David Pecker blames Trump for the entire scheme but still considers him a friend.
Was it the lie to Melania or was it the cover-up? He did have a much longer affair with Karen McDougal than with Stormy Daniels, and AMI spent more to keep her quiet than the original price tag for Daniels’s silence.
Trump's payments were made to benefit the campaign, NOT to protect Melania
Stormy Daniels tried to benefit from Donald J. Trump’s political momentum in early 2016, setting off the saga that ultimately resulted in his criminal trial.
Her agent reached out to Dylan Howard, editor of The National Enquirer, and editorial chiefs at other publications, seeking about $200,000 to tell her story of having sex with Mr. Trump a decade before when he was at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev.
Ms. Daniels had no takers. Mr. Howard thought her story had little value because it had already been written about on a gossip site in 2011. At the time, she had publicly denied the encounter.
A month before the presidential election, her story’s value suddenly increased. On Oct. 7, 2016, The Washington Post published a recording of Mr. Trump on the set of “Access Hollywood” talking about groping women.
The ensuing uproar revived Ms. Daniels’s negotiations with The Enquirer. Her agent negotiated a price of $120,000 with Mr. Howard, but Mr. Pecker nixed the deal, unwilling to spend more after having already paid a Playboy model to bury her story of an affair with Mr. Trump in what prosecutors have called a “catch-and-kill” scheme to aid Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
“We can’t pay 120k,” Mr. Pecker texted Mr. Howard. They agreed that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, would have to handle the problem.
“Spoke to MC. All sorted,” Mr. Howard later texted Mr. Pecker. “No fingerprints.”
www.nytimes.com/...
Trump even mentioned two specific instances when he thanked Pecker, saying "I want to thank you for handling the McDougal situation... I want to thank you for the doorman situation," Pecker recalled.
And as for his concern about Melania discovering his sordid deeds, there was virtually none. "After Mr. Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency, did he ever express concern for how... Melania Trump would think of his affairs?" Assistant DA Steinglass asked.
The Schwarzenegger ‘baby momma’ story may/may not have any effect since it did not feature the criminal acts that Trump enacted in order to support his campaign. As Andrew Weissman says: “Apples and oranges.”
Then-President Donald Trump became "very aggravated" after learning that a former Playboy model had been permitted to give an interview to CNN about her alleged affair with him, a witness told a jury Thursday.
In testimony for Trump's hush money case before a New York court, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker told Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass that he amended a contract to allow former model Karen McDougal speak to the media about the purported affair.
Pecker said Trump called him after McDougal interviewed with CNN's Anderson Cooper in 2018. He described Trump as being "very upset."
"I thought you had, and we had an agreement with Karen McDougal that she can't give any interviews or be on any television show," Pecker recalled Trump saying.
"Yes, we have an agreement, but I amended it to allow her to speak to the press," Pecker said he explained to Trump.
"Mr. Trump got very aggravated when he heard that I'd amended it, and he couldn't understand why," he added. "He was very upset."
www.msn.com/...
Will Trump sue Pecker in retaliation? He sues everybody else.
Former President Donald Trump knew that former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story about their yearlong relationship would get out, according to trial witness David Pecker.
While testifying in Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan, Pecker said that Trump told him he did not believe in buying stories because they "always get out."
Pecker, the only witness that the jury has heard from thus far, returned to the stand on Thursday for a third day of testimony in the hush money case. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to a hush money payment that was made by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied Daniels' allegations.
www.newsweek.com/...
Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s seventh day on trial:
Pecker teed up falsified records charges.
- As part of a so-called catch-and-kill scheme, Mr. Pecker testified that his company, AMI, paid Ms. McDougal $150,000 to purchase her story, with no intention of publishing anything about an affair with Mr. Trump.
- But Mr. Pecker expected repayment. He said he asked Michael D. Cohen, who was Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, who would handle the reimbursement, and Mr. Cohen responded, “The boss will take care of it.”
- Because Mr. Pecker had such a hard time getting Mr. Trump to pay up, he was unwilling to buy a third story: Ms. Daniels’s account of sex with Mr. Trump.
- “I am not a bank,” Mr. Pecker recalled saying.
- Mr. Pecker suggested that Mr. Cohen buy Ms. Daniels's story instead, leading to the hush-money deal, repayments and records at issue in this trial.
Prosecutors painted a picture of election interference.
- The prosecution’s discussion of the deal with Ms. McDougal — brokered in summer 2016 — served another purpose: trying to demonstrate that the payment was part of a scheme to influence that year’s election.
Trump worried about Ms. McDougal, even after his election.
Pecker did a lot for Trump, who could be hard to please.