(AFP) – A key witness in the criminal trial of Donald Trump detailed Thursday how he worked with the former president’s personal lawyer to kill a Playboy model’s story about a sexual relationship with the Republican.
It’s the third day of testimony in the criminal trial of Trump, whom prosecutors accuse of falsifying business records to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter that could have derailed his 2016 White House campaign.
He is the first former US head of state to face criminal charges. The high-stakes trial demands Trump report to the drafty Manhattan courtroom multiple times a week, less than seven months before his likely election rematch with President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors say Trump engaged in “election fraud” by having his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen make a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
The latest testimony from David Pecker — the 72-year-old former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid — points to a hush money payment to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, that was a precursor to the Daniels saga.
“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker nonchalantly told jurors, providing a clear statement that his efforts with the candidate and his lawyer were geared at influencing the presidential election — which eventually saw the brash real estate mogul take the White House over Hillary Clinton.
– ‘The boss’ –
The affable Pecker candidly explained how transfers to the tune of $150,000 were made to “catch and kill” McDougal’s story and suppress its publication, calling it a “large purchase” relative to the sums his company would normally pay for content.
He said payments to McDougal were disguised as services to American Media, the tabloid’s parent company, to avoid violating campaign finance laws.
“We purchased the story so it would not be published by any other organization,” Pecker told jurors. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or hurt his campaign.”
He said Cohen had encouraged him to purchase the story, and when he asked how he would get reimbursed, Cohen said “the boss will take care of it.”
Pecker said that not only did McDougal receive payment, but that the deal also guaranteed her magazine covers and the possibility to publish fitness columns.
But McDougal’s story ultimately did come out, four days before the election in a scoop from the Wall Street Journal, which prosecutors showed jurors.
Pecker said Trump called him and was “very upset.”
“How could this happen, I thought you had this under control,” Pecker recalled Trump telling him, before hanging up with no goodbye.
And when it came to squashing Daniels’s tale of her sexual affair with Trump — that hush money payment is core to the case — Pecker said he hesitated to pay for yet another story.
“I’m not a bank,” Pecker said, also saying he didn’t want his publication, which is sold in supermarkets, to be associated with a porn star.
The executive suggested to Cohen that he pay for it instead, which prosecutors say the then-Trump fixer did from his own home equity line of credit, wiring it through a shell company.
– Contempt allegations –
Trump has appeared increasingly disgruntled, angry even, as the trial proceeds and he’s forced to sit silently under the glaring fluorescent lights of the courtroom, listening to both prosecutors and Pecker deliver accounts of his alleged misdeeds.
He has also borne witness to Judge Juan Merchan admonishing the former president’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche, who this week blustered through his defense of the Republican as prosecutors asked to hold Trump in contempt of court.
They say Trump has repeatedly violated a partial gag order barring him from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors and court staff. Merchan heard arguments over the accusation Tuesday but did not issue an immediate ruling, which he could drop at any moment.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen are both expected to appear as prosecution witnesses at the trial.
Trump has repeatedly attacked them on Truth Social, calling them, for example, “sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our country dearly.”
– Andréa BAMBINO, Maggy DONALDSON
© 2024 AFP
