The previous CEO of American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, was back on the stand on Tuesday in the trial of Trump, who is currently accused of making false documents about the issue of his extramarital affairs, which threatened his 2016 presidential campaign.
David Pecker’s testimony revealed the story of the transformation of a pro-Trump tabloid into a political tool by “catching and killing” stories, which could destroy Trump’s image, and by planting the false stories about his opponents – upon the request of and all at the orders from the inner circle of Trump.
Here are some key takeaways from Pecker’s testimony:
The ‘Catch and Kill’ Conspiracy Is Hatched
Pecker narrated the story of August 2015 meeting at the Trump Tower with elaborated details on who the conspirators were and what they agreed about. When he arrived at the meeting, no one informed him about the purpose of the meeting.
“A phone call from my boss, Michael Cohen, saying that the boss wanted me at the office was what I heard.”
When he got there, Trump with Cohen and Hope Hicks the then aide to him asked the publication what tabloid could do for “the campaign”. Then he proposed to publish favorable stories about Mr. Trump, I would give out bad stories about the opponents, and I would also act as eyes and ears of Mr. Trump. He also suggested that if he got the rumors about Trump that are smutty, he would keep him notified and he would purchase those stories to clean them.
“By August 2015 Pecker, you had ever bought a story to prevent it being published in your National Enquirer Paper, about Mr. Trump?” the prosecutor questioned.
“No,” Pecker said.
Pecker Kept the ‘Catch-and-Kill’ Arrangement Secret
Pecker testified that “writing positive stories about Mr. Trump and covering the election, and writing negative stories about his opponents” was a mutually beneficial business strategy as its resulted in increased tabloid newsstand sales while also benefiting Trump’s campaign.
The Best Cartoons on Donald Trump
After the arrangement was formalized, Pecker met with the National Enquirer’s editor at the time, Dylan Howard, and told Howard that the agreement he made at Trump Tower was “highly, highly confidential.”
“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 said. “I did not want anyone else to know this agreement I had and what I wanted to do.”
Hitting Trump’s Opponents
“Michael Cohen would call me and say, ‘We would like you to run an article,’” Pecker said, then send him a pre-written piece about a political opponent.
“The National Enquirer would embellish it from there,” Pecker said.
Many of those negative hit pieces targeted Trump’s Republican primary opponents in 2016, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ben Carson, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Trump faced in the general election.
Pecker said that Clinton stories were especially beneficial. In his words, former President Bill Clinton’s involvement with women was a top-seller for the tabloid.
“It was of mutual benefit,” Pecker said, to portray “Hillary Clinton as an enabler of Bill Clinton’s womanizing.”
Karen McDougal
Karen McDougal is a former Playmate who claimed to have had a months-long affair with the president during 2006 and was per paid $150 in hush money by the National Enquirer to avert the contention about it. (‘Denies the charges’, however, is one of the Trump’s phrases frequently heard from him).
As Pecker first delivered McDougal’s story to Cohen, Cohen outright stressed that the story couldn’t be correct. But instead of sending Joe, Pecker sent Howard, who used to be a chief editor at The National Enquirer, to LA to see if Dylan would like to talk. From there the scenario would only further change, and he said, Cohen would call him every day, and even told him that they ought to begin using scroll, a secure communication site, instead of a phone.
Pecker mentioned that then about a week later he received a call directly from Trump, soliciting advice. Pecker, as levied as he did, suggested to Trump that McDougal’s story be purchased.
“I think you should buy it”, said Pecker repeating how he remembered that Donald had been hesitating to say it.
“Things of this kind always state it somehow,” this is what Pecker can recall as a respond to Trump adding vow. Finally, Trump announced that he would have the management of it done by Cohen privately and communicated with the decision.
The Bugles Man explained that he had never understood whether the account was authentic.
“Even till now, I still wonder whether he was being factual or making a joke,” he explained.
Child Out of Wedlock:
Pecker testified about Dino Sajudin, after he took a call from the tip line at the tabloid in which it was reported by one of the Trump Organization doormen that he innocently said what he had heard rumors that Trump urged his child with a woman who previous used to serve him at the workstation.
The very next day Pecker requested a group of his journalists to carry out an independent probe of the story and fired the plaintiff. Counter to common belief, Pecker said that he still paid the publication rights of the story to the tune of $30,000.
When the prosecutor asked why Pecker paid so much for the story, he responded by saying: “Mr. Cohen made a decision to purchase the story after he considered the possibility of it bringing enormous embarrassment to the campaign and Mr. Trump.”
In reply, Pecker told him that Cohen had told him that Trump would not be bothered in taking a DNA test to prove he was a liar.
