David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI), returned to the stand on Thursday for a third day of testimony. He will resume his testimony on Friday.

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• Pecker told the court he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model, Karen McDougal, specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”.He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier. The jury was shown records of the $150,000 payment, including an invoice from McDougal’s lawyer.

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• Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.

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• Pecker said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief, Dylan Howard, and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. Pecker admitted that AMI’s goal was to try to prevent the story from interfering with the Trump campaign, and that he was nervous about whether the payment would violate campaign contribution laws.

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• Pecker said he expressed to Cohen nervousness about the amount AMI was paying to McDougal.“Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him.

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• But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Pecker confirmed AMI consulted with an election law attorney when they were considering paying McDougal for her story. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”

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• Pecker said he received a frantic call from Howard in early October 2016 who said Stormy Daniels was trying to sell a story about her sexual relationship with Trump. Pecker told jurors Howard said Daniels wanted $120,000 for the story. Pecker said he did not want to be involved with a porn star, and that Cohen told him “the boss will be very angry with you.”

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• Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.

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• Trump attorney Emil Bove began cross-examination of Pecker, grilling him on his recollection of specific dates and meetings to underscore the difficulty of recalling details relevant to the years-old allegations against Trump. Pecker insisted his testimony was based on his “best recollection of the time”.

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• Bove traced Pecker’s long relationship with Trump, showing how he helped his friend long before the presidential election. Pecker spoke about how he gave Trump a heads up about a negative story about Trump’s then-wife, Marla Maples.

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• Donald Trump addressed the media as he left the courtroom on Thursday afternoon, describing Pecker’s testimony as “breathtaking and amazing”. “This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day,” the former president told reporters.

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Donald Trump left the courtroom and briefly addressed the media after court adjourned for the day. Per pool, he said:

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Today was breathtaking … breathtaking and amazing testimony. This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day.

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The former president also spoke about the student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza in US college campuses, condemning them as” “horrible” and blaming them on Joe Biden.

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Trump appeared optimistic about the outcome of the supreme court hearing into his claim of presidential immunity, saying:

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I think it was made clear, I hope it was made clear, that a president has to have immunity.

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He did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.

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Judge Juan Merchan has dismissed the jury.

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David Pecker will be back on the stand tomorrow with defense lawyers to resume their cross-examination.

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The prosecution has completed questioning of David Pecker.

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Trump lawyer Emil Bove is beginning cross-examination of the witness.

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David Pecker says the last time he spoke to Donald Trump was January or February of 2019.

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He says that he has friends who belong to Mar-a-Lago and Trump will send his regards but Pecker doesn’t respond. Pecker said he thought it would be inappropriate to respond given the investigation.

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Asked whether he has any ill-will to Trump, Pecker says “on the contrary”. He says Trump has been his “mentor” and says Trump assisted him after AMI’s office received anthrax in the mail in 2001.

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Even though we haven’t spoken, I’m seeing him, I still consider him a friend.

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David Pecker is describing what happened after Karen McDougal was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

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Donald Trump was angry when he found out Pecker had amended McDougal’s contract to let her speak to the press.

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Mr. Trump got very aggravated when he heard that I amended it and he couldn’t understand why. I said Karen has a two year agreement. She was flooded with requests from the press for interviews. He was very upset, couldn’t understand why I did it.

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Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s senior adviser and legal counsel, has been spotted in the courtroom today.

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Epshteyn is seated in the first row of spectators, my colleague Sam Levine writes.

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Epshteyn was among a number of Trump allies indicted in Arizona yesterday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.

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David Pecker is testifying about a 2017 meeting with Donald Trump at the White House.

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On the way to dinner at the White House, Trump asked Pecker how Karen McDougal was doing and Pecker replied that she was fine and writing her articles.

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Donald Trump has just returned to the courtroom in Manhattan, New York, for the resumption of his criminal hush-money trial.

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The afternoon session is expected to begin imminently with more testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, and we’ll bring you developments from the courtroom as they happen. Stick with us …

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Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan is in a lunch recess, so it seems a good time to look at the highlights from this morning’s testimony:

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• Former National Enquirer publisher David Peckersaid he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model Karen McDougal specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”. He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.

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• Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.

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• He said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. “Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him after he expressed nervousness about the size of the payment.

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• But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”

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• Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.

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Here’s my colleague Lauren Aratani’s latest dispatch from the courthouse. Stick with us for coverage of the afternoon session, when Pecker is expected to resume testimony.

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Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker whether Donald Trump ever indicated that he was thinking of his family, instead of the campaign, when quashing the stories.

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“I thought it was for his campaign,” Pecker said. In conversations with Cohen and Trump, his family was never mentioned.

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I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign.

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Prosecutors are really having Pecker emphasize that Trump was doing this for his campaign, not because of his family. They’re trying to show the jury that Trump was quashing the story as a kind of election interference, not for personal reasons.

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Pecker was briefly asked why, though he was invited, did he not attend the inauguration. Pecker was somewhat evasive:

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I asked my wife, she didn’t want to go. I decided not to attend.

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In another Trump Tower meeting in January 6, 2017, two weeks before inauguration, Donald Trump asked Pecker, “How’s our girl doing?”, referring to Karen McDougal.

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David Pecker said that she was fine, she was “quiet”. Trump thanked Pecker for handling McDougal and the doorman, he said. Pecker said:

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n

He was thanking me for buying them and for not publishing any of the stories and help me the way I did.

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Do you know why he thanked you?” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

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n

He said the stories were very embarrassing.

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Lots of irony in a text from David Pecker read to the court from former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.

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Howard communicated to Michael Cohen that Donald Trump should be paying Stormy Daniels:

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n

I spoke to [Cohen] , all sorted. Now we move. No fingerprints. I’ll recap to you face to face.

n

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Pecker really emphasizing that, at this point, he was refusing to pay off any more people for Trump.

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n

I’m not going to pay for this story. I’m not going to be involved with a pornstar … After paying out the doorman, after paying out McDougal, we’re not paying out any more money.

n

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Cohen was “upset, he said the boss would be furious with me”, Pecker added.

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David Pecker repeats something that is well known about Donald Trump: that he doesn’t use email. Pecker says he has never communicated with Trump by email and always through office phone.

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Pecker says he got an urgent call one Saturday evening in early October from Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor-in-chief, when he was having dinner with his wife.

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Pecker left the restaurant and said Howard had gotten a call from his two best sources saying Stormy Daniels was looking to sell her story about having an affair with Donald Trump.

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Howard told Pecker they could have the story for $120,000 if they decided right then.

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This is the first time Daniels has come up today after prosecutors spent the morning going through how Pecker bought the Karen McDougal story.

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Now David Pecker is being asked about the Access Hollywood tapes, which were released in October 2016, just a month before the election.

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The judge had ruled against the tape itself being a part of evidence in the trial, so prosecutors had Pecker describe the tape. A pretty bizarre moment.

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Pecker said that the tape was:

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n

Donald Trump and Billy Bush, an anchor for Access Hollywood, going on a bus, and [Trump] said the comment … ‘You can grab a woman by their genitals’.

n

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Donald Trump appeared to be fidgeting in his seat as Pecker was talking about the tape.

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When asked what happened when the tape was released, Pecker said:

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n

It was very embarrassing and very damaging for the campaign.

n

“,”elementId”:”e60665b8-c95a-419a-b82c-d037af2cf50d”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Seems like prosecutors are setting up Pecker up to talk about Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 just three weeks after the tapes were released.

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In court documents, prosecutors have argued that the release of the tapes amped up pressure on the campaign to kill any other negative stories that could come out about Trump.

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The hush money payments Donald Trump has been accused of making involve not only adult film star Stormy Daniels, who has dominated headlines in recent months, but also Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.

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In 2018, McDougal told CNN she had an extramarital affair with the former president that began in 2006, which Trump denies. He has been married to his third wife, Melania Trump, since 2005.

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According to McDougal, the affair involved having sex with Trump “many dozens of times” and occurred in multiple locations including at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and at his private golf club in New Jersey, as well as in Trump Tower in New York City, where she was allegedly brought in through the back entrance. Despite Trump’s denials that an extramarital affair with McDougal ever occurred, the New York prosecution team has cited evidence of payments made to McDougal by Trump.

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}],”data”:{“alt”:”Karen McDougal claims she had an extramarital affair with Trump that began in 2006, which Trump denies.”,”caption”:”Karen McDougal claims she had an extramarital affair with Trump that began in 2006, which Trump denies.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Bacardi”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Born in Indiana, McDougal is a 52-year old actor and former Playboy model. According to her website, she began her career in her 20s as a fitness model for various health and fitness publications. In 1997, McDougal became a Playboy “playmate” and made “playmate of the year” in 1998. In 1999, McDougal appeared on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine.

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Since then, McDougal made various appearances as a sports radio personality and was cast in the 2001 direct-to-video film The Arena by Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov. In The Arena, McDougal plays an Amazon slave who is forced to become a gladiator in Rome.

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According to her website, McDougal is a national advocate for breast implant illness and is an active member in various support groups, following her implant removal in 2017. Her activism work also includes raising awareness on deep vein thrombosis and animal rights.

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When asked why AMI paid Karen McDougal, David Pecker paused for a few second.

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n

We purchased the story so it wouldn’t be published by any other organization.

n

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When asked to clarify, Pecker said, reiterated:

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n

We didn’t want this story to embarrass Mr Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign” – ‘we’ being ‘myself and Michael Cohen.’

n

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Asked whether his principal intention in buying Karen McDougal’s story was to suppress it and prevent it from interfering in the election, David Pecker says:

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n

Yes it was.

n

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David Pecker testifies that Karen McDougal’s contract with American Media Inc included provisions that she would write fitness columns, among other things, to justify the $150,000 it was paying her.

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But the true purpose of the agreement, he testified, was to purchase her story about having an affair for Donald Trump. Pecker wanted to disguise the true purpose of the agreement for campaign finance purposes.

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It’s important to note that Pecker has not said Trump or Michael Cohen directed him to do this, but rather it’s something he did on his own.

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Pecker says he believes Cohen and Trump were aware of AMI’s agreement with McDougal.

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We’re looking at the agreement American Media gave to Karen McDougal over the payment.

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The agreement included language about a monthly column on ageing and fitness McDougal would write for the magazine, along with other work that McDougal would do for American Media.

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David Pecker said that the main purpose of the agreement was to buy “life rights” to McDougal’s story on “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man” – as the agreement reads – but the agreement included details about work McDougal would do for American Media to “substantiate the $150,000 payment”.

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Prosecutors are emphasizing that Pecker and American Media appeared nervous about facilitating the hush-money payment and wanted to validate the payment by saying that the company was paying McDougal for work, not just for her story.

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As the longtime chief executive of American Media Inc, David Pecker developed a symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and the National Enquirer, an AMI tabloid specialising in salacious scandal.

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Pecker is a key witness (with a non-prosecution deal) because when Trump ran for president in 2016, Pecker helped Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, orchestrate payoffs to Daniels, Karen McDougal (a former Playboy model who also claimed an affair) and a Trump Tower doorman trying to sell a story about a supposed illegitimate child. On Tuesday, Pecker, 72, told the court:

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n

I’ve had a great relationship with Mr Trump over the years, starting in 89 – I had an idea of creating a magazine called Trump Style and I presented it to Mr Trump and he liked that idea a lot. He just questioned me: who is going to pay for it?

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}],”data”:{“alt”:”David Pecker in New York on 31 January 2014.”,”caption”:”David Pecker in New York on 31 January 2014.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Marion Curtis/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Despite Trump’s famous enthusiasm for obtaining other people’s money – and equally famous ability to lose his own – Pecker described Trump as “very knowledgable … very detail-oriented … almost a micromanager”.

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The prosecution was attempting to show jurors a picture of Trump intimately involved not only with models and adult film stars but in deals to keep them quiet.

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David Pecker says that he advised Trump to buy the Karen McDougalstory because:

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n

I believed the story was true. It would have been very embarrassing to himself and also to his campaign.

n

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After he spoke with Trump, Pecker said Michael Cohen followed up and advised him to go ahead with purchasing the story. When Pecker asked who would pay for it,

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n

He said to me, don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss will take care of it.

n

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Pecker took that to mean he would be reimbursed by Trump or the Trump Organization.

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Donald Trump is sitting expressionless as Pecker testifies.

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David Pecker is back on the stand and has begun testifying.

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On Tuesday, Pecker testified that he first heard about Karen McDougal through the former National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard. Pecker said on Tuesday:

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n

Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that there’s a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.

n

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“What kind of relationship?” Prosecutors asked. “Uh, romantic relationship,” Pecker replied on Tuesday.

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Prosecutors began the hearing submitting four new instances in which they say Donald Trump violated the gag order in effect in the case.

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Two of them involved comments about Michael Cohen he made earlier this week.

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The third involved comments he made about his perception about the partisan lean of the jury.

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The fourth involved comments this morning he made about David Pecker.

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Trump said this morning Pecker’s been “very nice” which prosecutors said was a veiled threat to other witnesses that Trump could use his megaphone to say nice things about them or to insult them.

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Donald Trump has now taken his seat at the defense table.

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The former president spoke to the media outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he mostly focused on the latest economic figures which show US gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized rate last quarter.

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“The numbers are very bad,” the former president said. “This is Bidenomics … It’s destroying our country.”

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Trump spoke about his “fantastic” meeting with construction workers at the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan this morning, before turning to the hush money case. Trump said:

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n

My constitutional rights have been taken away from me. There is no case here. This is just a political glitch.

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He added that he would have “loved to have been” at the supreme court hearing on his immunity claims but that judge Juan Merchan would not allow it and “put himself above the supreme court.”

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Good morning.

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David Pecker returns to the witness stand today in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump – the first ever criminal trial of a former US president.

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Trump is accused by the prosecution of “orchestrat[ing] a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” in his efforts to cover up an alleged affair with the adult film starStormy Daniels.

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They call it “election fraud – pure and simple”.

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Trump’s defense says there was no crime committed because paying hush money is not illegal and neither is trying to influence the outcome of an election – “It’s called democracy.”

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Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the alleged affair Danielsjust weeks before the election.

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As a reminder (no shame – this stuff is confusing), it’s the first of four (4) criminal cases against the presumptive Republican nominee to reach trial. It hinges on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her story under wraps. Bragg contends that Trump masked the true nature of the payment in business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as lawful legal expenses. Because Trump paid the money to influence the election, Bragg says it’s a campaign expense, so by lying about it he violated federal campaign law – causing the fraud to rise from a misdemeanour to a felony.

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Court is scheduled to resume today after a day off yesterday. We’re at the courthouse, as usual. Stay with us.

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Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know

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• A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far

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• The key takeaways from the opening statements on Monday.

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• The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?

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• The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump

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• How will Trump’s trial work?

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• From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players

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Closing summary

David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI), returned to the stand on Thursday for a third day of testimony. He will resume his testimony on Friday.

• Pecker told the court he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model, Karen McDougal, specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”.He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier. The jury was shown records of the $150,000 payment, including an invoice from McDougal’s lawyer.

• Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.

• Pecker said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief, Dylan Howard, and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. Pecker admitted that AMI’s goal was to try to prevent the story from interfering with the Trump campaign, and that he was nervous about whether the payment would violate campaign contribution laws.

• Pecker said he expressed to Cohen nervousness about the amount AMI was paying to McDougal.“Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him.

• But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Pecker confirmed AMI consulted with an election law attorney when they were considering paying McDougal for her story. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”

• Pecker said he received a frantic call from Howard in early October 2016 who said Stormy Daniels was trying to sell a story about her sexual relationship with Trump. Pecker told jurors Howard said Daniels wanted $120,000 for the story. Pecker said he did not want to be involved with a porn star, and that Cohen told him “the boss will be very angry with you.”

• Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.

• Trump attorney Emil Bove began cross-examination of Pecker, grilling him on his recollection of specific dates and meetings to underscore the difficulty of recalling details relevant to the years-old allegations against Trump. Pecker insisted his testimony was based on his “best recollection of the time”.

• Bove traced Pecker’s long relationship with Trump, showing how he helped his friend long before the presidential election. Pecker spoke about how he gave Trump a heads up about a negative story about Trump’s then-wife, Marla Maples.

• Donald Trump addressed the media as he left the courtroom on Thursday afternoon, describing Pecker’s testimony as “breathtaking and amazing”. “This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day,” the former president told reporters.

Trump says Pecker’s testimony was ‘breathtaking, amazing’ after ‘incredible day’

Donald Trump left the courtroom and briefly addressed the media after court adjourned for the day. Per pool, he said:

Today was breathtaking … breathtaking and amazing testimony. This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day.

The former president also spoke about the student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza in US college campuses, condemning them as” “horrible” and blaming them on Joe Biden.

Trump appeared optimistic about the outcome of the supreme court hearing into his claim of presidential immunity, saying:

I think it was made clear, I hope it was made clear, that a president has to have immunity.

He did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.

The trial has concluded for the day.

Court will resume tomorrow morning, with the defense cross-examination of David Pecker.

Jury dismissed for the day

Judge Juan Merchan has dismissed the jury.

David Pecker will be back on the stand tomorrow with defense lawyers to resume their cross-examination.

Sam Levine

David Pecker said he first met Michael Cohen in 2007 and Cohen was introduced as Donald Trump’s personal attorney.

This is important because a key element of the case is that the payments for Stormy Daniels were classified as legal expenses even though there was no legal retainer between Trump and Cohen.

Pecker also agrees when Trump attorney Emil Bove asks him if he understood Cohen to be someone who was always in it for himself.

He says Cohen asked him to promote businesses unrelated to Trump, arrange paparazzi shoots for himself, and promote his daughter’s rock climbing.

Lauren Aratani

Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking David Pecker whether he needed documents to refresh himself on his memory of some events that he testified on today. Bove asked:

You’re going based on what you said previously.

Pecker insisted that he “was consistent in what I said going back to the grand jury testimony”.

Lauren Aratani

Trump attorney Emil Bove said David Pecker gave two different times for when the first Trump Tower meeting happened with Trump In 2015.

Pecker gave a different time during his grand jury testimony last year and his testimony earlier this week.

Bove is trying to make it seem like the meeting took place a long time ago, and Pecker’s memory of it is hazy. He said:

These things happened a long time ago – even when you’re doing your best, and I’m sure you are – It’s hard to remember what people said almost 10 years ago.

Sam Levine

David Pecker is describing how he helped Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel was running for mayor of Chicago.

Ari Emanuel reached out to Pecker about a story about an affair that had allegedly happened after Pecker acquired the rights to the story.

Pecker says he spent around $20,000 on the story, and there was no campaign finance violation.

Sam Levine

David Pecker just said he never heard the term “catch-and-kill” before the investigation in this case. Says the first time he heard of it was from a prosecutor.

In contrast to the district attorney’s presentation, Emil Bove is letting Pecker talk as little as possible.

Many of Bove’s questions simply ask Pecker to confirm something that Bove says. Almost all of Pecker’s answers are “yes” or “correct.”

It lets Bove tell the story even though Pecker is the witness.

Under questioning from Trump lawyer Emil Bove,David Pecker says that he ran stories about Trump because “it was good for business”.

Pecker testifies that the first time he gave Donald Trump a heads up about a negative story was 1998.

It was a story about Marla Maples that Pecker failed to kill. Bove is using this to establish that Pecker and Trump were involved in catch-and-kill-type schemes before the 2016 campaign. Bove says:

That’s almost 17 years prior to the meeting you described in August 2015, 17 years of providing Trump with heads up about negative stories.

Sam Levine

Trump attorney Emil Bove seems to be trying to establish that catch-and-kill was just standard operating procedure for AMI.

There were many reasons AMI may not have chosen to publish a story, he asks David Pecker. Pecker agrees.

Trump attorney begins cross-examination of Pecker

The prosecution has completed questioning of David Pecker.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove is beginning cross-examination of the witness.

Pecker testifies that Trump was his ‘mentor’

Sam Levine

David Pecker says the last time he spoke to Donald Trump was January or February of 2019.

He says that he has friends who belong to Mar-a-Lago and Trump will send his regards but Pecker doesn’t respond. Pecker said he thought it would be inappropriate to respond given the investigation.

Asked whether he has any ill-will to Trump, Pecker says “on the contrary”. He says Trump has been his “mentor” and says Trump assisted him after AMI’s office received anthrax in the mail in 2001.

Even though we haven’t spoken, I’m seeing him, I still consider him a friend.

Sam Levine

Things are a bit slow right now.

After walking through David Pecker’s non-prosecution agreement with the southern district of New York, prosecutors are now outlining Pecker’s immunity agreement with the New York district attorney’s office.

They are reading the agreement out loud.

Lauren Aratani

The agreement with the southern district outlined much of AMI’s deal with Karen McDougal, saying that the company paid $150,000 “to ensure that a woman did not publicize damaging allegations about that candidate before the presidential election and thereby influencing the election”.

Prosecutors are having David Pecker read parts of the agreement out loud for the court.

Lauren Aratani

We’re looking at the non-prosecution agreement AMI made with federal prosecutors and the southern district court of New York.

Under the agreement, AMI would not be prosecuted for campaign finance contributions in exchange for testimony. This agreement was made in September 2018.

Sam Levine

David Pecker is describing getting a letter from the FEC in 2018 and talking to Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, about it. Pecker said:

I said I’m very worried. Michael Cohen said why are you worried? Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket.

Pecker testifies Trump ‘very upset’ after Karen McDougal’s CNN interview

Sam Levine

David Pecker is describing what happened after Karen McDougal was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Donald Trump was angry when he found out Pecker had amended McDougal’s contract to let her speak to the press.

Mr. Trump got very aggravated when he heard that I amended it and he couldn’t understand why. I said Karen has a two year agreement. She was flooded with requests from the press for interviews. He was very upset, couldn’t understand why I did it.

Top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn seen in the courtroom

Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s senior adviser and legal counsel, has been spotted in the courtroom today.

Epshteyn is seated in the first row of spectators, my colleague Sam Levine writes.

Epshteyn was among a number of Trump allies indicted in Arizona yesterday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.