“It wasn’t ‘What would Melania say or Ivanka?’ ” Pecker testified at the Manhattan courthouse, referencing Trump’s spouse and his eldest daughter. “It was basically [about] what the impact would be to the campaign and the election.”
The trial is the first faced by a former U.S. president.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump, the likely Republican nominee in the presidential election in November, is centered on an attempt to cover up the nature of a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her quiet about a decade-old alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The payment was made before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen fronted that payment, and when Trump repaid him, he purposely misclassified the disbursements as routine legal costs instead of what they were: a shifting of funds that was ultimately designed to buy her silence about a tawdry encounter that could have derailed Trump’s campaign, according to Bragg.
Prosecutors say Trump had a legal obligation to disclose Daniels payment under campaign finance laws and failing to do so amounted to election interference. Trump lawyers have said he was trying to save his family from public embarrassment during and he has denied any involvement with Daniels.
Pecker had a number of discussions with Cohen, acting as a conduit to Trump, and he also spoke directly to Trump about the McDougal story and attempts to suppress it. Pecker told jurors that he believed McDougal was telling the truth about her 2005 intimate relationship with Trump — which overlapped with Melania’s pregnancy — and that he purchased the rights to it as a way to protect his friend.
Melania Trump was not part of the conversations about any issues involving McDougal and later Daniels, the witness said.
“His family was never mentioned and the conversation I had directly with Mr. Trump, his family wasn’t mentioned, so I made the assumption the [main] concern was the campaign,” said Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc., the company that once ran the Enquirer and other celebrity gossip publications.
The crux of the district attorney’s case is that Trump’s aim was to protect his run for president and that was his motive when he allegedly concealed the payment to Daniels. Prosecutors have used the McDougal story to show a pattern of similar strategies by Trump and his advisers to keep quiet disparaging stories about him.
Pecker testified earlier in the week that in 2015, he reached an agreement with Trump and Cohen to tip them off to any salacious stories that people may have been trying to shop around at publications like his that pay sources for information. That agreement included a promise to promote negative pieces about Trump opponents like Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton.
In particular, women try to sell stories about male politicians, Pecker testified, illustrating for the jury the business of running a checkout-aisle tabloid that routinely paid for stories it had no intention of publishing just to take them from the competition. Pecker said the “catch and kill” method was a common event at the National Enquirer. On Trump’s behalf, AMI paid McDougal $150,000.
It was murky to navigate, Pecker testified, because he knew that buying stories like that one to keep them out of a political campaign was a potential legal problem. For that reason, AMI drafted a confidential agreement with McDougal that also promised her professional opportunities, like publishing articles and being featured on the cover of fitness publications.
Pecker said he once had a similar deal with another celebrity who ran for office — Arnold Schwarzenegger — and in that experience he learned that such financial exchanges during a campaign could run afoul of election laws.
“Did you come to appreciate the legalities surrounding such an arrangement with a political candidate?” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker in New York Supreme Court on Thursday.
“Yes,” Pecker said. “That was the first time I ever came across a political contribution and what a violation was.”
The case against Trump is supported by the testimony of co-conspirators including Pecker and Cohen. A former editor at the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, was also part of the alleged scheme. Prosecutors said he is unable to testify because he has a medical issue and is currently in Australia.
Daniels and McDougal are also likely to be witnesses in the case.