New York | A veteran tabloid publisher has testified that he pledged to be Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” during his 2016 presidential campaign, before helping to suppress harmful stories and even arranging to purchase the silence of a doorman.

The testimony from David Pecker in the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) was designed to bolster the prosecution’s premise of a decades-long friendship between Mr Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the then-candidate’s lawyer a heads-up on negative tips and stories, so they could be quashed.

AP