Pecker is defiant in Trump lawsuit as lawyers try to shake his confidence

Donald J. Trump’s lawyers questioned the former publisher of The National Enquirer on Friday and cast doubt on his explanation for why he suppressed salacious stories about the Republican presidential nominee before the 2016 election.

The witness, David Pecker, who has known Mr. Trump for decades, faced tough cross-examination from Emile Bowe, one of the former president’s defense lawyers, who pressed Mr. Pecker about two deals he made. Did this with people in 2015 and 2016. Who were trying to sell stories about Mr. Trump.

Mr. Bove tried to convince the jury of two fundamental points about the stories that Mr. Pecker bought and then buried: that arrangements, such as “catch and kill” by prosecutors, were standard for the publisher, and that Mr. Pecker Had misled jurors about details of earlier transactions.

In one particularly tense moment, Mr. Bove pushed Mr. Pecker to clarify an apparent discrepancy between his testimony this week and the notes of a 2018 interview with the FBI. Mr. Pecker testified that Mr. Trump thanked him for helping cover up after the election. A similar story, but the interview notes did not record Mr. Trump’s expression of gratitude.

Mr Pekar, who eventually admitted the inconsistency, disputed Mr Bove’s implication that there was a contradiction and said he was honest in his testimony.

“I know what the truth is,” Mr. Pecker said, suggesting that FBI agents may have made a mistake in their notes. “I can’t explain why it’s written that way. I know exactly what was said to me.”

Mr. Pecker’s testimony was important to the Manhattan district attorney’s office as prosecutors sought to show that Mr. Trump was part of a three-person conspiracy to bury negative stories as he worked to win the presidency. Prosecutors argue that Mr. Trump ultimately falsified records to conceal a third hush-money deal to hide payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels by his former fixer Michael D. Cohen.

The former President faces 34 serious charges and if found guilty, he may have to spend four years in jail. He denies all the allegations.

Prosecution witnesses who followed Mr. Pekar on Friday provided a less dramatic conclusion to the trial’s first week of testimony.

Ronna Graff, Mr. Trump’s former executive assistant and concierge at Trump Tower, testified about entries from the Trump Organization computer system that included contact information for former Playboy models Karen McDougal and “Stormi.”

The last witness of the day was Gary Farrow, who was Mr. Cohen’s banker when the former fixer arranged financial transactions with First Republic Bank to enable Ms. Daniels to quietly pay the money.

Mr Farro will return as a witness when court resumes on Tuesday. He is expected to take less time to testify than Mr. Pecker, who began his four days on the stand on Monday saying he came to an agreement with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen in a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 Were.

There, Mr. Pecker said, he agreed to run a covert campaign for Mr. Trump that was trumpeting his candidacy, publishing negative stories about his Republican opponents. Most importantly, Mr. Pecker said, he had agreed to be the “eyes and ears” of the campaign, keeping an eye out for potentially damaging stories.

On Friday, Mr. Bove questioned this testimony, arguing that Mr. Pecker’s promotion of Mr. Trump and denigration of other candidates was simply “standard operating procedure” for a tabloid, like selling magazines in supermarket checkout aisles. Recycling exciting stories for.

Mr. Pekar agreed without any embarrassment that such stories appear in his publications. But when Mr. Bove tried to cast doubt on his credibility, he retaliated several times.

Mr Bove focused on the August 2016 agreement that Mr Pecker’s company, AMI, had with Ms McDougall.

The publisher paid her $150,000 to keep quiet about the story of her affair with Mr Trump. But Mr Bowe sought to suggest the deal was more than just a cover for the payments, pointing out that Ms McDougall had received other benefits from the publisher, including guest columns and magazine covers.

Mr Bove concluded the cross-examination by asking Mr Pekar what obligations he had under the agreement to take the witness stand, suggesting to jurors that his testimony was perjured. The result of cooperation with prosecutors. The publisher was furious.

“Frankly,” Mr. Pecker said of his primary responsibility, “I’ve been truthful for as long as I can remember.”

After cross-examination, a prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, questioned Mr. Pecker further, asking him why the articles and cover stories were specified in the $150,000 deal.

“It was included in the contract basically as a disguise,” Mr. Pecker said, adding that the real intention was that Ms. McDougall’s story would not be published anywhere else.

Mr Pecker did not run the story of Ms McDougal’s affair with Mr Trump. Nor did he publish the story of a doorman having a child out of wedlock that his reporters decided was false. That was the complicated story, Mr. Pecker said, for which Mr. Trump thanked him.

Mr. Pecker said such a story would help The Enquirer sell 10 million copies, making it bigger than the tabloid’s coverage of Elvis Presley’s death, which featured a photo of the singer’s body in his coffin.

In his testimony, Mr. Pecker took a look at the sometimes shady practices behind the newspaper’s headlines. They included providing protection from unflattering coverage to politicians, including “Terminator” star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became governor of California, as well as using damaging information about celebrities to pressure them in interviews.

But on Friday, Mr. Steinglass sought to establish Mr. Pecker’s actions on behalf of the former president as an isolated thing, asking questions that showed whether the publisher’s suppression of negative stories regarding Mr. Trump was unique.

Despite the defense lawyers’ aggressive questions, Mr. Pecker was a small, gray-haired man, answering in a calm, monotonous voice. During direct examination by prosecutors, he quietly laid out the foundation of the prosecution’s case, painting a vivid, twisted portrait of Mr. Trump as a presidential candidate, often through his fixer, Mr. Cohen. Tried to quash rumors about his personal life.

Mr Pecker said Mr Trump had become “very angry” and “very agitated” about the growing scandals, and was deeply concerned about Ms McDougal, even speaking about her in meetings at the White House and Trump Tower. I started inquiring. After he was elected.

“How is our girl?” Mr. Pecker recalled Mr. Trump asking.

The first former US president to face criminal trial, Mr Trump, 77, has denied a sexual relationship with Ms McDougal, as well as the incidents described by Ms Daniels, who says she had a one-night stand with him in 2006 Was.

A decade later, as the 2016 presidential race moved toward its conclusion, Ms. Daniels was paid $130,000 by Mr. Cohen to guarantee her silence and, prosecutors say, to help Mr. Trump win. Payment was made.

Mr Cohen was later reimbursed by Mr Trump, and efforts to hide those payments are the basis of the falsification of business records cases facing the former president. Each count reflects a separate false check, bookkeeping and invoice that, according to prosecutors, Mr. Trump used to conceal the purpose of the reimbursements.

Mr. Trump has cast the prosecution as a “witch hunt,” an argument he amplified in statements to reporters in a hallway outside Justice Juan M. Marchan’s courtroom.

Fifteen of Mr Trump’s comments – mostly posted on his Truth social account and campaign websites – have been cited by prosecutors as violations of a gag order that Justice Merchen issued in March, which barred the former president from revealing information about jurors, witnesses, , and attacking members of the court staff. Other.

Justice Merchan has already held a hearing to determine whether Mr. Trump should be held in contempt and fined; The second is scheduled for next week. It is unclear whether the results of the first will be known before the second is held.

The criminal trial of the former president has impacted the political world, attracting media attention and occasional courtroom disputes.

Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year, faces three other indictments, including two federal cases related to mishandling of classified documents and efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. He also faces a government lawsuit in Georgia related to election interference.

Attention to the criminal case in Manhattan will likely intensify after the Supreme Court debates on Thursday whether Mr Trump should receive some immunity from prosecution for acts committed while in office. This could cause delays in federal cases after Election Day.

Despite appearing in New York court most weekdays, Mr Trump has tried to remain active as a campaigner, appearing at a construction site in Manhattan on Thursday, and holding rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan the following Wednesday. Arranged, which is a holiday for the trial.

On Friday, Mr Trump, who was married when Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal said they had a sexual relationship, wished his wife Melania a happy birthday and said he planned to fly to Florida to spend the evening with her. Are.

“It’ll be nice to be with him,” she said, standing in the courtroom hallway. “But I am in court. For a rigged trial.