Why is David Pecker still in Trump’s good graces?

Donald Trump has many enemies – or so he says.

But David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer and the chief witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s case against the former president, who has an immunity deal with prosecutors targeting Trump, is among them. does not seem to be included.

“David was very kind,” the former president said Thursday morning, hours before the publisher took the stand again for a third day, where he would reveal further details of the backroom deals at the heart of the case. . “He’s a nice guy.”

During a total of four days of testimony in Trump’s first criminal trial, Pecker spoke out about the tabloid press’s damning role in suppressing negative reporting about Trump and promoting bad (often untrue) reporting about his political opponents. I gave an explanation.

His testimony, which Trump described as “breathtaking,” was about the incident in which Trump and his allies tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 election with Pecker’s help. It provided significant support for the state’s overarching theory.

Despite the damaging testimony, Pecker shared similar sentiments about Trump.

“Do you have any ill feelings or malice toward the defendant?” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked the publisher as the final question of direct examination.

“On the contrary,” Pecker says. “I felt like Donald Trump was my mentor.”

A former Trump White House official suggested that Trump and Pecker’s long-standing relationship, dating back to their days together in New York circles, likely kept things from turning combative. did.

“They’ve known each other for decades,” said a former White House official. “And no one thinks that David Pecker came into this trial with some sort of vendetta against Trump.”

Pecker, a longtime Trump ally, wasn’t the only one who drew positive reactions from the stage when the former president took the witness stand.

As longtime White House aide Lorna Graf began testifying Friday afternoon, the former president spoke positively about his former boss, praising Graf as “fair and respectful,” and saying Graf He smiled and chuckled.

Trump and Graf’s relationship goes back decades, when she began working at the Trump Organization in 1987.

Graf was close to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign when the hush-money deal was negotiated, and continued to act as a go-between for Trump’s friends and associates after Trump entered the White House. It is reported that.

Mr. Pecker and Mr. Trump were first introduced in the late 1980s at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which Mr. Pecker noted was the beginning of their “great and mutually beneficial relationship.”

Early on, Mr. Pecker pitched a then-businessman to start a magazine called Trump Style, which focused on Trump’s most flashy properties, such as hotels and casinos. A decade later, when Mr. Pecker bought the National Enquirer, Mr. Trump was “a celebrity in his own right,” the publisher said.

Mr. Trump will introduce Mr. Pecker to other executives in New York and tip him off to news from his show “The Apprentice.” Readers of Mr. Pecker’s magazine will follow the program “avidly.”

“He helped me throughout my career,” Pecker testified.

Publishers also hurt President Trump’s back. He began unflattering stories about his second wife, Marla Maples, in the 1990s and continued to warn President Trump about the potential for negative publicity for 17 years. The New York Times said Trump was nicknamed “FOP,” or “friend of the pecker,” by Enquirer staffers.

Decades later, when Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, the then-candidate summoned Pecker and his fixer and personal lawyer Michael Cohen to Trump Tower.

Trump’s path to the White House after Trump asked Pecker what his magazine could do to “help the campaign” and promised the publisher would be the campaign’s “eyes and ears” It was at this point that prosecutors allege that suspicions of a conspiracy to open the door emerged.

Pecker, at the behest of Cohen and by extension Trump, helped destroy a Trump Tower doorman’s story that Trump had an illegitimate child, a former Playboy model who claims to have had a year-long affair with Trump. He testified that he helped silence Karen McDougall.

Even though the doorman’s story was proven to be false, Pecker said he bought it anyway for $30,000, knowing it would be “very embarrassing” for the Trump campaign if it came to light. Told. He paid McDougall her $150,000 for the rights to her story and gave her an opportunity in-house.

But when it came to paying Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, Pecker refused, at one point telling Cohen in court: “I’m not a bank.” I remembered that.

Mr. Cohen said at the time that Mr. Trump, his “boss,” “would be furious.”

“Did you cover up the report to help the presidential candidate?” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked directly about the redirected questioning of Pecker, whose presidential candidate in question was Trump.

“Yes, I am,” Pecker replied.

A list of people Trump has chosen not to abuse, even though Pecker reached an immunity agreement with Manhattan prosecutors in late 2019 that shielded him from prosecution in Trump’s New York hush money suit. included in a small portion of

Others once considered Trump allies, including former White House and campaign aides and Trump Organization officials, are also poised to take a stand. Those include Hope Hicks, a former Trump confidant and spokeswoman, and Jeffrey McConney, a former auditor for the Trump Organization. Aside from Cohen, Trump has remained largely silent about other witnesses who are refraining from testifying.

Despite the many controversies that have erupted, especially since January 6, some Trump supporters have been embroiled in their own legal troubles due to their activities on behalf of the former commander-in-chief. , most famously former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mark Meadows, President Trump’s legal advisor and former White House chief of staff.

Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Meadows are each accused of trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election in Mr. Trump’s favor, as defendants alongside Mr. Trump in Georgia, and once separately in Arizona on election-related charges. He is contesting the charges. Mr. Giuliani remains a fierce defender of Mr. Trump, but Mr. Meadows has almost completely disappeared from the public eye.

Mr. Pecker’s apparent relationship with Mr. Trump stands in stark contrast to the fate of other former allies. Perhaps no one is more evident than Mr. Cohen, who has transformed from one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal aides to his most vocal critics.

In 2018, as the U.S. attorney’s office began investigating the alleged conspiracy, Cohen’s office, Park Avenue hotel room and home were raided. Federal agents seized millions of electronic files, including emails and bank records, and eight boxes of documents.

President Trump initially told Cohen to “straighten up” and paid for his attorney’s fees, but as the investigation progressed, the then-president began to distance himself from his former lawyer. After Mr. Trump stopped paying for Mr. Cohen’s legal representation, enough was enough.

Cohen soon after pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws and was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the transaction.

“Many times I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” Cohen said of Trump during his 2018 sentencing hearing.

Since then, Cohen and Trump have become sworn enemies, picking each other off whenever they get the chance.

Mr. Pecker and Mr. Trump said Thursday that they have not spoken since early 2019, when the investigation into the alleged scheme began in earnest.

Still, his fondness for Trump remains unchanged.

“Even though we haven’t talked, I still consider him a friend,” Pecker testified.

Brett Samuels contributed.