Publisher thought alleged affair would hurt Trump

NEW YORK — Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified at Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday that he sought to silence a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump for fear it would hurt his 2016 presidential bid.

“I believed the story was true, I believed it would be very embarrassing for himself and also his campaign,” Pecker testified at Trump’s New York hush money trial.

Pecker, 72, is a key witness in the case against the former U.S. president, who is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an affair she said she had with Trump in 2006.

Pecker, who has not been charged with a crime, testified on Tuesday that the Enquirer acquired former Playboy model Karen Mcdougal’s story of Trump’s alleged sexual misbehavior but never published it — a practice known as “catch and kill” — in order to help Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.

On Thursday, he said that after Mcdougal told his editor that she had a yearlong affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007, he advised Trump to buy her silence.

“He said, ‘What do you think I should do?’ I said, ‘I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,’” Pecker testified.

Pecker said Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, promised Trump would pay for her story. “He said to me, ‘Don’t worry, I’m your friend. The boss will take care of it,’” Pecker said, adding that “the boss” referred to Trump.

In the end, the National Enquirer ended up footing the bill, rather than Trump. The paper’s parent company, American Media, admitted in 2018 that it paid her $150,000. Her story was never published.