Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan this week has seen subplots inside and outside the courtroom over three days of testimony.
With a decision on a contempt motion pending, Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled a hearing Thursday for prosecutors to argue that Trump committed further violations of the judge’s confidentiality by denigrating or intimidating witnesses, jurors and other trial participants.
At the first contempt hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors sought financial penalties for 10 online posts by Trump in which he disparaged witnesses Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen and called potential jurors “liberal activists.” Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Chris Conroy said next week’s hearing will focus on four additional alleged violations of the gag order.
The last time took place on Thursday at a construction site in midtown Manhattan, where Trump visited workers before heading to court. There, Trump turned to the first prosecution witness, David Pecker, the former CEO of National Investigator Publisher American Media. “This is a message to Pecker: Be nice,” Trump said.
At the end of the day, Trump seemed pleased with Pecker’s statement, calling it “stunning and amazing.” It was the defense lawyers’ turn to question Pecker, who agreed with Trump lawyer Emil Bove that long before Pecker extended editorial favors to Trump, it was “standard operating procedure” at the company to have exclusive rights to scandalous stories about celebrities and politicians to acquire Kill the stories or use them as leverage.
Pecker cited several examples of stories buried by a catch-and-kill strategy: women who claimed they dated or were harassed by actor and governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; a romantic affair with Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel, at the request of Rahm’s Hollywood agent brother Ari Emanuel; a dispute between actor Mark Wahlberg and his wife, who was represented by Ari Emanuel; and photos of golfer Tiger Woods meeting a woman.
In Woods’ case, Pecker testified, the idea was to hold the photos over Woods to convince him to sit for a session Men’s fitness Cover story.
However ironclad or previously secret these exclusivity agreements were, they were dissolved under oath on Thursday when the defense strategy became known. Bove sought to show that the $130,000 paid by Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film actor Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter was no different from other story buyouts, including those for political candidates – Schwarzenegger and Emanuel – never doing so led to criminal charges.
Bove asked a series of yes-or-no questions and examined Pecker’s relationship with Trump, who has been a driver of newsstand sales since his days as a real estate magnate Celebrity Apprentice Reality star. “And it was always your intention not to publish negative stories about President Trump?” Bove asked. Pecker said it was. Bove brought up a failed 1998 attempt by Pecker to stop an American media company from publishing a story about Trump’s mistress, Marla Maples.
“For seventeen years he warned Trump about potential negative publicity,” Bove said.
However, Pecker testified for the prosecution that he never paid sources or tipsters to distort stories about Trump until after a meeting with Trump in August 2015 in which Pecker offered to be the candidate’s “eyes and ears” on the search to be after negative stories. He paid $30,000 to a bouncer at Trump Tower and $150,000 to a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal. He persuaded Cohen to pay Daniels – a secret payment that prosecutors have identified as the first act in an illegal attempt by Trump to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Pecker testified that although he declined an invitation to Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, he attended a White House dinner in July with his top deputy and editor Dylan Howard. Jurors saw a photo of Howard grinning in the Oval Office and one of Pecker and President Trump walking together down an outside corridor of the White House with their backs to the camera. Pecker testified that they went to dinner, and on that walk Trump asked him, “How is Karen?”
Pecker’s testimony continues today.