A defense attorney for Donald Trump continued his attempt Friday to refute the notion that his client led an illegal conspiracy to use Donald Trump to influence the 2016 presidential election National Investigator Editor David Pecker.
Pecker, back on the witness stand today, bought and buried two scandalous stories about then-candidate Trump, but refused to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels for her claim of a sexual encounter with Trump.
A $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney at the time, is at the heart of the Manhattan district attorney’s case. Trump’s lawyers claim that such non-disclosure payments are part of everyday business life.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove interrogates Pecker, the former CEO of demander Parent company American Media (AMI) made him admit that he paid $30,000 to a bouncer at Trump Tower who claimed that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock because the story, if true, would be the biggest seller in the world Tabloid history could become bigger than the 6.5 million copies sold after Elvis Presley’s death.
“Because he couldn’t be allowed to leak his story to another publication,” Bove told Pecker, adding, “It would be too great a loss for AMI to lose control of such a story if it were true.” or?”
“Yes,” Pecker replied.
“And you couldn’t avoid that possibility, however small it might be, right?” asked Bove. Pecker agreed he couldn’t.
Bove questions the prosecution’s central argument that the acquisition of exclusive story rights with Trump had a darker, illegal purpose. He also attacked the premise that Pecker’s company paid earlier playboy Model Karen McDougal $150,000 to protect Trump from the political fallout arising from her claims of a year-long love affair with the Republican presidential candidate.
“She wanted to restart her career, right?” Bove asked, noting that McDougal began appearing regularly as a health and fitness columnist in American Media magazines.
“And you viewed AMI as a good relaunch point for Ms. McDougal at that point, right?” Bove asked.
Pecker paused for a few seconds and finally said, “Well, that was all part of the agreement.”
Reached for comment, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass dismissed the idea that purchasing and burying McDougal’s story was a business decision. If AMI had published McDougal’s report, “Would that have sold magazines?” asked Steinglass. Pecker said that would do it.
“It would be something like this National Investigator Gold,” Steinglass said.
“Yes,” Pecker replied.
“Despite the fact that the story would have helped your bottom line, you killed the story because it helped candidate Donald Trump?” Steinglass said.
“Yes,” Pecker replied.
Bove also asked Pecker under cross-examination about his recollection of a meeting with then-President-elect Trump in January 2017, in which he testified that Trump thanked him for killing the bouncer and the McDougal stories. Bove confronted Pecker with FBI notes from a subsequent meeting with federal law enforcement that stated, “Trump did not express his gratitude to Pecker or AMI.”
Pecker said he couldn’t reconcile the FBI’s account of what he told them with his own recollection of the conversation.
Bove and Steinglass took turns asking Pecker whether he believed he had done anything illegal in his agreement with McDougal, which he presented to an election lawyer to ensure it was legally “bulletproof.”
“Is it your statement that you withheld information from the lawyers who advised you about the agreement?” Bove asked.
“No,” Pecker replied, adding that he “doesn’t” feel he did anything inappropriate.
Questioned again by Steinglass, Pecker said that the clauses requiring McDougal to appear in American media publications were “a cover-up” to keep her story of an affair secret. Steinglass asked Pecker if he ever informed American Media’s in-house counsel of this fact before the company’s attorney presented the agreement to an election attorney. Pecker said he didn’t do it.