Arnold Schwarzenegger dragged into Donald Trump trial as more ‘hush money’ details revealed
Payouts to women who accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of sexual misconduct paled in comparison to those by Donald Trump, a court has heard.
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A former tabloid publisher who squashed potentially embarrassing stories about Donald Trump was back on the witness stand on Friday, local time, being grilled by lawyers of the former US president.
David Pecker, 72, has testified for four days in the trial of Trump, who is accused of falsifying business records to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter that could have derailed his 2016 White House campaign.
Pecker, the first witness in the blockbuster trial, has outlined under questioning from prosecutors a scheme known as “catch and kill,” which involved purchasing and then burying salacious stories which could have been damaging to the real estate tycoon.
Trump, 77, the first former US president to face criminal charges, is accused of engaging in “election fraud” by having his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen make a US$130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.
During defence cross-examination Emil Bove, a Trump lawyer, sought to ruffle Pecker by noting timeline inconsistencies while also casting the “catch and kill” tactics described by prosecutors as “business as usual.”
Bove’s questions aimed to undermine the prosecution’s allegation of a conspiracy by Trump, and to undermine the credibility of its witnesses.
Attorney Joshua Steinglass then grilled Pecker about the federal non-prosecution agreement, where he had outlined the conspiracy while meeting with prosecutors.
Steinglass asked about the fifth paragraph of this non-prosecution agreement, which said that the “principle purpose” of the deal between Pecker’s company AMI and Karen McDougal was to prevent her account from surfacing as he ran for president.
Steinglass asked Pecker, “Was his purpose in locking down rights to McDougal’s story to influence the election?”
“Yes,” answered Pecker
Pecker admitted that the payouts to women who had accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of misconduct around his California gubernatorial campaign were paid anywhere from US$500 to US$20,000, inferring that the US$150,000 sums paid to McDougal and Daniels were not part of business as usual.
Pecker said the payment to “catch” McDougal’s story and suppress its publication was 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 the jury. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or hurt his campaign.”
When it came to squashing Daniels’ tale of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, Pecker said he hesitated to pay for yet another story.
“I’m not a bank,” he said.
The executive suggested to Cohen that he pay for it instead, which prosecutors say the then-Trump fixer did.
During the proceedings Trump has appeared increasingly disgruntled and even angry, at other times closing his eyes and appearing to be asleep.
On Friday morning Trump talked to the press outside of the courtroom before heading in complaining of the temperature in the courtroom, which he said was being done “on purpose I believe” to make him uncomfortable.
Reports have emerged of the former president dozing off during the trial, with photos and sketches depicting him with his eyes closed at various points.
Trump also complained that he had to miss his wife Melania’s birthday celebrations to be in court.
Neither Melania nor other family members have attended trial with Trump.
He didn’t address why Melania has not attended the trial in a show of support.
Nevertheless, he wished her many happy returns from the hallway before entering the courtroom.
“I want to start by wishing my wife Melania a very happy birthday. It’d be nice to be with her, but I’m at a courthouse for a rigged trial.”
“She’s in Florida,” Trump said of his wife, who turned 54.
“I’ll be going there this evening after this case finishes up. This horrible, unconstitutional case, when it finishes up.”
‘How’s our girl?’ Trump sought model’s silence
It came as Trump unleashed on a tabloid news boss when their hush money deal with a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with the then-presidential candidate was exposed on the eve of the 2016 US election.
But when he still managed to win anyway, Mr Trump allegedly thanked American Media, Inc. chief David Pecker for handling the “very embarrassing” story and asked him: “How’s our girl doing?”
The revelations emerged in salacious evidence given by Mr Pecker during the former president’s criminal trial, with the former AMI chief admitting he knew his company’s $US150,000 ($A230,000) payment to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal violated election laws.
“We purchased the story so it wouldn’t be published by any other organisation,” Mr Pecker said.
“We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr Trump, or embarrass or hurt the campaign.”
Mr Pecker explained how Australian journalist Dylan Howard – who was AMI’s chief content officer and the editor of its flagship National Enquirer masthead – described Ms McDougal as a “12 out of 10” after interviewing her to verify her story.
Mr Howard believed her claim of a year-long relationship with Mr Trump was true, the court heard, but she wanted to be paid off rather than going public because she said she “didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky”.
Mr Pecker revealed he was concerned about the legality of the deal with Ms McDougal because in 2002, he made a similar “catch-and-kill” agreement with film star Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was running to be the governor of California.
The former news boss told the court he paid for and refused to publish several stories about Mr Schwarzenegger’s relationships with women and claims of sexual harassment, an arrangement that was later publicly revealed which was “very embarrassing” for AMI.
Days before the 2016 election, AMI’s deal with the former Playboy model was also exposed by the Wall Street Journal.
Mr Pecker said a “very upset” Mr Trump called him and said: “How could this happen, I thought you had this under control?”
Two months after his victory, however, Mr Trump personally thanked Mr Pecker at his office.
As president, he then invited Mr Pecker to the White House for a “thank you dinner”, during which Mr Trump again asked him: “How’s Karen doing?”
The court heard Mr Howard also attended the dinner and posed for photos he later sent to Ms McDougal’s lawyer with the message: “Surreal last night.”
Mr Trump – the presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s election – is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $US130,000 ($A199,000) payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who was also threatening to claim they had an affair before Americans voted.
In his evidence, Mr Pecker also began to lay bare the origins of that hush money deal, with Ms Daniel’s lawyer and agent originally shopping it to Mr Howard.
After speaking to Mr Pecker, Mr Howard directed her lawyer to Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s lawyer. The Australian told his boss in a text message: “All sorted … No fingerprints.”
Mr Pecker told he was “not pleased” when he later learned Mr Howard remained in the loop about the negotiations – for the money to be paid by Mr Trump’s lawyer to the porn star – even though he was told to “stay out of it”.
“I didn’t want to be involved in this from the beginning,” Mr Pecker said he told Mr Cohen and Howard in a three-way encrypted call as they tried to piece together the deal with Ms Daniels.
Mr Pecker also gave evidence about a series of tense calls with Mr Trump when Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal later sidestepped their hush money deals to give TV interviews during his presidency about the saga.
“We have an agreement with Stormy Daniels that she cannot mention my name or do anything like this,” Mr Pecker said Mr Trump told him, with the then-president claiming she owed him $US24m ($A37m) for breaching their deal.
Mr Cohen’s office and home were raided in 2018 by the FBI in a federal investigation of the saga which resulted in Mr Trump’s lawyer being sentenced to three years behind bars. Mr Pecker told the court that federal agents visited him and Mr Howard on the same day with warrants to seize their phones as part of the criminal probe as well.
The drama-filled hearing came as lawyers for Mr Trump argued before the Supreme Court that he had immunity for his actions as the president in a bid to torpedo a separate criminal case against the Republican over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
In a three-hour hearing, the court appeared unlikely to accept Mr Trump’s claim of complete immunity, with his lawyer D. John Sauer even suggesting a president could avoid prosecution for staging a coup or ordering the murder of a political rival.
But the court’s conservative majority seemed inclined to issue a ruling that could narrow the scope of the election subversion case against him – and potentially delay what would be another explosive trial until after this year’s election in November.
Mr Trump complained that Judge Juan Merchan – who is overseeing his criminal trial in New York – refused to let him attend the Supreme Court hearing.
On Wednesday (local time), Mr Trump was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in new prosecutions launched in Arizona and Michigan over efforts to overturn his defeat in both states in 2020.
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