The prosecution wrapped up its direct examination of its first witness, former publisher at National Enquirer David Pecker, on Thursday, leaving the defense team some time to begin its cross-examination the same day.
On Friday, Emil Bove, an attorney for Donald Trump, continued questioning Pecker, who claimed during his testimony that he purchased the rights to multiple unfavorable stories about Trump to ensure they never went to publication. Pecker’s actions were referred to as a “catch-and-kill” scheme.
Pecker claimed that he had an arrangement with Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to ensure the stories never saw the light of day. Also, during his testimony, he said he expected to be reimbursed directly by Trump or the Trump Organization for the scheme.
Pecker gave former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal $150,000 for her story. She claimed that she had had an extramarital affair with Trump. Pecker admitted that Trump never reimbursed him for his purchase of the story. Bove attempted to poke holes in Pecker’s testimony, noting that the story would have been beneficial for the tabloid to run, and McDougal was trying to restart her career at the time she made the allegations.
Additionally, Pecker said he paid $30,000 for the exclusive rights to another story that turned out to be untrue, though he admitted he would have run the article if it had been accurate. He also did not receive any money from Trump for that story.
Despite previously being interested in McDougal’s story, Pecker claimed that he “didn’t want anything to do” with porn actress Stormy Daniels’ story. She also claimed she had an affair with Trump.
“I said to Michael Cohen that after paying for the doorman story and the Karen McDougal story, I wasn’t going to pay anything further and I wasn’t a bank,” Pecker testified.
During his testimony earlier this week, Pecker claimed that Trump had thanked him for not running the unfavorable stories. However, Bove pointed out that in a 2018 interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pecker did not state that Trump had expressed any gratitude toward him or the tabloid for such actions.
“Are you suggesting the FBI made a mistake here?” Bove asked Pecker.
Pecker acknowledged that the bureau’s notes were inconsistent with his testimony.
“I know what the truth is, I can’t state why this is written this way. I know what was said to me,” he responded.
Bove questioned whether Pecker still has equity in the National Enquirer’s parent company, AMI. Pecker replied that he does.
“Part of AMI’s business model was to purchase stories, correct?” Bove questioned.
Pecker confirmed that the company did regularly buy the rights to news stories and that the practice was not unique to Trump. The former publisher noted that there were other celebrities who were promoted by the tabloid and provided a warning when negative press was about to be published. Pecker previously said that he had a similar arrangement with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He admitted that publishing negative stories about Trump dating back to the 1990s was “not good for business.” Pecker further acknowledged that he had never heard the term “catch and kill” prior to the case. Additionally, many of the negative articles about Trump’s presidential opponents published by the National Enquirer were “not exclusive” to the tabloid, indicating that other media outlets had first reported the stories.
Rhona Graff, Trump’s former executive assistant and former vice president of the Trump Organization, was briefly called to the stand as the prosecution’s second witness.
Graff testified that she saw Stormy Daniels in the reception area at Trump Tower before Trump declared his presidential run.
During the defense’s cross-examination, Graff told Trump’s attorney, Susan Necheles, that Trump was a “fair” and “respectful” boss over her 34 years with the company.
“Sometimes he would peek his head in and say, ‘Go home to your family,’ which I thought was very thoughtful of him,” Graff stated.
She noted that she “vaguely recall[ed]” Trump saying that Daniels was at Trump Tower because she was considering being a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
The prosecution called its third witness to the stand, Gary Farro, a finance executive who worked at First Republic Bank for 15 years. Farro was employed at the bank when Cohen took out a home equity loan to cover the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
“Michael Cohen was assigned to me after a colleague left in 2015,” Farro stated, adding that he was “very excited to be working for him.”
Farro received an email on October 11, 2016, requesting that he contact Cohen. The email was shown to the jury, along with correspondence written a couple of days later by Farro, which read, “Need an account opened for Mike Cohen immediately. He wants no address on the checks. Calling you now to discuss.”
Farro said that Cohen wanted to open a new LLC, Resolution Consultants, claiming it was for “capital real estate.” He noted that it was not unusual for an LLC not to put an address on its checks.
“A deposit was never made in the account, so the account never went live,” Farro explained. He testified that he received an email roughly two weeks later that said Cohen no longer wanted to open Resolution Consultants but wanted to open a different LLC, Essential Consultants — the account Cohen allegedly used to pay Daniels.
The court will reconvene on Tuesday. Farro will return to the stand to conclude his direct examination and cross-examination.
Anything else?
At the start of Friday’s trial, acting Justice Juan Merchan stated that the court would hold a hearing on Thursday regarding allegations that Trump had violated the judge’s gag order.
Merchan previously placed the order on Trump, preventing the former president from making any public statements about those involved in the trial or their family members.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the prosecution accused Trump of violating that order approximately a dozen times, citing posts he wrote on social media as comments he made to the press outside the trial. Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt and order him to pay a $1,000 fine for each alleged violation. Bragg also requested that Merchan remind Trump that he could face jail time for repeatedly violating the order.
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