“It wasn’t ‘What would Melania or Ivanka say?’ Pecker testified at the Manhattan courthouse, referring to Trump’s wife and eldest daughter. “It was basically about (about) what the impact would be on the campaign and the election.”
This trial is the first faced by a former American president.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump, the likely Republican nominee in November’s presidential election, centers on an attempt to conceal the nature of the $130,000 payment to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to silence her for about a decade. alleged former sexual relationship with Trump. The payment was made before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, faced this payment, and when Trump reimbursed him, he deliberately misclassified the disbursements as routine legal fees instead of what they were: a transfer of fund that ultimately aimed to buy his silence about a sordid encounter that could have derailed Trump’s campaign, according to Bragg.
Prosecutors say Trump had a legal duty to disclose Daniels’ payment under campaign finance laws and that failure to do so amounted to election interference. Trump’s lawyers have said he was trying to save his family from public embarrassment and he has denied any involvement with Daniels.
Pecker had a number of discussions with Cohen, acting as a conduit to Trump, and he also spoke directly to Trump about McDougal’s story and attempts to suppress it. Pecker told jurors he believed McDougal was telling the truth about his 2005 intimate relationship with Trump — which overlapped with Melania’s pregnancy — and that he bought the rights to it in order to protect his friend.
Melania Trump was not part of the conversations on any issues involving McDougal and later Daniels, the witness said.
“His family was never mentioned and in the conversation I had directly with Mr. Trump, his family was not mentioned, so I assumed that the (main) concern was the campaign,” she said. said Pecker, former CEO of American Media Inc., the company that once ran the Enquirer and other celebrity gossip publications.
The crux of the prosecutor’s case is that Trump’s goal was to protect his candidacy for president and that was his motive when he allegedly concealed the payment from Daniels. Prosecutors used McDougal’s story to show a pattern of similar strategies by Trump and his advisers to silence derogatory stories about him.
Pecker testified earlier in the week that in 2015 he made a deal with Trump and Cohen to inform them of any salacious stories people might have tried to sift through in publications like his that pay sources for information. information. That deal included a promise to promote negative stories about Trump opponents like Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton.
In particular, women try to sell stories about politicians, Pecker testified, illustrating to the jury the operation of a cash tabloid that routinely paid for stories it had no intention of publishing simply to remove them from competition. Pecker said the “catch and kill” method was a common occurrence at the National Enquirer. On behalf of Trump, AMI paid McDougal $150,000.
It was difficult to navigate, Pecker testified, because he knew that buying stories like that to keep them out of a political campaign was a potential legal problem. For this reason, AMI drafted a confidential agreement with McDougal that also promised him professional opportunities, such as publishing articles and covering fitness publications.
Pecker said he once had a similar deal with another celebrity running for office — Arnold Schwarzenegger — and that experience taught him that such financial exchanges during a campaign could run afoul of election laws. .
“Have you come to appreciate the legalities surrounding such an arrangement with a political candidate? Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker in New York Supreme Court on Thursday.
“Yes,” Pecker said. “It was the first time I came across a political contribution and what a violation was.”
The case against Trump is supported by testimony from co-conspirators, including Pecker and Cohen. A former National Enquirer editor, Dylan Howard, was also part of the alleged scheme. Prosecutors said he could not testify because he had a health problem and was currently in Australia.
Daniels and McDougal will also likely be witnesses in this case.
washingtonpost
