Pecker testifies Cohen said Trump ‘furious’ over refusal to pay Stormy Daniels
Lauren Aratani
Lots of irony in a text from David Pecker read to the court from former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.
Howard communicated to Michael Cohen that Donald Trump should be paying Stormy Daniels:
I spoke to [Cohen], all sorted. Now we move. No fingerprints. I’ll recap to you face to face.
Pecker really emphasizing that, at this point, he was refusing to pay off any more people for Trump.
I’m not going to pay for this story. I’m not going to be involved with a pornstar … After paying out the doorman, after paying out McDougal, we’re not paying out any more money.
Cohen was “upset, he said the boss would be furious with me”, Pecker added.
Key events
Mary Trump, the former president’s niece and long-time critic, has thoughts on Thursday’s prominent media coverage of his criminal trial in Manhattan, alongside arguments over immunity at the US supreme court.
“It’s incredible. Today most news channels have a split screen of Donald’s election interference trial on one side and his case for presidential immunity on the other,” she just posted to X, formerly Twitter.
It’s incredible.
Today most news channels have a split screen of Donald’s election interference trial on one side and his case for presidential immunity on the other.
It’s mind boggling how Donald, corrupt to the core, weak, and out of power, can continue to drag our country…
— Mary L. Trump (@MaryLTrump) April 25, 2024
“It’s mind boggling how Donald, corrupt to the core, weak, and out of power, can continue to drag our country down.
“American democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution will never be safe if this morally bankrupt coward gets back into the White House.”
Interim summary
Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan is in a lunch recess, so it seems a good time to look at the highlights from this morning’s testimony:
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Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker said he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model Karen McDougal specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”. He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.
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Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.
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He said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. “Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss [Trump] will take care of it,” Pecker recalled Cohen telling him after he expressed nervousness about the size of the payment.
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But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement after talking with lawyers. Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically”, Pecker said. He recalled Cohen saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend, I don’t understand why you’re concerned.”
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Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign, presenting it as interference in the 2016 election that Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.
Here’s my colleague Lauren Aratani’s latest dispatch from the courthouse. Stick with us for coverage of the afternoon session, when Pecker is expected to resume testimony.
The supreme court has now wrapped up oral arguments in Donald Trump v United States, the former president’s appeal in his federal election subversion case, in which he claims presidents are immune from prosecution for acts committed in office.
It is unclear when the court could rule, and until it does, his trial in Washington DC remains on hold.
The court is breaking for lunch, and will resume at 2.15pm ET.
Donald Trump left the courtroom without addressing or looking at reporters, only giving a brief thumbs up, per pool.
Pecker testifies Trump appeared concerned about campaign, not family
Lauren Aratani
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker whether Donald Trump ever indicated that he was thinking of his family, instead of the campaign, when quashing the stories.
“I thought it was for his campaign,” Pecker said. In conversations with Cohen and Trump, his family was never mentioned.
I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign.
Prosecutors are really having Pecker emphasize that Trump was doing this for his campaign, not because of his family. They’re trying to show the jury that Trump was quashing the story as a kind of election interference, not for personal reasons.
Pecker was briefly asked why, though he was invited, did he not attend the inauguration. Pecker was somewhat evasive:
I asked my wife, she didn’t want to go. I decided not to attend.
Pecker testifies Trump thanked him for ‘handling’ Karen McDougal situation
Lauren Aratani
In another Trump Tower meeting in January 6, 2017, two weeks before inauguration, Donald Trump asked Pecker, “How’s our girl doing?”, referring to Karen McDougal.
David Pecker said that she was fine, she was “quiet”. Trump thanked Pecker for handling McDougal and the doorman, he said. Pecker said:
He was thanking me for buying them and for not publishing any of the stories and help me the way I did.
Do you know why he thanked you?” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.
He said the stories were very embarrassing.
Sam Levine
David Pecker is describing a December 2016 meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower in which Trump thanked him for handling the doorman story and Karen McDougal.
Sam Levine
At the end of 2016, David Pecker and Michael Cohen met at Trump Tower.
Pecker says Cohen told him that Cohen still hadn’t been repaid for his payment to Stormy Daniels.
Cohen said he also hadn’t yet received his annual bonus and asked Pecker if he would talk to Donald Trump to tell Trump everything Cohen did to earn his bonus.
Lauren Aratani
David Pecker says that he spoke with Donald Trump on the phone the day after the Wall Street Journal story came out.
Trump “was very upset, saying how could this happen, I thought you had this under control. Either you or one of your people have leaked this story,” Pecker says, adding:
I said Donald, there’s no way on earth that I would leak this story. We, American Media, had the agreement between only a couple of people.
Pecker implies that, at the time, he thought someone from Karen McDougal’s team leaked the story.
Sam Levine
After the Wall Street Journal reported that AMI had paid Karen McDougal to kill her story about an affair with Donald Trump, AMI put out a statement denying it.
David Pecker says in court it was false. Explaining why he lied, he says:
I wanted to protect my company. I wanted to protect myself. And I wanted also to protect Donald Trump.
Pecker testifies Cohen said Trump ‘furious’ over refusal to pay Stormy Daniels
Lauren Aratani
Lots of irony in a text from David Pecker read to the court from former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.
Howard communicated to Michael Cohen that Donald Trump should be paying Stormy Daniels:
I spoke to [Cohen], all sorted. Now we move. No fingerprints. I’ll recap to you face to face.
Pecker really emphasizing that, at this point, he was refusing to pay off any more people for Trump.
I’m not going to pay for this story. I’m not going to be involved with a pornstar … After paying out the doorman, after paying out McDougal, we’re not paying out any more money.
Cohen was “upset, he said the boss would be furious with me”, Pecker added.
Lauren Aratani
Prosecutors are showing a text from Dylan Howard to David Pecker in court about Stormy Daniels. Howard texted:
I know the denials were made in the past – but this story is true. I can lock it on publication now to shut down the media chatter and we can assess next steps thereafter. Ok?
Pecker said that Howard wanted to buy Daniels story for $120,000, but Pecker told Howard over the phone that he was wary.
I said I don’t want the National Enquirer to be associated with a pornstar. Our largest retailer, Walmart … This would be very damaging for the magazine, very damaging for American Media.
He said he told Howard:
If anyone was going to buy it, I think Michael Cohen and Donald Trump should buy it.
Pecker begins testifying about Stormy Daniels
Sam Levine
David Pecker repeats something that is well known about Donald Trump: that he doesn’t use email. Pecker says he has never communicated with Trump by email and always through office phone.
Pecker says he got an urgent call one Saturday evening in early October from Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor-in-chief, when he was having dinner with his wife.
Pecker left the restaurant and said Howard had gotten a call from his two best sources saying Stormy Daniels was looking to sell her story about having an affair with Donald Trump.
Howard told Pecker they could have the story for $120,000 if they decided right then.
This is the first time Daniels has come up today after prosecutors spent the morning going through how Pecker bought the Karen McDougal story.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled last week that the Access Hollywood tape won’t come into evidence in the hush-money trial, but he allowed into evidence the transcript of the tape.
Here’s a reminder of what Trump said in the infamous tape:
Pecker testifies Access Hollywood tape was ‘very damaging’ for Trump campaign
Lauren Aratani
Now David Pecker is being asked about the Access Hollywood tapes, which were released in October 2016, just a month before the election.
The judge had ruled against the tape itself being a part of evidence in the trial, so prosecutors had Pecker describe the tape. A pretty bizarre moment.
Pecker said that the tape was:
Donald Trump and Billy Bush, an anchor for Access Hollywood, going on a bus, and [Trump] said the comment … ‘You can grab a woman by their genitals’.
Donald Trump appeared to be fidgeting in his seat as Pecker was talking about the tape.
When asked what happened when the tape was released, Pecker said:
It was very embarrassing and very damaging for the campaign.
Seems like prosecutors are setting up Pecker up to talk about Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 just three weeks after the tapes were released.
In court documents, prosecutors have argued that the release of the tapes amped up pressure on the campaign to kill any other negative stories that could come out about Trump.
Sam Levine
David Pecker is back on the stand.
Pecker is describing a phone call with Michael Cohen after the release of the Access Hollywood tape.
Everyone in the campaign was very concerned about what impact it would have, Pecker recalls Cohen telling him.
