Publisher tells of being ‘eyes and ears’ for Trump
A former tabloid publisher and longtime friend of Donald Trump told a New York court on Tuesday
(US time) that he would “kill” negative stories to help the tycoon’s 2016 election campaign.
David Pecker, who oversaw the company that owned the National Enquirer gossip magazine, described an “agreement between friends” to silence women coming forward with sexual allegations, such as the porn star Stormy Daniels.
Pecker, 72, was the first witness to take the stand in Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in connection with payments meant to prevent potentially damaging accusations from surfacing until after the vote.
Pecker described a 25-minute meeting at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan with Trump and Michael Cohen, the former president’s lawyer, after Trump announced his presidential candidacy in August 2015.
That afternoon they allegedly hatched what has been called the “Trump Tower conspiracy”. Pecker said he offered to act as the “eyes and ears” of Trump’s fledgling political campaign by looking out for “negative stories”. The arrangement was “highly, highly confidential”.
Pecker, who chaired American Media Inc for several decades before stepping down in 2020, said they then went about buying exclusive rights to stories with no intention of publishing them, a practice known in the business as “catch and kill”.
In return, Cohen would dig up dirt on Trump’s rivals that would often make salacious stories for the National Enquirer.
Joshua Steinglass, for the prosecution, asked Pecker: “Prior to that August 2015 meeting, had you ever purchased a story in order to not print it, about Mr Trump?” “Uh, no,” Pecker answered. Trump, 77, at times leant in to get a closer look at his old friend. Pecker, who first met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in the 1980s, claimed he was in part responsible for his decision to stand for election. “We noticed when Trump was on the cover we would sell the most issues ... Research showed 80% of our readership wanted Trump to run and I passed this on.”
He said Trump was delighted. “I was the person who thought a lot of women would come out to sell their stories because Mr Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dating the most beautiful women,” Pecker said, to stifled laughs from the public gallery.
At the heart of the saga is a US$130,000 (NZ$220,000) payment made to Daniels to stay quiet, a deal that prosecutors allege was a “conspiracy to corrupt” the 2016 election.
The trial continues.