David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified Thursday about his efforts to bury negative stories that might have hurt former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including a $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump.
Appearing for this third day on the stand in Trump’s criminal trial in New York, Pecker told jurors about an agreement the Enquirer reached to obtain the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, the former model. The Enquirer never published her account.
Trump has denied the affair and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records at issue in the criminal trial, the first of a former president.
The deal with McDougal stipulated that she would write a column for publications owned by American Media, Inc., the parent company of the Enquirer at the time. Pecker, who was AMI’s chief executive, testified that the true purpose of the agreement was to prevent McDougal’s account from coming to light. He also said AMI crafted the agreement to avoid triggering campaign finance laws.
“We purchased the story so it wouldn’t be published by any other organization,” he said later, referring to himself and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-attorney and a key witness in the case. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign.”
The proceedings are coinciding with another significant legal development for the former president. In Washington, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether Trump should be immune from federal prosecution in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The judge overseeing the trial in New York denied Trump’s request to attend the arguments in the capital.
