#NationalEnquirer fmr publisher David #Pecker’s testimony is expected to conclude today. He’s already spent 3 days on the stand.
#Trump, addressing reporters before entering the courtroom, wished his wife, #Melania, a happy birthday on camera. Then entered the courtroom where he’s on trial for falsifying records to silence 2 women about having extramarital affairs w/him to hide it not from her but from his evangelical Christian electorate. JFC
#Bove asks #Pecker to describe the negative stories that The #NationalEnquirer ran about #Trump's 2016 #Republican opponents, #BenCarson, #MarcoRubio & #TedCruz. He argues, as he did yesterday, that it was standard operating procedure to run articles like these, in which The NE reran previously reported content. Bove is still trying to convince the #jury that Pecker didn't have some special arrangement w/Trump: Instead, his publication was doing what it had always done.
FYI
Yesterday, prosecutors asked #Pecker to walk through his non-prosecution agreement in connection w/the 2018 federal investigation into the actions of #MichaelCohen & #NationalEnquirer’s parent company #AMI.
#Merchan told the jury that it was offered to provide context & to help them assess Pecker's credibility. He added that it wasn’t evidence of #Trump's guilt.
#Bove leading the #CrossExamination of #Pecker, is trying to drive home the idea that The #NationalEnquirer recycled news from other publications. It is seemingly an effort by Bove to show that Pecker wasn't moving mountains to find damaging info about Trump's Republican opponents during the 2016 presidential race.
#Trump is sitting at the defense table w/ his eyes shut as Pecker testifies.
"Even by National Enquirer standards, testimony by its former publisher David Pecker at Donald Trump’s hush money trial this week has revealed an astonishing level of corruption at America’s best-known tabloid and may one day be seen as the moment it effectively died."
AP reports on the surprising revelations from the Trump trial this week: https://flip.it/.f4qny
#Pecker says allegations about women & #Trump were always met by this response from #MichaelCohen, Trump's fmr fixer: "It's not true."
#Cohen, Pecker & #DylanHoward, the #NationalEnquirer editor who interviewed #KarenMcDougal, had a phone call after the interview. Howard said that McDougal claimed to have had an affair w/Trump. Cohen immediately denied the affair happened, but then said that he would look into it. Eventually, he said that a member of the group should try to buy the story.
The deal went above & beyond for #KarenMcDougal & included the hiring of ghostwriters to pen her stories.
#Pecker says that the contract was intended to stipulate that McDougal would perform "services" for #AMI, that there was a basis for the $150k she was receiving.
Pecker is asked if The #NationalEnquirer had any intention to publish McDougal's story. Pecker is blunt: "No, we did not."
This is pure #CatchAndKill.
Trump is subdued & not exhibiting much emotion as Stormy Daniels comes up. But the stress of the moment is more apparent on his lead lawyer, Todd #Blanche, who crossed his arms over his chest after she was brought up.
#Pecker says he didn’t want The #NationalEnquirer associated w/a porn star [puhlease, what it might soil their stellar journalistic reputation?], meaning #StormyDaniels, because one of the tabloid's biggest distributors was Walmart, where a lot of families shop.
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 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.
#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."
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
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 was asked about being introduced to #SteveBannon, #Trump's top strategist, in Oct 2016. He recalled Trump said, "I believe you & Steve would get along really well.”
This all happened around the time of #Wikileaks email dump, after a hack of #HillaryClinton's adviser John Podesta's acct, & the Trump team used that material A LOT.
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.
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.
it’s like #Pecker testified today, only the covers mattered. #Trump wasn’t paying for the #NationalEnquirer’s in-depth-articles, but the covers. Ever stood in a checkout line at the grocery? Unless you live in 1 of the major cities in the US (NYC, Chicago, SanFrancisco, LA, Boston, etc - even some of those) in 2016, those covers were screaming at you while you waited in line w/nothing to do. + 2016 was b4 AmazonFresh & all the grocery deliveries that sprung up bc of COVID.