Prosecutors finished direct questioning of their first witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, on Thursday, leaving time for the defense to begin cross-examination the same day.
On Friday, Donald Trump’s lawyer Emile Bove said: I kept asking Pecker questions.He claimed in his testimony that he bought the rights to several damaging articles about Trump to ensure they were never published. Pecker’s act was called a “catch-and-kill” plan.
Pecker claimed there was a deal with Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to ensure the story never saw the light of day. Also in his testimony, he said he expected to be reimbursed directly by President Trump or the Trump Organization for the project.
Pecker donated $150,000 for an article written by former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougall. She had an affair with Trump, she claimed. Mr. Pecker acknowledged that Mr. Trump never repaid him for purchasing the article. Mr. Bove sought to poke holes in Mr. Pecker’s testimony, pointing out that the article would have been beneficial to the tabloid’s operations, and that Mr. McDougal was trying to restart her career at the time of her accusations. He pointed out that there was.
Additionally, Pecker said he paid $30,000 for exclusive rights to another article that turned out to be false, but admitted he would have published the article if it had been accurate. He also received no money from Trump for this article.
Despite having been interested in McDougal’s story for some time, Pecker insisted he “wanted nothing to do” with the story of porn actress Stormy Daniels. She also claimed she had an affair with Trump.
“I told Michael Cohen that after I paid him for the doorman story and the Karen McDougal story, I wasn’t going to pay him any more and that I was not a bank,” Pecker testified.
In his testimony earlier this week, Pecker claimed that he was grateful that President Trump did not provide unfavorable coverage. However, Bove noted that in a 2018 interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pecker said that President Trump did not express gratitude to him or the tabloids for such actions. .
“Are you saying the FBI made a mistake here?” Beauvais asked Pecker.
Mr. Pecker acknowledged that the bureau’s memo contradicted his testimony.
“I know what the truth is, but I can’t tell you why it’s written this way. I know what was said to me,” he replied.
Mr. Bove questioned whether Mr. Pecker still owned stock in AMI, the National Enquirer’s parent company. Pecker said yes.
“Part of AMI’s business model was to buy stories, right?” Bove questioned.
Pecker acknowledged that the company regularly buys the rights to news articles and that this practice is not unique to Trump. The former publisher pointed out that there were other celebrities the tabloid had promoted, and issued a warning if negative coverage was about to appear. Pecker previously said he had a similar arrangement with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He acknowledged that publishing negative articles about President Trump dating back to the 1990s is “bad for business.” Pecker further admitted that he had never heard of the term “catch and kill” before the incident. Additionally, many of the negative stories published by the National Enquirer about President Trump’s opponents were “not exclusive” to the tabloid, with other media outlets reporting the stories first. It shows.
Lorna Graf, a former aide to President Trump and a former vice president of the Trump Organization, was briefly called to the stand as the prosecution’s second witness.
Graf testified that she saw Stormy Daniels in the reception area of Trump Tower before Trump announced his candidacy for president.
During cross-examination by the defense, Graf told Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheres, that Trump had worked for the company for 34 years and was a “fair” and “respectable” boss.
“Sometimes he would look up and say, ‘Go back to your family,’ and I thought that was a very considerate thing to say to him,” Graf said.
She said she “vaguely remembers”[ed]President Trump said Daniels was at Trump Tower because she was being considered for a role on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Prosecutors called a third witness to the stand, Gary Fallo, a financial executive who worked for First Republic Bank for 15 years. Faro was employed by the bank when Cohen took out a home equity loan to cover the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
“Michael Cohen appointed me after my colleague retired in 2015,” Faro said, adding, “I am very excited to be working for him.”
Faro received an email on October 11, 2016, asking him to contact Cohen. The email was shown to the jury along with a correspondence Faro wrote a few days later that read: “I need to open an account for Mike Cohen immediately. I hope not.Call me now to discuss.”
Faro said Cohen wants to form a new LLC, Resolution Consultants, for “capital real estate” purposes. He pointed out that it’s not uncommon for LLCs to not list addresses on checks.
“The account was never activated because no deposits were ever made to the account,” Faro said. He testified that approximately two weeks later, he received an email stating that Mr. Cohen no longer intended to open Resolution Consultants, but wanted to open another LLC, Essential Consultants. That account was the one Mr. Cohen allegedly used to make payments to Mr. Daniels.
The court will reconvene on Tuesday. Faro is scheduled to return to the witness stand to complete direct and cross-examination.
anything else?
At the beginning of Friday’s trial, Acting Judge Juan Melchan said the court would hold a hearing Thursday on President Trump’s alleged violation of the judge’s gag order.
Marchand had previously issued an order against Trump, barring the former president from speaking publicly about court officials or their families.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutors accused Trump of violating that order about a dozen times, citing social media posts he made outside of court in comments he made to reporters. Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt and order him to pay a $1,000 fine for each alleged violation. Bragg also asked Marchand to remind Trump that repeated violations of the executive order could result in prison time.
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