Matters that could harm Donald Trump were bought and “killed”. That’s what the tabloid king told, who agreed to be the presidential candidate’s “eyes and ears”.
Published: 23/04/2024 22:40
Tuesday was the second day of testimony in the so-called bribery case against former President Donald Trump in New York.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of accounting fraud. According to the prosecution, it was all an illegal conspiracy to influence the presidential election in 2016.
Their presentation is as follows:
- Porn actress Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep her mouth shut about an alleged sexual relationship with Donald Trump ten years earlier.
- When Trump’s lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen paid her, it was an illegal contribution to the presidential campaign.
- Trump later tried to cover up what had happened by booking the repayment to Cohen as legal fees.
Trump claims he has done nothing wrong. His lawyers believe the case should never have gone to court.
Friend and ally first witness
Tuesday’s witness was David Pecker. Pecker is a longtime ally and friend of Trump. He is a former boss of the media group AMI, which publishes the tabloid newspaper National Enquirer, among other things.
The prosecution believes that the cooperation between Trump and the National Enquirer played a key role in the attempt to influence the election results in 2016.
Pecker is guaranteed immunity from testifying against Trump. He was described by reporters in the courtroom as “calm” and “almost grandfatherly” in the witness box.
Pecker said that he has had a good relationship with Trump since the late eighties. In August 2015, he was called to a meeting in Trump Tower. At the meeting, Trump and Cohen asked Pecker what he and the National Enquirer could do to help Trump win the 2016 election.
– I said what I could do was publish positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his opponents, Pecker said in the courtroom.
He also said that he could be their eyes and ears.
– I said that if I hear anything negative about Trump, or about women selling stories, I would tell Michael Cohen, as I had done for many years before.
Pecker said he helped Trump by buying the rights to potentially damaging stories, then not publishing them. The practice is known as “catch and kill”.
– Before that meeting in August 2015, had you ever bought a story about Trump with the intention of not publishing it? asked the prosecution.
– No, replied Pecker.
“Killed” several cases
But starting in 2015, after Trump decided to run for president, there were more such cases.
In 2015, the National Enquirer, in dialogue with Michael Cohen, paid $30,000 to a former doorman at Trump Tower. The doorman wanted to sell a story that Trump had had a child out of wedlock. The story was later revealed to be false.
In 2016, they paid a former Playboy model $150,000 to cover up a story about an alleged affair with Trump.
When someone at the National Enquirer learned that adult film actor Stormy Daniels had potentially defamatory information about Trump in 2016, Pecker advised the person to contact Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
Negative articles about Trump’s opponents
Pecker said that, during the election campaign, he was regularly called by Michael Cohen. He asked him to publish negative articles about political opponents, such as Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, or Marco Rubio.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass read headlines from the National Enquirer, then asked Pecker if they were made pursuant to the deal with Trump and Cohen.
“Clumsy surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain”, was one of the headlines read out by the prosecution.
“Ted Cruz ‘spoiled’ by porn star,” was another.
Pecker confirmed that the headlines were on cases made pursuant to the agreement.
– We let Michael Cohen know what we were doing and the angle on the article, and we also sent him the stories before they were published so they could see the direction they were taking, and he commented on them.
Pecker’s testimony continues on Thursday.
