NEW YORK—The third official day of testimony in the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump featured key witness David Pecker going into greater detail about the Republican front-runner's fears of former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult star Stormy Daniels sharing their stories of affairs with him in 2018.
Pecker is the former publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer. He arranged a "catch-and-kill" scheme with Trump and his campaign during the 2016 presidential race. He explained that he knew that the effort to buy and stifle negative stories about then-candidate Trump was a potential violation of federal election and campaign finance laws.
Federal law requires that private companies must report payments in coordination with a political campaign. Pecker testified to agreeing to be the so-called "eyes and ears" of the Trump campaign by instigating the catch-and-kill scheme. Trump's personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, served in the role of the go-between to ensure that McDougal and Daniels were paid for their silence. McDougal alleged an affair between her and Trump from 2006 to 2007, and Daniels had sex with the former president in 2006.
Pecker paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story and killed it. When prosecutors asked Pecker whether buying McDougal's story was to influence the election results, he said, "Yes, it was." This gave a clear indication that Pecker admitted to electioneering through National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., and failed to disclose the payments.
The 34 charges brought by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against Trump specifically deal with payments made to Stormy Daniels; the prosecutors want to rely on Pecker's testimony to establish a pattern of behavior where the former president engaged in unethical and potentially illegal election interference.
Counsel representing Trump has argued throughout the process of the trial that the payments to McDougal and Daniels were made to protect his personal reputation and to spare his wife, Melania, and the brand of his family perpetuated through his sons and daughters, Donald Jr., Eric, Tiffany, Ivanka and Barron. However, Pecker recollected in his testimony that Trump had no concern for the personal damage the stories of his affairs could have. The New York Times observes that Trump's concerns were primarily electoral.
“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker explained. What was also noteworthy was that Pecker disclosed to prosecutors that Trump was concerned about McDougal's story being shared in 2018, two years after he secured his election win in 2016. McDougal recounted her story to journalists, like Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker in 2018. Farrow reported about Pecker's involvement in the catch-and-kill scheme and how American Media and National Enquirer shut down stories.
Defense for Trump, led by attorney Emil Bove, began cross-examining Mr. Pecker's testimony and painting these actions as standard practices in the celebrity tabloid space. Observers in the courtroom explained that Bove started using the phrase "standard operating procedure," referring to catch-and-kill schemes. Cross-examination is expected to continue into Friday as Pecker takes the stand for a fourth day of testimony. AVN reported on the first two days of the official proceedings beginning earlier this week after an extensive jury selection.
