Trump Trial: Witness David Pecker Describes Rushed Attempts to Suppress ‘Embarrassing’ Stories

NEW YORK — A crucial witness in the hush money trial against Donald Trump testified on Tuesday during questioning by prosecutors about the frantic efforts Michael Cohen allegedly made to shut down stories that would be “embarrassing” to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The witness, David Pecker, was a longtime publisher of the National Enquirer, and on the witness stand Tuesday he described a 2015 meeting with Trump and Trump’s then-attorney Cohen. Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office described it as the “Trump Tower conspiracy.”

That meeting is where prosecutors say the trio laid the groundwork for a scheme to benefit Trump’s eventual 2016 campaign. The prosecutors said that alleged scheme became even more crucial after several sex scandals threatened to emerge the following year and eventually led Cohen to pay $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, which is at the heart of the case.

Pecker testified for nearly two hours, alleging that Cohen, at the direction of Trump, planted negative coverage about the then-candidate’s political rivals and positive stories that promoted Trump. At one point, Pecker was asked by Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass why he paid $30,000 to quash a fake story about a child Trump allegedly had with a woman out of wedlock.

If the article “got out to another publication or another media outlet,” Pecker said, “it would have been very embarrassing to the campaign.” His testimony helped the prosecution lay out what they call the “catch-and-kill” scheme of the indictment.

At one point, prosecutors asked Pecker if he knew Karen McDougal, another woman who sought to come forward during the 2016 election with allegations about an affair with Trump years earlier.

Pecker testified that Dylan Howard, an entertainment reporter for the National Enquirer, interviewed McDougal and that she told the reporter she had many offers from other media outlets for her story.

After Pecker informed Trump about Howard’s interview with McDougal, he told the then-presidential candidate it would be in his best interest to buy her story in an effort to suppress it from publication. Pecker claimed that Trump was worried about the story getting out regardless, claiming Trump said: “Anytime you do anything like this it always gets out.”

Although buying and suppressing negative stories is not illegal, Pecker’s testimony is important to Bragg’s efforts to prove Trump is guilty of felony counts of falsifying business records, rather than misdemeanor counts, because prosecutors say Trump intended to commit or conceal another crime. Prosecutors say the “primary” crime it is seeking to use to prove a conspiracy is Section 17-152 under New York law, which is conspiracy to promote or prevent an election. However, Bragg did not charge Trump with any election-related offenses.

The prosecution ended their questioning of Pecker for the day at 2 p.m., though his testimony will resume on Thursday. Trump’s attorneys have not yet had the opportunity to cross-examine Pecker, meaning that the jury has not yet heard the defense’s side of the argument.

Pecker, unlike Cohen, does not have a criminal background and has not been scrutinized in court for perjury. However, the tabloid publisher admitted at one point during his testimony to having made up stories, such as one about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that had claimed to show the senator’s father in a photo with John F. Kennedy killer Lee Harvey Oswald. But prosecutors argued those past fabrications fuel their claims that Pecker directed negative stories at Trump’s Republican opponents for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Earlier in the day, Merchan held a gag order contempt hearing during which he admonished Trump’s attorney for not being able to cite case law that proved Trump did not violate his gag order by reposting other people’s posts that were critical of certain witnesses in the case. Some of Trump’s scrutinized posts were reposts of news articles or quotes from anchors, such as Fox News’s Jesse Watters.

Merchan has yet to rule on the prosecution’s efforts to fine Trump for 10 alleged violations of his gag order. They seek to fine Trump $1,000 for each alleged violation and said Tuesday that Trump had violated it again one day earlier during his public statements in the hallways of floor 15 of the New York County Criminal Courthouse.

“I’d love to talk to you people, I’d love to say everything that’s on my mind, but I’m restricted because I have a gag order,” Trump said. “I’m not sure that anybody’s ever seen anything like it before.”