Florida Judge Jeff Swartz praised former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker as an “outstanding” first witness in former President Trump’s hush money trial, calling him “incredibly reliable.” ” he said.
“I think David Pecker was an excellent choice to be the first witness,” Swartz said during an appearance on CNN on Saturday. “He set the stage and prepared the whole scene for the jury.”
“And he was really, really good at cross-examination,” he continued. “I don’t think he was actually impeached in any serious way. I think people will look at his testimony and start building on that. I think the jury paid attention to him from every point of view. They paid very close attention to him. And I think he was a very reliable person. And I think that was a really big help to the prosecution.”
Swartz, the law professor, praised Pecker’s performance on cross-examination, noting that Trump’s lawyers did “little” to damage Pecker’s credibility.
“But when it got really intense, when it really came down to Trump and Hillary, [Clinton], who were running for president, but things got really intense at AMI and they published a lot of articles that went beyond their previous operations,” Swartz said. “I think it’s also become pretty clear that this is part of what we need to do to support the campaign.”
Mr. Pecker was selected as the first witness in Mr. Trump’s first criminal trial. His testimony this week, which spanned four days of the trial, evaporated negative stories about the former president and the National Enquirer, which published negative stories (often untrue) about his opponents. This shed further light on the role of paper.
In redirected questioning, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked, “Did they cover up the report to help the presidential candidate?” considering that the candidate was Trump.
“Yes, I did,” Mr. Pecker said.
The second witness to take the stand was Lorna Graf, a former longtime executive assistant to the president.
As prosecutors continue their case against the former president, Swartz argued that they should “start processing more records to help Michael Cohen.”
“They’re also going to start bringing in other people who are basically working on the campaign to reinvigorate Mr. Trump’s attitude and the anger he’s shown and the fear that things will come out as they are. “It’s related to the discussions that have taken place around the ‘Let’s End It’ campaign and the campaign that set the stage for Michael Cohen to end it,” he said.
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