Prosecutors in Trump’s #criminal trial say he has violated a #GagOrder barring him from attacking #witnesses, #jurors & others close to the case. Testimony is set to resume later Tuesday morning.
#Trump's history of tipping off #tabloids about his life was a known fact well before TheApprentice.
"He was very cautious & very frugal, #Pecker said of Trump's approach to #money.
Testimony from Pecker that establishes Trump's track record of keeping a close eye on his #finances - “almost a micromanager," Pecker said - will help prosecution prove that Trump falsified #HushMoney records to cover up a sex scandal to influence the 2016 election.
#Pecker specifically said he was introduced to him through Nick Ribis, then a casinos exec for #Trump &, until the early 2000s, one of his long-serving lawyers.
When Pecker ID’d Trump, he lifted his head & smiled tightly.
#Steinglass asked about "The Apprentice," which Pecker called "an instant success."
#Conroy is now describing 5 more examples, all versions of essentially the same post, in which Trump shared a NewYorkPost article about #MichaelCohen & quoted its headline: "A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against #Trump in an embarrassment for the NewYork legal system."
Justice #Merchan is basically taking on, one by one, #Trump's strategies via social media.
One is constantly claiming something was "just found." Here, the subj was #StormyDaniels' 2018 statement denying having had a sexual encounter w/Trump, which she has since disavowed. "LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND!" Trump said in an April 10 Truth Social post.
“I need to know what is true," Justice Merchan says.
#Pecker said he didn't know what the meeting was about before he arrived. When he got there, #MichaelCohen & #Trump asked him what he & his magazines could do "to help the campaign.”
That quote goes directly to the argument that the #HushMoney payments were made to help Trump win.
In #Blanche’s opening, he said Trump's dealings w/Pecker were regular practice in #journalism.
But a #political#candidate flat-out asking a publisher "to help the campaign" is NOT NORMAL.
#Pecker suggested that there was a "mutual benefit" to running the stories — it would help #Trump's campaign, & "it would also help me."
Pecker basically testified the symbiotic / parasitic relationship between the campaign & The #NationalEnquirer.
Asked about Trump's reaction to the stories, Pecker said, "he was pleased." He said that #MichaelCohen was also pleased about "the way I was going to handle these issues."
Interesting throughline between #Blanche's argument that there’s distance between #Trump & his own reposts & the prosecution's argument against Trump, which is that he repeatedly used others - #MichaelCohen, The #NationalEnquirer - to do his dirty work.
This line of questioning highlighted a longtime Twitter catchphrase - that “retweets do not equal endorsements."
#Pecker was asked if Bill & Hillary #Clinton's names came up. Pecker said when you run a magazine, you choose the topic of the week. Coverage of #HillaryClinton running for president that described #BillClinton as "a womanizer" was a big seller, he said. "I was running the Hillary Clinton stories, I was running Hillary as an enabler for Bill Clinton, w/respect to all the womanizing."
#Security removed a member of the public from the overflow room. The man was verbally sparring w/officers for some time, first complaining he wasn't allowed access to the main court room. (access is first-come first-served). Then he tried insisting on being allowed to stand at the back of the courtroom.
"This is not fair," he kept saying. He was ultimately asked to leave.
#Pecker repeated that "writing positive stories about Trump & covering the election, & writing negative stories about his opponents" helped them both, increasing #tabloid newsstand sales while benefitting the #TrumpCampaign.
★ Importantly, #Steinglass asked him to clarify that suppressing negative news about #Trump only benefitted the candidate, not the tabloid. Pecker agreed.
When #NationalEnquirer covers were shown, #Trump leaned toward the monitor in front of him & squinted to get a closer look at a collection of headlines praising him.
They included:
"Donald Trump - Cruzin to victory! Ted endorses Donald" & "Obama's Half Brother
The #jury won’t be present for the arguments over the #GagOrder, so it will be interesting to watch how #Trump behaves w/ them out of the courtroom. Yesterday, in their presence, he largely sat silent and occasionally shook his head when he disagreed with the prosecutors. But this morning, when the jury is not here and he is confronted with his own words, I expect he will get more animated.
"Michael was physically in every aspect of whatever the campaign was working on," #Pecker said. He added that #MichaelCohen wasn't officially employed by the campaign, & may have heard things “informally" or "injected himself into it."
Pecker threw defense a bone when he said he didn’t know who Cohen spoke to, & that Cohen may have been acting of his own volition by getting more involved w/the campaign. [sure]
#Pecker said he came to consider #Trump a friend, including in 2016. "I would call him Donald," Pecker said.
Pecker described a symbiotic relationship between Trump & The #NationalEnquirer centered in part around "The Apprentice."
Pecker said that Trump would tip him off first as to who was going to be fired - "or eliminated," as Pecker put it - from the show, & NE would write about it.
Alright, who’s ready to see #Trump get his just deserts? He fucked up the whole damn world & that’s not an overstatement.
PS #BabySquirrel & I had a lovely weekend. It’s as boy! (He’s developed discernible - stuff)
He is doing quite well! Name: “Ramone” because he’s a sweet little punk rocker.
What is “catch-and-kill” in the tabloid newspaper world? Jurors in Donald Trump's hush money trial are expected to learn about it today.
AP reports: "A longtime tabloid publisher was expected Tuesday to tell jurors about his efforts to help Donald Trump stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign."