Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker returned to the witness stand, detailing how payments were made to a Playboy playmate and a porn star.
Former National Enquirer publisher testifies about how he helped Trump
Taking the stand Thursday for now the third day this week, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker provided testimony to form a road map for New York prosecutors’ case against former President Donald Trump.
From detailing business invoice practices to establishing how deeply Trump was involved from beginning to end, lawyers for the Manhattan district attorney’s office had Pecker walk the jury through much of the events that occurred leading up to and after the payments to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she alleges she had with Trump.
Sprinkled in the testimony were juicy celebrity gossip tidbits and revelations about Trump’s repeated inquiries about a Playboy model who also claimed to have had an affair with him.
And after hours of dishing new details, the defense tried Thursday to paint Pecker as suffering from memory lapses and operating for his own motives.
Here’s what you missed on Day 7 of Trump’s hush money trial:
Pecker lays out the series of events
At the heart of the prosecution’s case is the accusation that former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet about the affair she alleged occurred.
Pecker didn’t make those payments. But he did make payments, he says, to other people who were shopping salacious stories about Trump. And, he told the jury, he was communicating with Cohen about the payments to Daniels, including asking Trump to pay Cohen back at Cohen’s request.
Much of Pecker’s testimony focused on his dealings with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had a yearlong relationship with Trump.
Pecker testified that he paid McDougal $150,000 — for both the rights to her story, which he never intended to publish, and for her to write pieces for his publications. He did so with assurances from Cohen, he testified, that Trump would pay him back, at least for the $125,000 he estimated the rights to her story were worth.
Pecker was concerned over the legality of deals with Trump
Pecker testified about new public evidence that demonstrated he was concerned about the potential legal liability for paying for stories tied to a political candidate. That’s what prompted him and a lawyer to decide not to seek repayment from Trump for the McDougal payment.
He admitted that his company lied to The Wall Street Journal about the agreement with McDougal.
“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself, and I wanted to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker said.
Pecker said Trump tried to buy boxes of old research on him the National Enquirer kept
Pecker testified that Trump was fixated on obtaining old boxes of materials and files that the National Enquirer had in its possession. Cohen called “constantly” in September 2016 to request that they be sent to his office, Pecker said, as they were trying to negotiate how Trump would pay for McDougal’s story.
At a meeting at Trump Tower in September 2016, Cohen continued to press Pecker about boxes of National Enquirer materials that Pecker brought to New York from Florida.
Cohen told Pecker that Trump was nervous about the records’ and the McDougal story’s remaining in Enquirer control and that if he “got hit by a bus or the company was sold, he did not want someone else to potentially publish those stories.”
‘I am not a bank’
In detailing how the payments to McDougal were made, Pecker told the jury that he went to lengths to make sure the rest of the newsroom didn’t find out.
Pecker planned to use a company run by a former executive at his company, Investment Advisory Services Inc., to pay a shell corporation that Cohen had established, Resolution Consultants.
“I don’t want to have a check from the Trump Organization going through AMI,” Pecker testified. He said Cohen advised making a flat-fee payment for “advisory services.”
“Because I believe that payment would raise a lot of issues and communicate something to the editors which I did not want to happen,” he said.
Pecker also testified that he was tired of making payments. He said Cohen was “very agitated” as the negotiations dragged on with McDougal and wanted Pecker to pay.
By the time it got to paying Daniels, Pecker said, he put his foot down.
“We already paid $30,000 to the doorman. We paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, and I am not a bank,” he testified. “We are not paying out any further disbursements or monies.”
Trump asked for updates on McDougal
Pecker said Trump was “very upset” about a video of Trump on Radar Online, a website that Pecker’s company had acquired, that described Trump as “being a Playboy man.”
The post predated AMI’s acquisition of Radar, and he instructed editor-in-chief Dylan Howard to take it down. It included an audio clip of Trump.
Repeatedly, including after Trump took office, he or his bodyguard asked Pecker how McDougal was doing, referring to her as “our girl.”
Pecker testified that at a private meeting in January 2017, he told Trump that McDougal “is writing her articles. She’s quiet. She’s fine.” Trump thanked him “for handling the McDougal situation and the doorman situation.”
Defense worked to sow doubt about Pecker’s memory and motive and prosecutors’ tactics
Trump lawyer Emil Bove conducted cross-examination — at first suggesting that the district attorney’s office had refreshed Pecker’s memories of the events.
“It’s hard to remember exactly what happened almost 10 years ago, right?” Bove asked.
“Yes,” Pecker replied.
Bove sought to show that Pecker didn’t tell FBI investigators that Hope Hicks had been in a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 — a detail he then testified to do during the trial.
Testifying under cross-examination, Pecker said he learned from prosecutors about the phrase “catch and kill,” which has been used to describe his purchasing McDougal’s story with no intention to publish it.
Bove also got Pecker to testify about several other gossip-laden stories about celebrities and politicians he helped kill.
Pecker testified that he helped kill a “Planet Hollywood restaurant story” to aid Ron Perelman, one of his biggest advertisers through Revlon. And he struck an agreement with Arnold Schwarzenegger not to write negative stories about him when he ran for governor of California, he said — in exchange for Schwarzenegger’s blessing for a “giant acquisition.”
Pecker testified that Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel enlisted his help to suppress potentially negative stories about his brother Rahm Emanuel, who had just ended a stint as the White House chief of staff and was angling for a run for Chicago mayor, and actor Mark Wahlberg. “What Mr. Emanuel wanted was for help with an affair Rahm Emanuel had, right?” Pecker was asked. “Yes,” he said. Rahm Emanuel is now the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Pecker said he sought to use compromising photographs of golf star Tiger Woods as leverage — getting him to pose for the cover of one of his other magazines.
Jurors’ attention appeared to ebb and flow
During Pecker’s testimony about Daniels, who surged to infamy during Trump’s presidency, jurors began taking notes.
But the panel of New Yorkers who are set to judge Trump in the case appeared less interested in Pecker’s account of the bookkeeping for payment to McDougal, whose name is less well-known.
Judge didn’t rule whether Trump violated the gag order
The prosecution alleged that Trump had made four new violations in the last three days — including during an early morning stop outside a J.P. Morgan building under construction when Trump issued a warning to Pecker and others, saying, “I have a platform and I will use it.”
“Be nice,” he said.
But Judge Juan Merchan still hasn’t ruled whether Trump violated the order in instances that were previously debated when prosecutors argued Trump “seems to be angling” for incarceration by repeatedly and knowingly breaching it.
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NBC News
