Ex-tabloid publisher says he sought to shield Donald Trump from infidelity claims

A former tabloid publisher testified that he had struck a deal in 2015 to warn Donald Trump about women who were offering to come forward with stories about his alleged infidelities, as Manhattan prosecutors outline the “hush money” conspiracy at the heart of their case against the forms US president.

David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, told the court he had agreed to “publish positive stories about Mr Trump and . . . publish negative stories about his opponents” and to be the reality-television star’s “eyes and ears”, to prevent potentially damaging pressure in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The 72-year-old, who is testifying in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said he told Trump’s then-fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen that he would notify him if he heard “anything about women selling stories ” so that “he would be able to have them killed”.

Pecker outlined how he went on to pay $30,000 to stop a doorman going public with claims that Trump had fathered an illegitimate child, even though he believed the claims were false.

The evidence by Pecker, who will continue to be questioned when court resumes on Thursday, set the background for payments allegedly made to buy the silence of porn actor Stormy Daniels in late 2016, and the related bookkeeping records that prosecutors claim constituted a criminal act by Trump.

The Manhattan district attorney’s team has claimed those payments were part of a “conspiracy” by Trump, Cohen and Pecker to bury stories that could have prevented the billionaire from winning the White House, in what they said was “election fraud, plain and simple” . Those allegations form the basis of the first criminal case to go to trial against a former US president. Trump is the Republican party’s presumptive presidential nominee in November’s election.

Pecker’s revelations came after a testy hearing earlier on Tuesday, in which prosecutors accused Trump of repeatedly violating a gag order by attacking witnesses and jurors online, and asked the court to threaten the former US president with jail time if he persists.

While Trump has been restrained in front of the judge, he has frequently attacked various figures involved in the case on social media and his campaign website. Assistant district attorney Christopher Conroy said some of Trump’s violations had occurred “right here in the hallway outside”, referring to a TV clip in which he had once again called Cohen a liar. Cohen is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness.

Prosecutors on Tuesday cited 10 instances in which he had since allegedly violated the order on social media and elsewhere.

One post on his Truth Social social media network — in which Trump last week quoted Fox host Jesse Watters claiming that the Manhattan jury deciding the case might contain “undercover Liberal Activists” — was lifted from “a segment specifically discussing the juror profiles in this case ”, Conroy added. “[Trump] knows what he is not allowed to do and he does it anyway.”

Manhattan prosecutors asked Justice Juan Merchan to impose a fine of $1,000 per violation, the maximum allowed by New York law, and to warn Trump that he could be sent to jail for 30 days if he continued to flout the gag order.

Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, argued that his client was merely responding to a “barrage of political attacks” by Cohen and Daniels, who have flooded the airwaves with criticism and mockery of the former president.

Merchan appeared to grow increasingly frustrated with the defense’s protests and warned Blanche he was “losing all credibility with the court”. He said he would consider both sides’ arguments before ruling.

Trump took to Truth Social immediately after the hearing, writing that the “HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH”.

“EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF,” he added.