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.
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 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."
#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.
#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 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 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."
#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."
#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
"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 was being asked about an infamous #NationalEnquirer story linking Cruz's father to the JFK assassination. He said it originated w/ #DylanHoward, The Enquirer's editor.
#Pecker said that after the #Republican#debates, #MichaelCohen would call him & direct him to focus the negative coverage on whichever candidate had been most successful.
Pecker's testimony isn't just damaging to #Trump. He’s killing his career by going through headline after headline & suggesting he attacked Trump's rivals to aid Trump.
Regardless of whether the story was true or not, the #jury was shown a #contract the #NationalEnquirer reached w/ #Dino Sajudin, the #doorman, in which the words "Donald Trump's illegitimate child" feature prominently.
#Steinglass asked Pecker why he paid so much for the story.
“I made the decision to buy the story because of the potential embarrassment it would have to the #campaign & Mr. #Trump," Pecker said.