NEW YORK, United States: A key witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday described how Trump worked with the former president’s personal lawyer to kill a Playboy model’s story about having sex with the Republican.
Testimony in President Trump’s criminal trial was in its third day, with prosecutors saying Trump had paid off to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for keeping quiet about a 2006 sexual encounter that could have tainted his 2016 campaign for the White House.
He is the first former US head of state to face criminal charges. The high-profile case will require President Trump to appear in Manhattan court several times a week as he is expected to face Joe Biden again in the presidential election.
Prosecutors allege that Trump committed “election fraud” in the run-up to the 2016 election by paying $130,000 from his personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen.
The latest testimony by David Pecker, 72, a former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, suggests that the quiet payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal were a precursor to the Daniels scandal.
“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker nonchalantly told the jury, providing a clear statement that his efforts with the candidate and his lawyer were geared at influencing the presidential election. Trump had taken the White House over Hillary Clinton.
‘The boss’
Pecker candidly explained how transfers to the tune of $150,000 were made to “catch and kill” McDougal’s story and stop its publication, calling it a “large purchase” relative to the sums his company would normally pay for content.
“We purchased the story so it would not be published by any other organization,” Pecker told jurors. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or hurt his campaign.”
He said Cohen encouraged him to buy the story, and when asked how he would get his money back, Cohen said, “The boss will take care of it.”
Pecker said that MacDougall not only received a payment, but the deal guaranteed him the possibility of a magazine cover and a fitness column.
But McDougal’s story eventually came out in Wall Street Journal four days before the election and prosecutors showed it to the jury. Pecker said he received a phone call from President Trump and was “very upset.”
“How could this happen, I thought you had this under control,” Pecker recalled Trump telling him, before hanging up with no goodbye.
The former president has appeared increasingly disgruntled, angry even, as the trial proceeds. He is forced to sit silently and speak only when spoken to under the glaring fluorescent lights of the courtroom.
Cohen and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford are both expected to appear as prosecution witnesses at the trial.
