The prosecution’s discussion of the deal w/ #KarenMcDougal —brokered in summer 2016— demonstrated that the payment was part of a #conspiracy to #influence that year’s #election.
Pecker said that McDougal’s payment was disguised as a contract for services, to avoid violating #CampaignFinance#laws.
“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself & I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” #Pecker said.
Pecker was asked whether he believed #Trump was concerned that his wife or family would find out. But Pecker suggested that Trump’s concerns were electoral, not personal.
Pecker testified to at least 2X when Trump asked after #KarenMcDougal, referring to her at a Trump Tower meeting as “our girl.” He also asked about her during a meeting at the #WhiteHouse.
#Pecker said on Tues he had agreed to be the “eyes & ears” of the #TrumpCampaign & used #AMI to deal w/threats to #Trump’s reputation.
After the #AccessHollywood tape came out in Oct 2016, where Trump’s boasts about groping women, one of Pecker’s editors scrubbed an AMI publication’s website of a 2008 article describing Trump as a “playboy man.”
Despite that, #Trump often made his displeasure known, #Pecker testified, either through #MichaelCohen or direct calls. Pecker described Trump as “very angry” & “very aggravated.”
Pecker said, “I felt that Donald Trump was my mentor,” Pecker said, adding, “I still consider him a friend.”
Trump’s lawyers, led by Emil Bove, started their #CrossExamination trying to show that such deals were “standard operating procedure” in the supermarket #tabloid business.
Pecker described a 2002 meeting in which #ArnoldSchwarzenegger asked Pecker not to run negative stories about him before his run for governor of California. He was elected & served 2003-2011.
#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
The jury is seated & one of the defense lawyers, Emil Bove, resumes his #CrossExamination. #Bove apologizes for making it seem yesterday as if Pecker had lied in a conversation w/ federal prosecutors about whether #HopeHicks had been present for a meeting in #Trump Tower.
Prosecutors have described the meeting, which occurred in 2015, as central to the #conspiracy at the heart of this case.
#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.
However when one of the negative stories about #TedCruz came out in 2016 #Trump said:
"I did not know about it, & have not, as yet, read it. Likewise, I have nothing to do w/ the #NationalEnquirer & unlike Lyin' Ted Cruz I do not surround myself w/ political hacks & henchman & then pretend total innocence."
The suggestion by Trump’s lawyer that what #Pecker did for Trump was #SOP is belied by ~20yrs of Pecker helping him.
#Bove is asking #Pecker about #Dino Sajudin, the #doorman w/a story to sell about #Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. Sajudin was at the heart of the 1st #CatchAndKill deal, in which The NE purchased the story & did not publish it. Bove asks Pecker to repeat that he believed that if the story were true, “it could be the biggest #NationalEnquirer article ever.” Bove appears to be trying to suggest that Pecker would have published it had he been able to verify it.
Even though #Pecker knew the story was false, he paid $30k for it. He previously testified that he thought it would have been an embarrassment to the #TrumpCampaign. But #Bove is trying to get Pecker to agree that he instead paid for the story to avoid losing it to another publication.
Prosecutors repeatedly object to defense’s use of “President Trump” to refer to a meeting in June 2016, pointing out that #Trump wasn’t president at that point. Justice #Merchan sustains.
#Bove keeps jumping between topics during his #CrossExamination of #Pecker. Trump seemed engaged yesterday when this line of questioning began, today he’s more lethargic — sitting slumped in his chair, & he just tried to disguise a yawn.
#Pecker, before a tense & focused courtroom, is recounting Trump calling him directly 3 days before that year’s #election day, 1 day after the WSJ article was published.
He was “very upset, saying how could this happen, I thought you had this under control, either you or one of your people have leaked the story," Pecker says.
"I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself & I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker testifies.
#Pecker reiterates the importance of keeping #KarenMcDougal's story quiet, in a comment that relates directly to the prosecution's argument that he & #Trump conspired to aid his #election.
#Pecker is now describing a post-election meeting he had w/ #MichaelCohen at #Trump Tower. Pecker said Cohen told him he had not been reimbursed for his payment to #StormyDaniels. Cohen, who also wanted to be paid a bonus for the year, asked Pecker “if I [Pecker] would talk to the boss on his behalf.”
#Republicans — 3 who went on to work in the #Trump admin, while the 4th, #Comey, would eventually become one of Trump's chief adversaries. #Pecker, escorted by #Kushner, walked into that #shitshow & was then asked about #KarenMcDougal by the then president-elect.
Pecker testifies that in front of Comey [#WITNESSES!], the head of the #FBI, Trump thanked him for purchasing the stories - & likely committing AT LEAST 1 #CRIME in the process, as Pecker well knew.