Trump Endures a Rugged Day in

Court as Witness Details ‘Catch and

Kill’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/nyregion/trump-hush-money-
trial-pecker-testimony.html

The judge questioned the credibility of Donald J. Trump’s defense lawyer, and a key
witness told of a plan to buy and bury stories that might have harmed the candidate.

Donald J. Trump listened in court Tuesday as his lawyer was upbraided by the
judge. Credit...Pool photo by Curtis Means

By Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess and Maggie Haberman

April 23, 2024Updated 7:03 p.m. ET
Donald J. Trump had a dismal day in court on Tuesday as the judge presiding over
his criminal trial told a defense lawyer he was “losing all credibility” and a key
witness pulled back the curtain to expose what prosecutors called a conspiracy to
influence the 2016 election.

The witness was David Pecker, longtime publisher of The National Enquirer, and he
transported jurors back to a crucial 2015 meeting with Mr. Trump and his fixer at
Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.

Prosecutors called it the “Trump Tower conspiracy,” arguing that Mr. Pecker, Mr.
Trump and Michael D. Cohen, who was then Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer,
hatched a plot at the meeting to conceal sex scandals looming over Mr. Trump’s
campaign.

Their effort led Mr. Pecker’s tabloids to buy and bury two damaging stories about Mr.
Trump. Mr. Cohen also purchased the silence of a porn star, a deal at the heart of the
case against the former president.

In gripping testimony Tuesday, Mr. Pecker took the jurors inside the meeting,
recalling how Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump asked what he and his magazines — fixtures
of American supermarket checkout lanes — could do “to help the campaign.” The
account bolstered the prosecution’s argument that the men were protecting not just
Mr. Trump’s personal reputation, but his political fortunes.

“I would be your eyes and ears,” Mr. Pecker recalled telling them, as he explained the
tabloid practice of “catch and kill,” in which an outlet bought the rights to a story,
only to never publish it.
Image
David Pecker, former publisher of The National Enquirer, told of trading
favors.Credit...Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Mr. Pecker’s testimony came after a bruising hearing for Mr. Trump and his legal
team, as prosecutors argued that the trial is threatened by Mr. Trump’s repeated
attacks on witnesses and jurors, mostly launched on social media and his campaign
website. They urged the judge, Juan M. Merchan, to hold Mr. Trump in contempt
over what they said were 11 violations of a gag order that bars the former president
from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff, as well as their
relatives.

When Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, claimed that the former president was
trying to comply with the order, Justice Merchan signaled that he found that
preposterous, replying with words that no lawyer wants to hear: “You’re losing all
credibility with the court.”

The case against Mr. Trump, the first American president to face a criminal trial,
centers on Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 hush-money payment to the porn star, Stormy
Daniels. Prosecutors say he paid Ms. Daniels at Mr. Trump’s direction during the
2016 campaign to keep her quiet about a sexual tryst she said she had with Mr.
Trump.

The Criminal Trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan

Card 1 of 7
A historic trial begins. Donald Trump, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business
records in the first degree to cover up a sex scandal, is on trial in Manhattan. He is the first
former U.S. president to be criminally prosecuted. Here are answers to some key questions
about the case:
What is Trump accused of? The charges trace back to a $130,000 hush-money payment that
Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen, made to the porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to suppress
her story of a sexual liaison with Trump in 2006. While serving as president, Trump
reimbursed Cohen, and how he did so constituted fraud, prosecutors say.
Why did prosecutors cite other hush-money payments? Although the charges relate to the
payment to Daniels, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is expected to highlight
two other hush-money deals. Prosecutors say that the deals show that Trump had orchestrated
a wide-ranging scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Who will the key witnesses be? Cohen is expected to be a crucial witness for prosecutors.
Bragg is also expected to call David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer,
as well as Hope Hicks, a former Trump aide, to shed light on the tumultuous period
surrounding the payments. Trump said he plans to testify in his own defense.
Who is the judge? Juan Merchan, the judge, is a veteran of the bench known as a no-
nonsense, drama-averse jurist. During the trial, Justice Merchan will be in charge of keeping
order in the courtroom and ruling on objections made by prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers.
The jury will decide whether Trump is guilty.
What happens if Trump is convicted? The charges against Trump are all Class E felonies,
the least severe felony category in New York. If convicted, Trump faces a prison sentence of
four years or less, or he could receive probation.
How is The New York Times covering the trial? The Times will provide comprehensive
coverage of the trial, which is set to last six to eight weeks. Expect live updates from the
courtroom in Manhattan, daily takeaways, explainers and analysis from our reporting team.
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Mr. Trump’s lawyer in his opening statement denied that his client had slept with
Ms. Daniels, echoing what Mr. Trump has consistently said.

Mr. Trump who faces up to four years behind bars if convicted, is charged with 34
counts of falsifying business records for the way in which he accounted for the
$130,000 repayment to Mr. Cohen. Each count reflects a different false check, ledger
and invoice that, according to prosecutors, Mr. Trump used to disguise the
reimbursement’s true purpose.

Who Are Key Players in the Trump Manhattan

Criminal Trial?
The first criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump is underway. Take a
closer look at central figures related to the case.
Mr. Trump, 77, who is once again the presumptive Republican nominee, faces three
other criminal cases in three different cities on charges that he plotted to overturn his
2020 election loss and mishandled classified records once he was no longer
president. But with those cases delayed, the Manhattan case may be the only one that
makes it to trial before Election Day.

The Manhattan case, in just its sixth day, has become a media and political spectacle
as Mr. Trump’s campaign-style attacks on Mr. Cohen and the jury test the limits of
the legal system and the judge’s patience.

The gag-order hearing, held with the jury out of the courtroom, demonstrated a
jarring reality for Mr. Trump as he seeks to reclaim the White House while under
indictment: His political reflexes, and the norm-busting ethos that has defined the
Trump era, often clash with the letter of the law.

Witnesses in the case “rightly fear” being subjected to the former president’s “vitriol,”
a prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, told the judge. He rattled off statements that
Manhattan prosecutors believe crossed the line, including calling Mr. Cohen and Ms.
Daniels “sleaze bags” and reposting an attack on the jury pool. That happened the
night before a juror who had already been seated asked to be excused.

“What happened here was exactly what this order was meant to prevent, and the
defendant doesn’t care,” Mr. Conroy said.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, argued that Mr. Trump’s posts were not personal
and did not violate the order, because he was simply responding to “a barrage of
political attacks.”

But Justice Merchan bridled, imploring Mr. Blanche to stick to the facts and the law.

“I need to know what is true,” Justice Merchan said, underscoring Mr. Trump’s
penchant for using social media to spread lies.

It then got worse for Mr. Blanche, who appeared flummoxed by the judge. At one
point, Justice Merchan called one of his arguments “silly.”

Prosecutors have asked Justice Merchan to fine Mr. Trump $1,000 for each
statement, although Mr. Conroy wondered aloud if Mr. Trump, who has sold
campaign merchandise with his mug shot, was actually angling for jail time. The
judge, whose daughter has been among Mr. Trump’s targets, did not immediately
rule.

The case against Mr. Trump commenced Monday, when both sides delivered opening
statements that offered dueling visions of Mr. Trump and the evidence. A prosecutor
accused the former president of orchestrating a “criminal conspiracy and a coverup.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyer proclaimed, “President Trump is innocent.”

The prosecution then called its first witness, Mr. Pecker, who returned to the stand
on Tuesday for a second day of testimony.
In about two and a half hours of examining Mr. Pecker on Tuesday, the prosecution
placed him firmly in Mr. Trump’s orbit, as a longtime fan and friend who became an
extension of the 2016 Trump campaign. His closeness to Mr. Trump — and his
gentle, almost grandfatherly affect — appeared to bolster his credibility.

“I would call him Donald,” Mr. Pecker recalled, adding that he had “a great
relationship with Mr. Trump over the years,” and that he had launched a magazine
with him called “Trump Style.”

Mr. Pecker described a symbiotic relationship between Mr. Trump and The National
Enquirer during the former president’s turn as a reality television host on “The
Apprentice.” Mr. Trump would leak details of the show to the magazine, which in
turn would run stories on the contestants.

The relationship took on national significance after the crucial 2015 meeting at
Trump Tower.

“I received a call from Michael Cohen telling me that the boss wanted to see me,” Mr.
Pecker recounted for the jury.

Afterward, Mr. Cohen routinely contacted Mr. Pecker, checking in weekly, or even
daily. The purpose of their conversations was often was to protect Mr. Trump from
negative stories, including a doorman’s apparently false claim that Mr. Trump had
fathered a child out of wedlock. Mr. Pecker, who purchased the story, testified that
Mr. Cohen had told him “the boss would be very pleased” to have that story
suppressed.

Mr. Pecker, who later also bought a story from a former Playboy model who said she
had had an affair with Mr. Trump, explained that Mr. Cohen was “physically in every
aspect of whatever the campaign was working on.” But, in a detail that the defense
may seize on, he testified that Mr. Cohen, who was not a campaign employee but Mr.
Trump’s personal lawyer, may have “injected himself” into the campaign at times.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have not yet cross-examined Mr. Pecker, but when they do, they
are likely to seize on that description of Mr. Cohen. A central theme of Mr. Trump’s
defense is to portray Mr. Cohen as a renegade and a liar, and to distance the former
president from the most problematic evidence.

Yet Mr. Pecker’s testimony placed Mr. Trump directly in the middle of their
conspiracy. And in a sign that at least Mr. Pecker knew that their arrangement was
problematic, he noted that he wanted to keep it “confidential.” When a prosecutor,
Joshua Steinglass, asked why, Mr. Pecker explained that he did not want it to “leak”
that he helped the campaign.

Under questioning, Mr. Pecker acknowledged that he did not merely spike
detrimental stories but promoted helpful ones. Mr. Cohen, he explained, would feed
him information about Mr. Trump’s Republican primary opponents, and The
National Enquirer would sometimes “embellish” them.
The tabloid, for example, ran stories about Mr. Trump’s primary opponents,
including Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The prosecutors illustrated the
point for jurors, posting several lurid headlines on screens: “Donald Trump Blasts
Ted Cruz’s Dad for Photo with J.F.K. Assassin,” “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson left
Sponge in Patient’s Brain!” and, in a moment of ironic foreshadowing, “Ted Cruz
Shamed by Porn Star.”

At the Trump Tower meeting, Mr. Pecker said, he had indicated that he expected
many women “would come out to try to sell their stories” about Mr. Trump, because
he was known as “the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women.”

Mr. Trump was not, in fact, a bachelor. He had married his third and current wife,
Melania Trump, in 2005.

Kate Christobek, Alan Feuer, Wesley Parnell and Jesse

McKinley contributed reporting.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan
district attorney’s office and state criminal courts in Manhattan. More about Jonah E.
Bromwich
Ben Protess is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He
has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his
allies. More about Ben Protess
Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential
campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President
Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman
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