In Trump hush money trial, first witness testifies he helped with candidacy

Washington:

National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, the first witness in Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial, testified Tuesday that he made a “highly confidential” agreement to use his supermarket tabloid to help Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. Was.

Pecker, 72, testified in a New York court that in a meeting in August 2015 he told Trump that the Enquirer would publish favorable stories about the billionaire candidate and go after women who sold stories that hurt him. Can.

Pecker testified, “When someone is running for public office like this, it’s very common for these women to try to sell their stories to a magazine like the National Enquirer.”

Pekar said he had asked an editor to keep the arrangement a secret.

Pekar said, “I told them we were going to try to help the campaign and to do that, we wanted to keep it as quiet as possible.”

Prosecutors say Pecker’s actions helped Trump deceive voters in the 2016 election by burying stories of alleged extramarital affairs, when he was already facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

He has accused Trump of criminally falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels, who he says they had a sexual relationship with 10 years ago.

Trump has maintained his innocence and denied the encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue that Trump committed no crime and only acted to protect his reputation.

The case could be the only one of Republican Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to go to trial before his Nov. 5 election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

A guilty verdict would not prevent Trump from taking office but could harm his candidacy.

‘Lose all credibility’

Pecker’s testimony came after a hearing to consider prosecutors’ request to fine Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order barring him from criticizing witnesses, court officials and his relatives.

Justice Juan Merchan said he would not immediately rule on that request, but he was unimpressed by Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanch’s arguments that Trump was responding to political attacks, not intimidating witnesses.

“You haven’t presented anything,” Marchen said. “I’ve asked you eight or nine times to show me the exact post he was responding to. Not even once have you been able to do it.”

The judge said, “I have to tell you right now, you are losing all credibility in the court.”

After Sessions, Trump reiterated his claim that the sanctions order violated his constitutional free speech rights.

“This is a kangaroo court and the judge should recuse himself!” Trump wrote on his Truth social platform.

New York prosecutor Christopher Conroy said Trump violated the order, pointing to an April 10 Truth Social post that called Daniels and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen “despicable.” Both are expected to testify in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

Conroy said other posts led to media coverage that prompted a juror last week to withdraw over privacy concerns.

Conroy said of Trump, “He knows what he’s not allowed to do and he does it anyway.” “The disobedience to his orders was deliberate. It was deliberate.”

The $10,000 fine sought by Conroy would be a relatively small penalty for Trump, who has posted $266.6 million in bonds while appealing civil verdicts in two other cases.

Conroy said he is not asking Marchant at this time to send Trump to jail for 30 days, as New York law allows.

“It looks like the defendant is trying to make up for it,” Conroy said.

Blanch said her posts were a response to Cohen’s political attacks and were not related to her former lawyer’s expected testimony.

“They are allowed to respond to political attacks,” Blanch said.

a long term relationship

Pecker, 72, said he has known Trump since the 1980s and once worked with him on a magazine called ‘Trump Style’. He noted that Trump was a prominent figure on the front page of the National Enquirer, and that a poll found that 80% of the magazine’s readers said they would support him if he ran for president.

Prosecutors showed an email from Cohen inviting Pecker to Trump’s 2015 campaign launch. “No one deserves to be there more than you,” Cohen wrote.

American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer, admitted in 2018 that it had paid former Playboy magazine model Karen McDougal $150,000 for her story about a month-long affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. American media said he worked “in concert” with Trump. campaign, and it never published a story.

According to prosecutors, the tabloid made a similar deal to pay $30,000 to a concierge who was trying to sell a story about Trump allegedly fathering a child out of wedlock, which turned out to be false. .

Trump has said the payment was personal and did not violate election law. She has also denied having an affair with McDougall.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)