Trump trial day 6 highlights: David Pecker testifies on ‘catch-and-kill’ scheme
Day two of Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York wrapped up Tuesday afternoon with the former president once again railing against the gag order that he’s already been accused of violating multiple times.
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Testimony resumed Tuesday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, with longtime tabloid publisher David Pecker taking the stand to detail a ‘catch-and-kill’ scheme to bury articles unfavorable to the former president during the 2016 election.
Here’s what to know:
- What the case is about: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.
- Did Trump violate a gag order?: Before testimony resumed Tuesday, Judge Merchan weighed the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt of court and fined for allegedly violating his gag order. He has yet to rule on the order.
- Why the trial isn’t televised: New York state law regarding media coverage of court proceedings is one of the most restrictive in the country, but some reporters, including from the AP, are allowed inside the courtroom.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass explained in court Tuesday that to convict Trump of felony falsifying business records, prosecutors must show that he had intent to commit another crime. Steinglass said one of the crimes they allege Trump intended to commit was a violation of New York election law related to a conspiracy to promote or prevent an election.
“I’m being held hostage!” reads the subject line of the campaign’s latest solicitation, which asks supporters to “chip in” to “END THE WITCH HUNT!”
Trump’s indictments and initial court appearances have helped him raise tens of millions of dollars.
The White House has steered clear of talking about Donald Trump’s trial, but spokesperson Andrew Bates appeared to make a sly reference to the courtroom on Tuesday.
While speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Florida, Bates began his briefing by asking that “nobody fall asleep while we talk.”
At the trial’s outset, some reporters suggested that it appeared there were times that Trump drifted off to sleep while watching the proceedings. The former president’s campaign disputed that. With no video camera in place and trained on him, there’s no way of knowing for sure.
Trump ended his day in court by once again railing against the gag order that he’s already been accused of violating multiple times.
“I’m not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me,” Trump complained to reporters, holding a stack of articles he said were critical of the case but that he says he’s not allowed to share.
Trump also complained again about the temperature in the courtroom, calling it “freezing,” and said he’s been “sitting up as straight as I can all day long” while Biden is campaigning.
“It’s a very unfair situation,” he says.
Merchan sent the jury home for the day, with court adjourning early for the Passover holiday. Jurors must pass directly by Trump at the defense table as they exit but none appeared to look over in his direction.
Leaving the bench, Judge Merchan said, “Have a good night everyone.”
The trial is not being held on Wednesday and is set to resume on Thursday.
Pecker said that he ultimately encouraged Cohen to let Sajudin out of the agreement, which at one point bound him never to sell the story anywhere else. Pecker reasoned that “we shouldn’t really have any concerns here, since the story is not true anyway,” he said. But Cohen was reluctant to release the former doorman from the agreement at any point, and told Pecker definitely not to do so before the 2016 presidential election, the publisher said.
The release eventually did happen — after Trump won.
Jurors are now seeing an internal Enquirer email and invoice describing the payments made to Sajudin to kill his story. One of the documents describes the funds coming from the publication’s “corporate” account. An invoice prepared by an executive editor references an “immediate” $30,000 bank transfer payment for “‘Trump’ non-published story.”
“I made the decision to purchase the story because of the potential embarrassment it had to the campaign and to Mr. Trump,” Pecker said regarding Sajudin’s allegation that Trump had fathered a child with an employee at Trump World Tower.
The publisher recalled calling Cohen and explaining that they could purchase the doorman’s silence for $30,000 by purchasing the exclusive rights to his story.
“He said, ‘Who’s going to pay for it?’ I said, ‘I’ll pay for it,’” Pecker testified, later noting that he was told Trump would be “very pleased.”
Pecker testified that it was “important that this story be removed from the marketplace” due to the story’s potentially outsized impact.
He explained that Sajudin submitted to a polygraph test, a “normal” practice at the National Enquirer, to determine if his tip was legitimate — though prosecutor Joshua Steinglass stopped him before he could reveal the results, which isn’t allowed in court.
Pecker said the publication hired a private investigator, sent reporters to a location where the supposed child was living and used other verification methods — ultimately determining the story was “1,000% untrue.”
“Had you ever paid a story to kill a story about Donald Trump?” Steinglass asked.
“No I had not,” Pecker said.
The doorman, Dino Sajudin, received $30,000 from the National Enquirer in 2015 for the rights to a rumor that Trump had fathered a child with an employee at Trump World Tower. The tabloid concluded the story was not true, and the woman and Trump have denied the allegations.
As Pecker described receiving the tip in court, Trump shook his head.
Pecker said upon hearing the rumor, he immediately called Cohen, who said it was “absolutely not true” but that he would look into whether the people involved had indeed worked for Trump’s company.
Pecker’s testimony provided a seamy backstory to Trump’s rise from political novice to president of the United States. With Cohen acting as a shadow editor of sorts, Pecker said he and the National Enquirer parlayed trashy rumor-mongering into splashy tabloid stories that tarred Trump’s opponents while also running pieces that boosted his image.
The articles were timed to run just as Trump’s rivals were climbing in polls, and some of the allegations — such as articles falsely tying Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — entered the mainstream via cable news and conservative-leaning talk programs.
Trump himself amplified the National Enquirer’s absurd allegations about Cruz’s father in May 2016, telling Fox News in one interview that, “His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being, you know, shot.”
“Nobody even brings it up, I mean they don’t even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it,” he went on.
Trump had a history in 2016 of repeating unproven and unsubstantiated stories, many from the National Enquirer, which had endorsed his candidacy. After the tabloid printed a story without evidence that claimed Cruz was having an extramarital affair, Trump praised the publication for having a “very good” record of accuracy.
Steinglass told the judge he would move on to other questions, and he’s doing so.
He waved, raised his fist and walked back into the courtroom.
Jurors and Pecker have been sent out on a break so Trump’s lawyers can tell the judge about their objections to some questions that Steinglass, the prosecutor, is asking Pecker regarding comments he says former high-ranking Trump campaign aide Steve Bannon made to him.
“He would send me information about Ted Cruz or about Ben Carson or Marco Rubio, and that was the basis of our story, and then we (the National Enquirer) would embellish it a little,” he said.
The court was shown examples of the resulting headlines relating to Carson, a surgeon who ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP primary opponent and later became his secretary of housing.
“Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain” reads one relaying allegations from a former patient.
Pecker said he would send Cohen drafts of these stories, to which Cohen would provide feedback. Asked if he knew whether Cohen ever shared those stories with Trump, Pecker said: “I don’t recollect that, no.”
Steinglass, the prosecutor, is using visuals to drill deeper into the components of Pecker’s arrangement with Trump and Cohen.
At one point, he displayed a screenshot of various flattering headlines the National Enquirer published about Trump, including: “Donald Dominates!’ and “World Exclusive: The Donald Trump Nobody Knows.”
Pecker said he then met with the National Enquirer’s editor at the time, Dylan Howard, and underscored that the agreement he’d just made at Trump Tower was “highly, highly confidential.”
He said he wanted the tabloid’s bureau chiefs to be on the lookout for any stories involving Trump and said he wanted them to verify the stories before alerting Cohen.
“I told him that we are going to try to help the campaign and to do that I want to keep this as quiet as possible,” Pecker testified. “I did not want anyone else to know this agreement I had and what I wanted to do.”
He was disturbing proceedings in an overflow courtroom and repeatedly failed to follow court officers’ instructions, court spokesperson Al Baker said.
The man was released after being ticketed.
While Pecker had many personal interactions with Trump over the years, the former National Enquirer publisher said that he also worked closely with Michael Cohen, then Trump’s lawyer.
Describing an August 2015 meeting with Trump, Cohen and then-Trump aide Hope Hicks at Trump Tower, Pecker explained how he might be an asset to Trump.
He explained that he could “publish positive stories about Mr. Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponents, and I said I would also be the eyes and ears.”
If he heard “anything negative” about Trump, or instances of “women selling stories,” Pecker said he “would notify Michael Cohen.” From there, Pecker said stories could be purchased and “killed,” meaning they would go unpublished.
“Prior to that August 2015 meeting, had you ever purchased a story in order to not print it, about Mr. Trump?” Steinglass, the prosecutor, asked.
“Uh, no,” Pecker said.
Pecker testified Tuesday that amid the height of Trump’s success with “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” the tabloid ran a reader poll asking if Trump should run for president. Though reader polls are unscientific, the results nevertheless strongly favored a Trump presidential run — so much so that Trump cited it during a subsequent “Today Show” interview about his aspirations for running for president.
Pecker testified that his relationship with Trump grew with the success of Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice.” He said Trump would share content with him from the show that he could publish in his magazines free of charge, noting that stories about Trump and the show would do very well.
“Our relationship started to grow even further” when Trump launched a celebrity version of “The Apprentice,” citing widespread interest in the show and the notable names whom Trump eliminated each week using his catchphrase: “You’re fired!”
Pecker testified he was also impressed at how the show portrayed Trump “as a national figure on TV as the boss,” a nod to the way the show laid the groundwork for Trump’s political career.
Pecker recalled that the “Celebrity Apprentice” started in 2003 or 2004, but it actually began in 2008.
Pecker testified that he met Trump in the 1980s at Mar-a-Lago while there as a guest of a client.
Prosecutors then asked Pecker to point to Trump in court and to describe an item of his clothing, a standard part of criminal trials. As he acknowledged Trump and his “dark blue suit,” the former president grinned widely at his longtime friend.
When he bought the National Enquirer in 1985, Pecker said one of the first calls he got was from Trump, who said, “You bought a great magazine.”
“Welcome back, Mr. Pecker,” said Judge Merchan, shortly before jurors returned to the courtroom.
The trial day was broken into two parts Tuesday: a morning hearing on Trump’s alleged gag order violations and then, until 2 p.m. ET, the resumption of witness testimony. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is expected to return to the witness stand. He began his testimony on Monday.
The former president is blasting the judge and the gag order he is under as Merchan weighs whether the former president’s posts and comments count as violations.
“HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH,” Trump wrote on his social media site during a brief court break. “EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT.”
While waiting for court to resume, Trump is leaning over and chatting with his lawyer Emil Bove, who has now switched seats with Todd Blanche and is sitting to his left, closest to the aisle. Meanwhile, Blanche and Susan Necheles are having an animated, jovial conversation to their right.
Trump lawyer Gedalia Stern is absent today to observe the Passover holiday.
If Judge Merchan penalizes Trump, it would be the latest example of the former president being punished after a judge found he violated a court order.
Last year, Trump was fined $15,000 for twice violating a gag order imposed at his New York civil fraud trial after he made a disparaging social media post about the judge’s chief law clerk.
In 2022, Trump was held in contempt and fined $110,000 for being slow to respond to a subpoena in the investigation that led to the civil fraud lawsuit.
Merchan suggested that instead of begging for forgiveness, Trump should’ve asked the judge for clarity when considering posts or reposts that might cross the line.
Court is now on break. Trump headed out of the courtroom and did not stop to speak.
A video split screen of the defense and prosecution tables offered a sense of how things are going so far. As the judge grew increasingly frustrated with Todd Blanche, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass smiled, rolled his eyes and appeared to stifle a laugh. On the opposite side, Trump sat slumped in his chair, scowling.
Blanche insisted that Trump “is being very careful to comply” with the gag order. Judge Merchan shot back: “You’re losing all credibility.”
Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, spelled out the process behind the ex-president’s Truth Social operation, explaining that people working with Trump will pick out articles they think his followers would like to see and then repost them under his name.
Blanche had argued that reposting a news article, as in some of the posts at issue, doesn’t violate the gag order.
When the judge asked for citations to cases to back that up, Blanche said he didn’t have any, but “it’s just common sense.”
Fighting the proposed fines, Todd Blanche hits a key defense argument on this matter: that Trump is just responding to others’ comments in the course of political speech.
“There is no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks,” including from Cohen and Daniels, Blanche said.
He again argues it’s unfair for them to be unfettered in their comments — but for Trump to be muzzled.
A man has been taken into custody by court officers after causing a disturbance in the overflow courtroom. He had been admitted to the overflow courtroom, which is located next to the main courtroom, but officers said he declined to sit down and obey the rules of the court.
He left the room and officers escorted him off the floor in handcuffs moments after the hearing began. Court staff have repeatedly warned journalists and members of the public about violating rules in the overflow room, where a video feed of the trial’s proceedings are shown on a slight delay.
At least two reporters have been barred from covering the trial after violating rules against recording and taking photographs, according to a court spokesperson.
A court system spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Donald Trump arrived at a New York courthouse as the National Enquirer’s former publisher is expected to return to the stand in Trump’s historic hush money trial, the first-ever criminal trial against a former U.S. president.
Even as the hearing starts about prosecutors’ claims that Trump violated the gag order 10 times in recent weeks, one of the prosecutors, Christopher Conroy, accuses the ex-president of violating it again Monday in remarks outside the courtroom door about his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.
Conroy points to Trump’s comments about Cohen’s representation of him and characterization of Cohen as a liar.
Before testimony resumed Tuesday, Judge Merchan is holding a hearing on the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt of court and fined at least $3,000 for allegedly violating his gag order.
Prosecutors cited 10 posts on Trump’s social media account and campaign website that they said breached the order, which bars him from making public statements about witnesses in the case.
They called the posts a “deliberate flouting” of the court’s order. In one post, from April 10, Trump described his former lawyer-turned-foe Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels as “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!”
Prosecutors are seeking a $1,000 fine — the maximum allowed by law — for each of the first three alleged violations. They did not specify the punishment they are seeking for the seven other posts, which date to the morning jury selection began in the trial last week.
Former president Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in New York. Before testimony resumes Tuesday, the judge will hold a hearing on prosecutors’ request to sanction and fine Trump over social media posts they say violate a gag order prohibiting him from attacking key witnesses. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)
Just after court resumed Tuesday, Trump sat at the defense table alone as his lawyers and prosecutors left the courtroom with Judge Juan M. Merchan for a closed-door conference.
There was no indication as to what the conference was about.
One of the lawyers had asked the judge if they could all approach the bench, to which the judge agreed. Then, after a moment, the group walked out of the courtroom to a side room out of view and earshot of reporters.
Former president Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in New York. Before testimony resumes Tuesday, the judge will hold a hearing on prosecutors’ request to sanction and fine Trump over social media posts they say violate a gag order prohibiting him from attacking key witnesses. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)
“It’s a big day in Pennsylvania,” Trump says in the courthouse’s hallway, urging people to vote in the state’s GOP primary happening today.
Trump, in a red tie, says the pro-Palestinian protests happening at local colleges are “a disgrace. And it’s really on Biden.” He says the president has the wrong tone and the wrong words. “What’s going on is a disgrace to our country and it’s all Biden’s fault.”
He did not mention the trial itself.
Bragg came in via a side door a few minutes before the scheduled start of a hearing on Donald Trump’s alleged gag order violations.
The presumptive GOP nominee will be meeting with former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso after court today at Trump Tower. That’s according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been formally announced.
Several foreign leaders have met with Trump in recent weeks as U.S. allies prepare for the possibility that he could re-take the White House.
“Leaders from around the world know that with President Trump we had a safer, more peaceful world,” said Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes.’
“Meetings and calls from world leaders reflect the recognition of what we already know here at home. Joe Biden is weak, and when President Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the world will be more secure and America will be more prosperous.”
Trump was close with Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2022.
Aso is vice president of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party and also served as deputy prime minister and finance minister under Abe.
Trump met last week with Polish President Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower and has also met recently with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
His motorcade is headed to the Manhattan courthouse.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars.
A conviction would not preclude Trump from becoming president again, but because it is a state case, he would not be able to pardon himself if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
New York state lawyers and an attorney for former President Donald Trump settled their differences Monday over a $175 million bond that Trump posted to block a large civil fraud judgment while he pursues appeals.
The agreement cut short a potential day-long court hearing in Manhattan that was to feature witnesses.
As part of a deal struck during a 20-minute recess, lawyers for Trump and Knight Specialty Insurance Company agreed to keep the $175 million in a cash account that will gain interest but faces no downside risk. The account so far has grown by over $700,000.
The bond stops the state from potentially seizing Trump’s assets to satisfy the more than $454 million that he owes after losing a court case brought by the Democratic attorney general. She had alleged that Trump, along with his company and key executives, defrauded bankers and insurers by lying about his wealth.
The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee denies the claims and is appealing the judgment.
▶ Read more about Trump’s bond settlement.
Two journalists covering the trial have been removed and expelled for breaking rules prohibiting recording and photography in the overflow room, where reporters who can’t get into the main courtroom watch the proceedings on large screens, according to court officials.
One of the banned journalists had previously been warned for violating the rules during jury selection.
Uniformed court officers have been making daily announcements reminding reporters of the rules. Signs posted in the overflow room and around the courthouse make clear that photography and recording are not allowed.
▶ Read more about how journalists are covering a trial that can’t be televised.
The start of opening statements in Donald Trump’s hush money trial set the stage for weeks of testimony about the former president’s personal life and places his legal troubles at the center of his closely contested campaign against President Joe Biden.
Trump’s attorney used his opening statement to attack the case as baseless, saying the former president did nothing illegal.
The attorney, Todd Blanche, challenged prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay Daniels to aid his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”
Blanche indicated the defense will argue that after all the very point of a presidential campaign is to try to influence an election.
“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told jurors. “They put something sinister on this idea, as if it was a crime. You’ll learn it’s not.”
Blanche also portrayed the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions performed by a Trump Organization employee. Trump “had nothing to do with” the allegedly false business records, “except that he signed the checks, in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said.
And he argued that the records’ references to legal expenses weren’t false, since Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.
▶ Read more takeaways from the opening statements.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. But prosecutors made clear they do not want jurors to view this as a routine paper case.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said the heart of the case is a scheme to “corrupt” the 2016 election by silencing people who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories Trump feared would hurt his campaign.
“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not spin or communication strategy. This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.”
He added: “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
Prosecutors’ characterizations appear designed to combat suggestions by some pundits that the case — perhaps the only one that will go to trial before the November election — isn’t as serious as the other three prosecutions he’s facing. Those cases accuse Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden and illegally retaining classified documents after he left the White House.
Trump, meanwhile, sought to downplay the accusations while leaving the courtroom on Monday, calling it all a “bookkeeping” case and “a very minor thing.” But he, too, has said it’s all about an election — the one this November. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the case is part of a sweeping Democratic attempt to harm his chances at reclaiming the presidency.
▶ Read more takeaways from the opening statements.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is the first witness for prosecutors, who say that Trump’s alleged scheme to conceal potentially damaging information from voters began with a 2015 Trump Tower meeting among the then-candidate, Pecker and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
At the meeting, Pecker — a longtime Trump friend — agreed to aid Trump’s campaign by running favorable pieces about him, smearing his opponents, scouting unflattering stories about him and flagging them to Cohen for “catch-and-kill” deals. Those included the claims made by Daniels, McDougal and the former Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, prosecutors say. Trump says all were false.
FILE - David Pecker, chairman and CEO of American Media, speaks at an event, Jan. 31, 2014 in New York. Pecker is The National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime friend of Donald Trump. Prosecutors say he met with Trump and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen at Trump Tower in August 2015 and agreed to help Trump’s campaign identify negative stories about him. (Marion Curtis via AP, File)
Pecker will likely be asked about all the alleged efforts made by the Enquirer’s then-owner, American Media Inc., on Trump’s behalf. Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute American Media in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen’s guilty plea, and the Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, calling the McDougal deal a “prohibited corporate in-kind contribution.”
Pecker’s brief turn on the stand Monday was mainly just about his background and other basic facts, though he did say the Enquirer practiced “checkbook journalism” — paying for stories — and that he had the final say on any story about a famous person.
▶ Read more takeaways from Monday’s opening statements.
Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial.
“This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election — to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records and bank forms to conceal those payments along the way,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
A defense lawyer countered by assailing the case as baseless and attacking the integrity of the onetime Trump confidant who’s now the government’s star witness.
“President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office should never have brought this case,” attorney Todd Blanche said.
The opening statements offered the 12-person jury — and the voting public — radically divergent roadmaps for a case that will unfold against the backdrop of a closely contested White House race in which Trump is not only the presumptive Republican nominee but also a criminal defendant facing the prospect of a felony conviction and prison.
▶ Read more about what was said during opening statements.
A longtime tabloid publisher is expected Tuesday to tell jurors about his efforts to help Donald Trump stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign as testimony resumes in the historic hush money trial of the former president.
David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher who prosecutors say worked with Trump and Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, on a strategy to buy up and then spike negative stories during the campaign, testified briefly on Monday and will be back on the stand Tuesday in the Manhattan trial.
Also Tuesday, prosecutors are expected to tell a judge that Trump should be held in contempt over a series of posts on his Truth Social platform that they say violated an earlier gag order barring him from attacking witnesses in the case. Trump’s lawyers deny that he broke the order.
Court is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET.