NEW YORK –
After prosecutors’ star witness painted a vulgar portrait of sensationalist “catch-and-kill” plots, defense attorneys in Donald Trump’s criminal trial sought Friday to investigate an account by the former National Enquirer editor and his efforts to protect Trump from negative Stories during the 2016 election.
David Pecker returned to the witness stand for a fourth day as defense attorneys try to find holes in his testimony after he described helping to bury embarrassing stories that Trump feared could damage his campaign.
It will culminate a momentous week in the criminal cases facing the former president as he competes to regain the White House in November.
As jurors heard testimony in Manhattan, the Supreme Court signaled Thursday that it was likely to reject Trump’s broad claims that he is immune from prosecution in his 2020 election interference case in Washington. But the conservative-majority high court appeared inclined to limit when former presidents could be prosecuted, a ruling that could benefit Trump by delaying that trial, potentially until after the November election.
In New York, the first of four Trump criminal cases to go to trial, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments intended to prevent negative stories from emerging. in the last days of the 2016 campaign. .
Trump denies wrongdoing. Before entering the courtroom Friday, he told reporters that he believes Thursday’s proceedings went “very well” for the defense and added that “the case should be over.”
Prosecutors allege that Trump sought to illegally influence the 2016 race through a tabloid industry practice that involves capturing a potentially damaging story by purchasing the rights to it and then removing it through agreements that prevent the paid person from telling the story to anyone. any other person.
For several days on the witness stand, Pecker has described how he and the tabloid leveraged rumors into splashy stories that smeared Trump’s opponents and, just as crucially, leveraged their connections to suppress sordid stories about Trump.
The charges center on payments of $130,000 that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to prevent porn actress Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied that the meeting ever occurred.
During cross-examination that began Thursday, defense attorney Emil Bove questioned Pecker about his recollection of specific dates and meanings. He appeared to be laying more ground for the defense’s argument that any dealings Trump had with Pecker were aimed at protecting himself, his reputation and his family, not his campaign.
Pecker recalled how an editor told him that Daniels’ representative was trying to sell his story and that the tabloid could acquire it for $120,000. Pecker said she put her foot down and pointed out that the tabloid already had $180,000 in a hole for Trump-related catch-and-kill type transactions. But, Pecker said, he told Cohen to buy the story himself to prevent Daniels from going public with his claim.
“I told Michael, ‘My suggestion to you is that you buy the story and take it off the market, because if you don’t and it gets out, I think the boss is going to be very angry with you.’ ‘
Richer reported from Washington.