Pecker’s a ‘killer’ for celebrities
David Pecker described his “catch and kill” operations for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods and Mark Wahlberg at Donald Trump’s hushmoney trial Thursday.
The former National Enquirer honcho said that shortly after Schwarzenegger announced his run for California governor in 2003, more than 30 women came forward to the magazine claiming affairs or sexual harassment by the then-married star.
Pecker, 72, testified he spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” buying up the negative stories for the actor, with whom he was working on a magazine deal at the time.
“The agreement I had with Arnold was, I would call him and advise him of any stories that were out there. And I ended up acquiring and buying them for a period of time,” he said.
Schwarzenegger, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, went on to be serve as governor from 2003 to 2011.
Pecker — who has been giving evidence about how he bought up stories on Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election — said he’d been engaged in the practice for decades.
During cross examination by Trump’s lawyers, he described buying and burying photos of Woods meeting a woman in a Florida parking lot in 2007 and of Wahlberg and his wife having an argument.
He also recalled catching and killing negative stories about Democrat Rahm Emanuel, the ex-Chicago mayor who was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and is now US ambassador to Japan.
While under questioning by prosecutors, Pecker gave details about a deal he’d struck to lock up former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s story about an affair she said she had with Trump.
‘Monica’ concerns
Pecker testified McDougal told him “she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky” when she first approached the Enquirer about purchasing her story.
Pecker said he offered $10,000 for McDougal’s story, but she refused, and later testified he believed the story was true.
He said he eventually organized a payment of $150,000 for the story.
Pecker also said how Trump, as president-elect, had mentioned their plan to “catch-and-kill” damaging stories about him at a January 2017 Trump Tower meeting attended by FBI Director James Comey.
“He probably knows more than anyone else in this room,” Trump told the men about Pecker.
“It was a joke,” Pecker added. “Unfortunately, they didn’t laugh.”
The joke landed with Trump on Thursday, though; he chuckled at the defense table.
Pecker also testified porn star Stormy Daniels in early 2016 was shopping her story to several publications about an alleged 2007 one-night stand with Trump. A deal was eventually worked out by Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer.
Pecker returns to the stand Friday morning.