch recess, so it seems a good time to look at the highlights from this morning’s testimony:
Former National Enquirer publisher David 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.
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.
He said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. “Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him after he expressed nervousness about the size of the payment.
But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that 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.
Here’s my colleague Lauren Aratani’s latest dispatch from the courthouse. Stick with us for coverage of the afternoon session, when Pecker is expected to resume testimony.
Updated
The supreme court has now wrapped up oral arguments in Donald Trump v United States, the former president’s appeal in his federal election subversion case, in which he claims presidents are immune from prosecution for acts committed in office.
It is unclear when the court could rule, and until it does, his trial in Washington DC remains on hold.
The court is breaking for lunch, and will resume at 2.15pm ET.
Donald Trump left the courtroom without addressing or looking at reporters, only giving a brief thumbs up, per pool.
Pecker testifies Trump appeared concerned about campaign, not family
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker whether Donald Trump ever indicated that he was thinking of his family, instead of the campaign, when quashing the stories.
“I thought it was for his campaign,” Pecker said. In conversations with Cohen and Trump, his family was never mentioned.
I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign.
Prosecutors are really having Pecker emphasize that Trump was doing this for his campaign, not because of his family. They’re trying to show the jury that Trump was quashing the story as a kind of election interference, not for personal reasons.
Pecker was briefly asked why, though he was invited, did he not attend the inauguration. Pecker was somewhat evasive:
I asked my wife, she didn’t want to go. I decided not to attend.
Updated
Pecker testifies Trump thanked him for 'handling' Karen McDougal situation
In another Trump Tower meeting in January 6, 2017, two weeks before inauguration, Donald Trump asked Pecker, “How’s our girl doing?”, referring to Karen McDougal.
David Pecker said that she was fine, she was “quiet”. Trump thanked Pecker for handling McDougal and the doorman, he said. Pecker said:
He was thanking me for buying them and for not publishing any of the stories and help me the way I did.
Do you know why he thanked you?” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.
He said the stories were very embarrassing.
David Pecker is describing a December 2016 meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower in which Trump thanked him for handling the doorman story and Karen McDougal.
At the end of 2016, David Pecker and Michael Cohen met at Trump Tower.
Pecker says Cohen told him that Cohen still hadn’t been repaid for his payment to Stormy Daniels.
Cohen said he also hadn’t yet received his annual bonus and asked Pecker if he would talk to Donald Trump to tell Trump everything Cohen did to earn his bonus.
Updated
David Pecker says that he spoke with Donald Trump on the phone the day after the Wall Street Journal story came out.
Trump “was very upset, saying how could this happen, I thought you had this under control. Either you or one of your people have leaked this story,” Pecker says, adding:
I said Donald, there’s no way on earth that I would leak this story. We, American Media, had the agreement between only a couple of people.
Pecker implies that, at the time, he thought someone from Karen McDougal’s team leaked the story.
After the Wall Street Journal reported that AMI had paid Karen McDougal to kill her story about an affair with Donald Trump, AMI put out a statement denying it.
David Pecker says in court it was false. Explaining why he lied, he says:
I wanted to protect my company. I wanted to protect myself. And I wanted also to protect Donald Trump.
Pecker testifies Cohen said Trump 'furious' over refusal to pay Stormy Daniels
Lots of irony in a text from David Pecker read to the court from former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.
Howard communicated to Michael Cohen that Donald Trump should be paying Stormy Daniels:
I spoke to [Cohen], all sorted. Now we move. No fingerprints. I’ll recap to you face to face.
Pecker really emphasizing that, at this point, he was refusing to pay off any more people for Trump.
I’m not going to pay for this story. I’m not going to be involved with a pornstar … After paying out the doorman, after paying out McDougal, we’re not paying out any more money.
Cohen was “upset, he said the boss would be furious with me”, Pecker added.
Updated
Prosecutors are showing a text from Dylan Howard to David Pecker in court about Stormy Daniels. Howard texted:
I know the denials were made in the past - but this story is true. I can lock it on publication now to shut down the media chatter and we can assess next steps thereafter. Ok?
Pecker said that Howard wanted to buy Daniels story for $120,000, but Pecker told Howard over the phone that he was wary.
I said I don’t want the National Enquirer to be associated with a pornstar. Our largest retailer, Walmart … This would be very damaging for the magazine, very damaging for American Media.
He said he told Howard:
If anyone was going to buy it, I think Michael Cohen and Donald Trump should buy it.
Updated
Pecker begins testifying about Stormy Daniels
David Pecker repeats something that is well known about Donald Trump: that he doesn’t use email. Pecker says he has never communicated with Trump by email and always through office phone.
Pecker says he got an urgent call one Saturday evening in early October from Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor-in-chief, when he was having dinner with his wife.
Pecker left the restaurant and said Howard had gotten a call from his two best sources saying Stormy Daniels was looking to sell her story about having an affair with Donald Trump.
Howard told Pecker they could have the story for $120,000 if they decided right then.
This is the first time Daniels has come up today after prosecutors spent the morning going through how Pecker bought the Karen McDougal story.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled last week that the Access Hollywood tape won’t come into evidence in the hush-money trial, but he allowed into evidence the transcript of the tape.
Here’s a reminder of what Trump said in the infamous tape:
Updated
Pecker testifies Access Hollywood tape was 'very damaging' for Trump campaign
Now David Pecker is being asked about the Access Hollywood tapes, which were released in October 2016, just a month before the election.
The judge had ruled against the tape itself being a part of evidence in the trial, so prosecutors had Pecker describe the tape. A pretty bizarre moment.
Pecker said that the tape was:
Donald Trump and Billy Bush, an anchor for Access Hollywood, going on a bus, and [Trump] said the comment … ‘You can grab a woman by their genitals’.
Donald Trump appeared to be fidgeting in his seat as Pecker was talking about the tape.
When asked what happened when the tape was released, Pecker said:
It was very embarrassing and very damaging for the campaign.
Seems like prosecutors are setting up Pecker up to talk about Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 just three weeks after the tapes were released.
In court documents, prosecutors have argued that the release of the tapes amped up pressure on the campaign to kill any other negative stories that could come out about Trump.
Updated
David Pecker is back on the stand.
Pecker is describing a phone call with Michael Cohen after the release of the Access Hollywood tape.
Everyone in the campaign was very concerned about what impact it would have, Pecker recalls Cohen telling him.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is reading text messages from Dylan Howard to a relative into the record. One of them says: "At least if he wins I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud."
— Sam Levine (@srl) April 25, 2024
Meanwhile in Washington DC, the supreme court is hearing oral arguments in Donald Trump v United States, the former president’s appeal in his federal election subversion case, in which he claims presidents are immune from prosecution for acts committed in office.
In briefs to the court, lawyers for Trump said “a denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future president”.
Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump on four counts related to his attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, argued: “Presidents are not above the law.”
Constitutional law experts overwhelmingly side with Smith. Nonetheless, as Trump seeks to delay all four of his criminal cases, in the hope he might regain power and have them dismissed, the six rightwingers and three liberals on the supreme court will give his immunity claim a hearing. Trump appointed three of those rightwingers.
Before the special counsel’s office began presenting its case, Neil Gorsuch, a conservative justice, pondered whether rejecting Trump’s claim of immunity would cause presidents to pre-emptively pardon themselves, in fear that a successor could decide to prosecute them.
We have a separate live blog covering the supreme court hearing.
Updated
In 2018, the New Yorker published a letter written by Karen McDougal about her alleged experiences with Donald Trump during their first date at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
In the letter, McDougal wrote:
We talked for a couple hours – then, it was ‘ON’! We got naked + had sex. After we got dressed (to leave), he offered me money. I looked at him (+ felt sad) and said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you – NOT for money’ – He told me ‘you are special.’
That same year, McDougal publicly apologized to Melania Trump for the alleged affair, saying on CNN:
I’m sorry, I wouldn’t want it done to me … When I look back, where I was back then, I know it’s wrong … I’m really sorry for that. I know it’s a wrong thing to do.
Who is Karen McDougal, the other woman in Trump’s hush-money case?
The hush money payments Donald Trump has been accused of making involve not only adult film star Stormy Daniels, who has dominated headlines in recent months, but also Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.
In 2018, McDougal told CNN she had an extramarital affair with the former president that began in 2006, which Trump denies. He has been married to his third wife, Melania Trump, since 2005.
According to McDougal, the affair involved having sex with Trump “many dozens of times” and occurred in multiple locations including at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and at his private golf club in New Jersey, as well as in Trump Tower in New York City, where she was allegedly brought in through the back entrance. Despite Trump’s denials that an extramarital affair with McDougal ever occurred, the New York prosecution team has cited evidence of payments made to McDougal by Trump.
Born in Indiana, McDougal is a 52-year old actor and former Playboy model. According to her website, she began her career in her 20s as a fitness model for various health and fitness publications. In 1997, McDougal became a Playboy “playmate” and made “playmate of the year” in 1998. In 1999, McDougal appeared on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine.
Since then, McDougal made various appearances as a sports radio personality and was cast in the 2001 direct-to-video film The Arena by Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov. In The Arena, McDougal plays an Amazon slave who is forced to become a gladiator in Rome.
According to her website, McDougal is a national advocate for breast implant illness and is an active member in various support groups, following her implant removal in 2017. Her activism work also includes raising awareness on deep vein thrombosis and animal rights.
Updated
In September of 2016, AMI had reached an agreement for Michael Cohen to reimburse them $125,000 for the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
The agreement was signed by David Pecker and Cohen on 30 September 2016. But then Pecker spoke with AMI’s lawyer and decided to call the agreement off.
Prosecutors did not ask Pecker about the contents of that conversation, citing attorney client privilege.
When Pecker told Cohen the agreement was off, Cohen was furious, Pecker testified:
He was very, very angry, very upset, screaming basically at me. And I said I’m not going forward with this agreement.
Updated
The court is taking a break.
Cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom during proceedings, but Donald Trump was photographed before court got under way this morning.
Updated
In September of 2016, Michael Cohen told David Pecker that Donald Trump wanted to acquire the lifetime rights to Karen McDougal’s story as well as all of the National Enquirer’s files on Trump.
Cohen called Pecker constantly about this, Pecker testified.
Even though Pecker said most of the content was old news files, Cohen said Trump still wanted it. Pecker said of Cohen:
He said the boss said that if I got hit by a bus or if the company was sold, he did not want someone else to potentially publish those stories.
Pecker testifies he bought McDougal story so it did not 'hurt Trump campaign'
When asked why AMI paid Karen McDougal, David Pecker paused for a few second.
We purchased the story so it wouldn’t be published by any other organization.
When asked to clarify, Pecker said, reiterated:
We didn’t want this story to embarrass Mr Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign” – ‘we’ being ‘myself and Michael Cohen.’
Pecker testifies he bought Karen McDougal story so it did not influence 2016 election
Asked whether his principal intention in buying Karen McDougal’s story was to suppress it and prevent it from interfering in the election, David Pecker says:
Yes it was.
Updated
Now we’re looking at documented evidence of American Media’s payment to Karen McDougal.
Prosecutors showed the invoice McDougal’s attorney sent to American Media and a record of the wire transfer for the $150,000 payment for her story.
Pecker testifies he believed Trump was aware of Karen McDougal contract
David Pecker testifies that Karen McDougal’s contract with American Media Inc included provisions that she would write fitness columns, among other things, to justify the $150,000 it was paying her.
But the true purpose of the agreement, he testified, was to purchase her story about having an affair for Donald Trump. Pecker wanted to disguise the true purpose of the agreement for campaign finance purposes.
It’s important to note that Pecker has not said Trump or Michael Cohen directed him to do this, but rather it’s something he did on his own.
Pecker says he believes Cohen and Trump were aware of AMI’s agreement with McDougal.
Updated
Pecker testifies he negotiated $150,000 payment for Karen McDougal's 'life rights'
We’re looking at the agreement American Media gave to Karen McDougal over the payment.
The agreement included language about a monthly column on ageing and fitness McDougal would write for the magazine, along with other work that McDougal would do for American Media.
David Pecker said that the main purpose of the agreement was to buy “life rights” to McDougal’s story on “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man” – as the agreement reads – but the agreement included details about work McDougal would do for American Media to “substantiate the $150,000 payment”.
Prosecutors are emphasizing that Pecker and American Media appeared nervous about facilitating the hush-money payment and wanted to validate the payment by saying that the company was paying McDougal for work, not just for her story.
Updated
David Pecker just recounted how he agreed to buy negative stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 2000s when Schwarzenegger was running for California governor.
The experience made him sensitive of campaign finance issues around buying stories for a candidate for office.
So when they negotiated the Karen McDougal contract, Pecker said, they wanted to make sure they met all of the obligations from a campaign finance perspective.
David Pecker also described earlier this week a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 at which he, Donald Trump and Michael Cohen discussed how the National Enquirer could publish negative stories about opponents while quashing stories about Trump himself.
Again, prosecutors wanted to show Trump had been dealing with Pecker specifically to influence an election.
The relationship continued with Trump in power. In 2017, the New Yorker magazine described how Pecker rejected suggestions that the Enquirer cover a notable slap of Trump’s hand by his wife, Melania, on an overseas visit. Things unravelled when Stormy Daniels went public the following year.
It all means one Enquirer story from 2016, used by prosecutors this week, has acquired an irony all of its own. “Ted Cruz Shamed by Porn Star,” the headline read, above a picture of a woman wearing a bikini.
The actual story was about the Texas senator having to pull an ad when an actor had turned out to work in adult films. The headline and picture led readers to other conclusions.
Such is the world of the gutter press, from which Pecker came, to help Trump pull America into a gutter all of his own.
Updated
Who is David Pecker and why is he a key witness?
As the longtime chief executive of American Media Inc, David Pecker developed a symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and the National Enquirer, an AMI tabloid specialising in salacious scandal.
Pecker is a key witness (with a non-prosecution deal) because when Trump ran for president in 2016, Pecker helped Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, orchestrate payoffs to Daniels, Karen McDougal (a former Playboy model who also claimed an affair) and a Trump Tower doorman trying to sell a story about a supposed illegitimate child. On Tuesday, Pecker, 72, told the court:
I’ve had a great relationship with Mr Trump over the years, starting in 89 – I had an idea of creating a magazine called Trump Style and I presented it to Mr Trump and he liked that idea a lot. He just questioned me: who is going to pay for it?
Despite Trump’s famous enthusiasm for obtaining other people’s money – and equally famous ability to lose his own – Pecker described Trump as “very knowledgable … very detail-oriented … almost a micromanager”.
The prosecution was attempting to show jurors a picture of Trump intimately involved not only with models and adult film stars but in deals to keep them quiet.
David Pecker is emphasizing that he expected to be reimbursed for the $150,000 payment he made to Karen McDougal.
He recalled a call he had with Michael Cohen where he asked him:
Why would I pay? I just paid $30,000 for the doorman story. Now you’re asking me to pay $150,000 for the Karen story and all these additional items that she wants to do. I don’t have a problem doing anything else you request … that’s not an issue. $150,000 – who is going to reimburse me for this?
Pecker said Cohen reiterated:
I’m your friend, the boss will take care of it.
Once Dylan Howard had negotiated the price with Karen Mcdougal, David Pecker asked Michael Cohen again who was going to pay the $150,000.
Cohen again said, “I’m your friend, don’t worry about it, the boss will take care of it,” Pecker testified.
Prosecutors are establishing that this was done with Trump’s approval, not just Cohen acting alone.
Updated
Prosecutors had David Pecker emphasize that Michael Cohen didn’t seem to have the direct authorization to reimburse for any payment to Karen McDougal.
They seem to want to emphasize to jurors that Trump, not Cohen, was ultimately behind the payment. Pecker says:
Every time we went out for lunch, I always paid. I didn’t think (Cohen) had any authorization… without Mr. Trump’s approval.
Pecker testifies Cohen said 'the boss will take care' of McDougal story payment
David Pecker says that he advised Trump to buy the Karen McDougal story because:
I believed the story was true. It would have been very embarrassing to himself and also to his campaign.
After he spoke with Trump, Pecker said Michael Cohen followed up and advised him to go ahead with purchasing the story. When Pecker asked who would pay for it,
He said to me, don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss will take care of it.
Pecker took that to mean he would be reimbursed by Trump or the Trump Organization.
Donald Trump is sitting expressionless as Pecker testifies.
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David Pecker says that he, Michael Cohen and Dylan Howard discussed buying Karen McDougal’s story, discussing other potential offers she said she was getting.
One was from ABC, “they were offering her a slot on Dancing with the Stars”, and the other was from a “Mexican group” that was reportedly offering a large sum (over a million) for the story. Pecker says he didn’t believe that this Mexican group existed.
Pecker had a call with Donald Trump in June 2016 where Trump said he spoke to Cohen about McDougal.
Trump said “Karen is a nice girl” and asked Pecker whether he believed the Mexican group existed, but Pecker told Trump “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market.”
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“He said she was a 12 out of 10,” David Pecker says the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, told him about Karen McDougal after meeting with her.
Pecker says McDougal told Howard she didn’t want her story about Trump to be published. He says:
She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky … She wanted to restart her career.
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Pecker resumes testifying about former Playboy model Karen McDougal
David Pecker is back on the stand and has begun testifying.
On Tuesday, Pecker testified that he first heard about Karen McDougal through the former National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard. Pecker said on Tuesday:
Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that there’s a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.
“What kind of relationship?” Prosecutors asked. “Uh, romantic relationship,” Pecker replied on Tuesday.
Donald Trump described former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who is returning to the witness stand today, as having been “very nice, a nice guy.”
As my colleague Sam Levine has just reported, prosecutors have submitted four new instances in which they said the former president violated a court-imposed gag order, including his latest comments about Pecker.
Speaking to reporters earlier this morning, Trump was also dismissive when asked about the gag order earlier this morning.
“Oh, I have no idea,” he replied when asked if he would pay the $1,000 fine for each of 10 posts, adding: “They’ve taken my constitutional right away with a gag order.”
Prosecutors accuse Trump of four more gag order violations
Prosecutors began the hearing submitting four new instances in which they say Donald Trump violated the gag order in effect in the case.
Two of them involved comments about Michael Cohen he made earlier this week.
The third involved comments he made about his perception about the partisan lean of the jury.
The fourth involved comments this morning he made about David Pecker.
Trump said this morning Pecker’s been “very nice” which prosecutors said was a veiled threat to other witnesses that Trump could use his megaphone to say nice things about them or to insult them.
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Justice Juan Merchan is on the bench. Court is now in session.
Donald Trump, dressed in a red tie, has taken his seat at the defense table and the seventh day of his criminal trial in Manhattan is set to begin shortly.
Trump is chatting with Emil Bove and Todd Blanche, two of his lawyers, while we wait for judge Juan Merchan to take the bench.
Trump in court as David Pecker to resume hush-money testimony
Donald Trump has now taken his seat at the defense table.
The former president spoke to the media outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he mostly focused on the latest economic figures which show US gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized rate last quarter.
“The numbers are very bad,” the former president said. “This is Bidenomics … It’s destroying our country.”
Trump spoke about his “fantastic” meeting with construction workers at the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan this morning, before turning to the hush money case. Trump said:
My constitutional rights have been taken away from me. There is no case here. This is just a political glitch.
He added that he would have “loved to have been” at the supreme court hearing on his immunity claims but that judge Juan Merchan would not allow it and “put himself above the supreme court.”
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So who is David Pecker again?
Trump’s longtime ally and former publisher of the National Enquirer, Pecker was allegedly the key figure at the heart of the “catch and kill” schemes, whereby he paid people for their negative stories about Trump in order to keep them from being published anywhere.
On Tuesday, when he took the stand on Tuesday, he the court about being invited to a meeting with Trump and his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, in New York in 2015 after Trump had just declared his candidacy for president and was seeking a friendly and powerful media insider:
I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents, and I said that I would also be the eyes and ears,” Pecker told jurors.
Pecker said he had a “great relationship” with Trump over the years and considered him a “friend”, describing the former president as “very detail-oriented … almost micromanaging”.
Pecker discussed the first of three “catch-and-kill” schemes, involving negative stories for Donald Trump that prosecutors allege he suppressed to help Trump’s campaign. The first involved a former Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, who alleged that Trump fathered an illegitimate child. Pecker testified that he negotiated to pay $30,000 for the story, and that Cohen told him that “the boss”, referring to Trump, was “very pleased”.
One thing that could be resolved today – though no guarantees in this courtroom – is the matter of the gag order.
Judge Merchan held off on deciding whether Trump should be fined $10,000 for attacking expected trial witnesses, mostly on social media, in direct violation of a gag order designed to protect trial participants from being the target of Trump’s abuse.
Merchan subjected Trump to a gag order before the trial began, covering prosecutors (but not the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg), witnesses, court employees, jurors and their families. Before the trial, Merchan then extended the gag order to cover his own family and Bragg’s family, after Trump posted about Merchan’s daughter, who worked for a company that helped Democratic candidates with digital campaigns.
Trump remains free to criticize Merchan himself, though doing so would be unlikely to win him any favors with the judge, who, let’s remember, would be the one deciding Trump’s sentence if he’s found guilty.
The judge reserved ruling from the bench on Tuesday, but he appeared deeply unconvinced by arguments from Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, that a series of social media posts were just responses to political attacks on Trump and therefore permitted.
“Mr Blanche, you’re losing all credibility,” Merchan said.
David Pecker returns to witness stand in hush-money trial
Good morning.
David Pecker returns to the witness stand today in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump – the first ever criminal trial of a former US president.
Trump is accused by the prosecution of “orchestrat[ing] a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” in his efforts to cover up an alleged affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
They call it “election fraud – pure and simple”.
Trump’s defense says there was no crime committed because paying hush money is not illegal and neither is trying to influence the outcome of an election – “It’s called democracy.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the alleged affair Daniels just weeks before the election.
As a reminder (no shame – this stuff is confusing), it’s the first of four (4) criminal cases against the presumptive Republican nominee to reach trial. It hinges on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her story under wraps. Bragg contends that Trump masked the true nature of the payment in business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as lawful legal expenses. Because Trump paid the money to influence the election, Bragg says it’s a campaign expense, so by lying about it he violated federal campaign law – causing the fraud to rise from a misdemeanour to a felony.
Court is scheduled to resume today after a day off yesterday. We’re at the courthouse, as usual. Stay with us.
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