Tabloid publisher David Pecker testifies of deal with Donald Trump

Manhattan prosecutors say that agreement between National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Donald Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen to bury stories was a criminal conspiracy.

Donald Trump speaks to the press after attending his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City. Picture: AFP.

Tabloid publisher David Pecker told a Manhattan jury that nearly a decade ago, he reached an unusual deal with then-candidate Donald Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen. The trio pledged to bury stories that could be politically harmful to Trump, Pecker said.

They wrote nothing down at that August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, testified Pecker, to keep the arrangement confidential. “It was just an agreement among friends,” said Pecker, 72 years old, speaking confidently to an attentive Manhattan jury.

Manhattan prosecutors say that agreement constitutes a criminal conspiracy. Pecker’s testimony came on the second day of Trump’s first criminal trial. During opening statements, a prosecutor told jurors that Trump directed a criminal conspiracy – comprising the former president, Cohen and Pecker – to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with salacious stories about Trump. Trump and Cohen then covered up their crimes by lying in New York business records, including on checks and invoices, the prosecutor said.

The testimony of Pecker, who served as chief executive of American Media, then the publisher of the National Enquirer, will likely be key to prosecutors’ case because it will corroborate Cohen’s account.

Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City. Picture: AFP.

Pecker has previously testified in front of state and federal grand juries about the payment, but he has remained silent in public.

On the stand Tuesday, Pecker said he had been friends with Trump since the 1980s. Their mutual interests aligned decades later as Trump’s fame, driven by the reality show “The Apprentice,” bolstered tabloid sales.

Pecker told jurors that after the 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, he told the National Enquirer editors about the arrangement, and encouraged them to run negative stories about Trump’s opponents. A prosecutor showed slides with the resulting tabloid headlines, including “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge In Patient’s Brain!” In one instance, Pecker said, he called Cohen to tell him about Trump doorman Dino Sajudin, who had approached the National Enquirer with a story about Trump fathering a love child with his housekeeper. Pecker said he told Cohen he would pay for it.

Pecker said Cohen thanked him. “He said, ‘The boss will be very pleased, ‘” Pecker said.

There is no indication Sajudin’s story was true. Trump’s lawyers are expected to cross examine Pecker later this week.

Earlier in the day, Justice Juan Merchan weighed whether Trump had violated a gag order that bars the former president from threatening witnesses involved in the trial. Trump, seated at the defence table, glowered and whispered to his lawyer as the hearing became increasingly heated.

David Pecker, chairman and chief executive of American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer. Picture: Reuters.

Merchan issued the gag order in March to prohibit the former president from making statements about likely witnesses, in addition to the prosecutors, court staff and their families. The judge subsequently tightened it after Trump posted about the judge’s adult daughter.

Prosecutors had asked Merchan to fine Trump $1,000 per violation, or the maximum under the law, for at least 10 online posts attacking witnesses including Cohen and adult-film actor Stormy Daniels.

“By calling them sleazebags and going after their credibility, I think that is all part of the plan for this trial,” said prosecutor Christopher Conroy of Trump’s comments on social media.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that the former president made the posts in response to Cohen and Daniels ramping up political attacks, not the trial.

“He’s running for president,” Blanche said. “He has to be able to respond to that.”

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