Laffy
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Inner City Press (aka Press):
Justice Merchan: I've signed the order to show cause. Now, the texts?
Prosecutor: We are introducing them as business records. It was part of the regular business of AMI. These are discussions between co-conspirator Dylan Howard and Ms. Rodriguez
Klasfeld:
Trump is back in the courtroom, appearing to sharply exhale when he reached the defense table before sitting down.
Laffy
29/ Press:
Pecker: It was after I left the company, but I think they paid a fine of $180,000.
Prosecution: Did you learn of FBI searches of Michael Cohen's home?
Pecker: Yes. They came for my home, and I learned of the search of Michael Cohen's apartment.
Laffy
30/ Klasfeld:
This chronology is also fascinating because AMI's non-prosecution agreement was released on the day of Michael Cohen's sentencing, making those cases bookended on the same dates.
Laffy
31/ Klasfeld:
Asked if he has any ill-will toward Trump, Pecker emphatically answers in the negative.
"On the contrary, [...] I felt that Donald Trump was my mentor. He helped me out throughout my career."
Laffy
26/ Klasfeld:
That agreement immunizes Pecker if he fulfills the agreement to cooperate truthfully.
Laffy
27/ Press:
Prosecutor: Did you sign a cooperation agreement with my office, DANY?
Pecker: Yes.
[Reads from DANY agreement]
Prosecutor: Were you given immunity at the grand jury?
Pecker: I was.
Prosecutor: Did AMI reach a conciliation agreement with the FEC?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
28/ Klasfeld:
Here's how Pecker says he learned about the FBI raid on Michael Cohen:
"The FBI came to my home on the same day and had a search warrant on my phone."
Dylan Howard then called him to say the same happened to him, and Howard told him about Cohen, according to Pecker.
Laffy
22/ Klasfeld:
Justice Merchan recites a curative instruction that jurors cannot use the non-prosecution agreement for any purpose, other than to assess David Pecker's credibility.
They cannot use it as evidence of Trump's guilt.
Laffy
23/ Press:
Prosecutor: Did you enter a non prosecution agreement with the SDNY?
Pecker; Yes.
Prosecutor: Did the agreement-
Trump's lawyer: Objection!
Merchan: Overruled.
Prosecutor: Is this the agreement?
Pecker: Yes.
Prosecutor: Who is "the candidate"
Pecker: Mr. Trump
Laffy
24/ Orden:
As Pecker reads out loud portions of American Media’s 2018 non-prosecution agreement with Manhattan federal prosecutors, Trump has been whispering to his lawyer Emil Bove and occasionally shaking his head.
Laffy
25/ Via Lisa Rubin:
Pecker reading from Ame Media's non-prosecution agreement w DOJ which have been pub for ys but which misled the public about who exactly was involved in the alleged conspiracy to promote Trump's election
Those docs never reflect Trump or "Indiv-1"'s participation; instead, they disclose only that AMI acted in concert with "1 or more members or agents" of the Trump campaign & refer to the August 2015 meeting between Pecker, Cohen & "at least one other member of the campaign."
Laffy
21/ Klasfeld:
Questioning turns to AMI's non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors.
The prosecutor shows him the agreement.
Laffy
17/ Klasfeld:
According to Pecker, Trump got angry after seeing Anderson Cooper interviewing McDougal. Trump said that he thought there was an agreement forbidding her from speaking to the press.
Pecker replied: "Yes, we have an agreement but I amended it to allow her to speak to the press."
Pecker says Trump got “mad” and couldn’t understand why Pecker amended the agreement.
Laffy
18/ Press:
Pecker: Hope Hicks was on the call. Sanders, Huckabee. I said I would extend her contract. He thought that was a bad idea, but said, It's your business, do what you think.
Prosecutor: Did Ms. McDougal sue AMI?
Pecker: Yes. She wanted back her lifetime rights.
Laffy
19/ Press:
Pecker: I told Michael Cohen I am not going to litigate this, I am going to give her back her lifetime rights.
Prosecutor: Now what about Stormy Daniels.
Pecker: Mr. Trump asks if I'd seen it, that she was violating the agreement, $1 million per use of name.
Laffy
20/ Klasfeld:
At some point, the FEC contacted Pecker about his activities with AMI.
Pecker said that Michael Cohen tried to reassure him:
👉🏼👉🏼"Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket."
[Me: Shades of things to come if Trump gets in again. And he'll use his DOJ to prosecute Biden and all enemies]
But Pecker wasn't reassured: "I'm very worried."
Laffy
14/ Press:
Pecker: My purpose was to make sure we were complying with our agreement, keep her in our, ah, family, that she not go speak to the press
Prosecutor Steinglass: Now to January 2018. Did another article come out, that Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
15/ Press:
Prosecutor: Now to March 2018 - did you learn Karen McDougal was interviewed by Anderson Cooper.
Pecker: Yes. I watched it. The next day President Trump called me. Donald, he says to me, did you see it, the Stormy Daniels?
Prosecutor: I'm only asking about Karen
Laffy
16/ Press:
Pecker: He said, Did you see the interview with Anderson Cooper and Karen McDougal - I thought we had an agreement. I told him, I amended it. He got aggravated. He couldn't understand why.
Prosecutor: Did you speak with him and the White House staff?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
11/ Press:
Prosecutor: In August 2017 did you meet with Karen McDougal?
Pecker: Yes, at Il Postino, with Dylan and Keith Davidson. Karen talked about the article she was preparing with the ghost writers, Dylan had had to change them to work better with her
Laffy
12/ Bower:
That White House dinner was on July 11, 2017.
The next month, in August, Pecker met with Karen McDougal at an Italian restaurant in NY. Also at the meeting were Keith Davidson and Dylan Howard.
The meeting came about because Davidson called Howard and said he thought it was a good idea for everyone to meet.
Laffy
13/ Bower:
Pecker wanted to make sure that McDougal was "comfortable." He wanted her to remain in their “family." He wanted to make sure that they were complying with what they had promised her in the original agreement (regarding opportunities for her to do media appearances and publish articles.)
Laffy
8/ Klasfeld:
Pecker took Trump up on the invitation, bringing along Howard and Rothstein.
"Jared Kushner was there. Sean Spicer was there."
All of the people he brought were able to take a photo with Trump in the Oval Office, he says.
Laffy
9/ Klasfeld:
Photo exhibits:
* Dylan Howard in the White House
* David Pecker and Trump walking into the White House, where he said they were having a conversation about Karen McDougal
Email from Dylan Howard to Keith Davidson dated July 12, 20217:
"Surreal last night," the three-word body of the email reads, referring to the dinner.
Laffy
10/ Klasfeld:
Pecker says that Karen McDougal seemed "a little upset" during a lunch.
The articles were taking a while.
She hadn't received media training as a red carpet anchor.
"So, she was stating what she'd like to get done."
Pecker said the purpose of the meeting was to make sure they were complying to the agreement.
"I wanted her to remain within our (pause) family, I should say."
That was a pregnant pause before the "family."
Laffy
5/ Klasfeld:
Pecker's testimony continues:
Q: Did there come a time when you visited the White House?
A: Yes, I did. Trump invited me to the White House for dinner, describing it as a "'thank you' dinner"
Pecker says Trump told him:
"Bring your friends [and] business associates. It's your dinner."
Laffy
6/ Press:
Pecker: My wife didn't want to go. President Trump told me I could bring friends and associates, it was my thank-you dinner.
Prosecutor: Did you take Dylan Howard and Daniel Rothstein?
Pecker: Yes.
Prosecutor: Did Karen McDouglas come up?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
7/ Press:
Pecker: Pres Trump asked me, How's Karen doing? I told him, She quiet, it's good.
Prosecutor: Did you and Dylan Howard take photos?
Pecker: Yes.
Prosecutor: What's this photo?
[Jury is shown black and white photo of Dylan Howard, then one of Trump and Pecker
Laffy
2/ Klasfeld:
The parties argue an evidentiary issue about Dylan Howard's text messages with Stormy Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez.
ADA Steinglass: "Mr. Howard is a co-conspirator, and these are statements in furtherance of the conspiracy."
erica orden:
Boris Epshteyn, the Trump aide who was among several people indicted Wednesday by an Arizona grand jury for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is in the courtroom.
Laffy
3/ Klasfeld:
Steinglass adds that the messages go to a "core part of the conspiracy."
They are 15 pages of texts, the judge said.
Laffy
4/ Me: I'm resorting to a double entendre: Pecker is back up
Laffy
53/ Klasfeld:
Bove's stick-and-carrot approach—over a minor detail of what part of a month a meeting took place—cues Pecker to concede it's difficult to precisely remember events from nearly a decade ago.
Laffy
54/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: You met Federal prosecutors too, how many times?
Pecker: Five or six times.
Bove: Then the DA's office. They practiced with you - not a script but you knew what was coming, right?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
50/ Klasfeld:
Pecker concedes he's also suppressed stories about Mark Wahlberg and Rahm Emanuel.
Bove pointedly asks whether he's gotten FEC scrutiny about Emanuel.
Pecker agrees he hasn't.
Me: THEY WEREN'T RUNNING FOR PRES AND TRYING TO INTERFERE WITH AN ELECTION. But hey, that's just me.
Laffy
51/ Klasfeld:
Bove latches onto discrepancy in Pecker's GJ testimony, on whether Trump Tower meeting was early- or mid-Aug.
1st Bove asks q accusingly w flashes of his prosecutorial experience Then, he adopts empathetic tone about nature of memory.
Press:
Bove: You told the grand jury a meeting w Mr. Trump took place in early Aug - but then you changed to mid Aug, right?
Pecker: I don't recall
Bove: You were under oath at the grand jury, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: But now you've changed it
Laffy
52/ Press:
Prosecutor: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Sustained.
Trump's lawyer Bove: It's hard to remember, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: Your mind fills in gaps, correct?
Pecker: Yes...
Bove: How many meeting with prosecutors this year?
Pecker: Four, maybe five
Laffy
47/ Klasfeld:
Bove turns to AMI's purchase of a story about Tiger Woods, about a woman meeting him in a parking lot in Florida.
"All of the investigative work was done internally," Pecker says.
Pecker agrees that AMI used the information to leverage it against Woods for access.
Laffy
48/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: You've suppressed negative stories for Ari Emanuel too, right?
Pecker: Him or one of his celebrities.
Bove: Who?
Pecker: Mark Wahlberg. He had an argument with his wife, story was goin to come out. I told him where to buy the rights
Laffy
49/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: And you did it for Rahm Emanuel, who worked in the Obama White House, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: An affair after he left the White House. You did this while pursuing a business venture in Chicago, right?
Pecker: Wasserstein Perella...
Laffy
45/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: He was given an equity stake and positions in the company - then woman came out of the woodwork- 30 or 40 of them?
Pecker: Yes. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase stories.
Bove: You sent Gigi Goyette to Hawai'i?
A: Yes
Laffy
46/ Bower:
He’s trying to elicit testimony to support the defense theory of the case: That there’s nothing illegal about hush money payments. And that there’s nothing unusual about a campaign coordinating with friendly media entities. In the defense narrative, that's just standard operating procedure.
Laffy
42/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: All the way back in 1998, you let President Trump know about a negative story, about Marla Maples?
Pecker: I did
Bove: You didn't stop it but you tried, right?
Pecker: Right.
Bove: And you ran positive Trump stories, to make money?
Pecker: Yes
Laffy
43/ Klasfeld:
Asking about politicians trying to get favorable coverage to win an election, Bove says there's "nothing surprising about that, yes?"
Pecker agrees.
Laffy
44/ Press:
Bove: You have similar relationships with other politicians too, right?
A: Yes.
Bove: You did this for Ron Perlman of Revlon too, right? You stopped a story against an opening of Planet Hollywood, in which he owned a stake, right?
Pecker: I did.
Bove: And Arnold Schwarzenegger, you needed his blessing and reached an agreement
Laffy
38/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: What was the circulation of the National Enquirer then?
Pecker: 350,000.
Bove: 70% from newsstand sales?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: You had researchers and a model to maximize profit. And President was the top selling celebrity, right?
Packer: Yes
Laffy
39/ IOW, via Orden:
During cross, Bove is driving home the point that Pecker long sought to publish positive stories about Trump, because it was good for business, and hide negative ones.
Laffy
40/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: You had the launch of George Magazine at Mar-a-Lago, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: And Trump Style magazine. For a long time, then, you had a strategy of not publishing negative stories about President Trump, right?
Pecker: Correct.
Laffy
41/ Orden:
During cross, Pecker testified that before this investigation started, he hadn't heard the phrase "catch and kill."
"The first time you heard the phrase was from a prosecutor, correct?" Bove asked.
Pecker: “That’s right.”
In his seat, Trump shook his head.
ME: Someone correct me, but didn't the former editor at the Enquirer who wrote that long article about his time there say he'd heard that term there?
Laffy
35/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: Give me examples of why you wouldn't publish.
Pecker: We'd vet, we're see if there was interest, we might trade it for another story.
Bove: You might buy a story to gain leverage over a celebrity, to give an interview or their likeness
A: Yes
Laffy
36/ Via Bower, one more exchange w/ prosecution:
I was in a very, very difficult place, Pecker says.
And “The first person who called me if I needed help was Donald Trump,”
Trump called him during that time and recommended an attorney, helped him in other ways.
Laffy
37/ Back to Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: From 2015 to 2017, Dylan Howard was chief content officer?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: And Daniel Rothstein, he had the company - call up the People's exhibit, the invoice. He used him to take care of large sensitive payments, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Laffy
33/ Klasfeld:
Observation:
Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche has been quiet in court all day, since the judge dressed him down during Tuesday's proceedings.
Bove, his fellow Southern District of New York alum, has taken the lead most of the day.
Laffy
34/ Klasfeld:
Bove questions Pecker about "checkbook journalism."
"You only published about half of the stories that you purchased?" he asks.
Pecker agrees.
Pecker also agrees that it's standard for those agreements to obligate sources not to disclose their stories to other outlets.
Laffy
32/ Klasfeld:
After Pecker gives a post-9/11 closing anecdote about his friendship with Trump, the prosecution's direct examination ends.
Team Trump will have the opportunity to cross examine the witness next.
Questioning for Trump is Emil Bove.
Laffy
67/ Gee, real shame.
Via Ron Filipkowski:
Judge Merchan set a hearing on Trump’s newest gag order violations for next Wednesday afternoon. The problem for Trump is that he has rallies in MI and WI scheduled on the same date and time since that was supposed to be an off day from court.
Laffy
64/ Klasfeld:
News—
👉🏼As proceedings end, Justice Merchan announces he's signed the order to show cause on Trump's four latest alleged gag order violations.
📌📌He's scheduled a hearing on Wed at 2:15 p.m. ET👈🏼
The big questions:
Does Justice Merchan rule on the first 10 alleged violations before that hearing, and if he does, does he warn Trump about possible imprisonment for further violations in that ruling?
Laffy
65/ Lisa Rubin:
NEW: Set your calendars for Wednesday at 2:15 p.m., when Judge Merchan will hold a hearing on the Manhattan DA's third set of alleged gag order violations,
👉🏼 including through Trump's visit with construction workers at the new J.P. Morgan Chase building before court today.
Laffy
66/ Rubin:
Between four trials and multiple additional hearings in GA, DC, and FL, I've seen a lot of lawyering in the Trump cases, and not all of it good. But today's direct and cross examinations of David Pecker were the sort of things you'd want to show law students.
Laffy
61/ Klasfeld:
So ends trial proceedings for the day.
The judge is excusing the jury with their daily instructions.
Laffy
62/ Klasfeld:
Post-trial proceedings:
Prosecution accuses Trump's counsel of improper impeachment, leading to an exchange where Emil Bove tests the judge's patience.
👉🏼Merchan: "Mr. Bove, are you missing my point? Because I don't think you're responding to what I'm saying."
Laffy
63/ And via Press:
Steinglass: To show the witness A102, which has nothing about the August 2015 meeting - Mr. Pecker wasn't given an opportunity. There was no indication he was asked, or that it would be a notable omission. It was improper impeachment!
Bove: He asked me for the document.
Justice Merchan: He didn't ask for A102.
Bove: I don't know what's behind the redactions.
👉🏼Justice Merchan: Sit down. I'm going to instruct the jury about it tomorrow. You should be careful about this
Laffy
59/ Press:
Bove: Before that break, when asked, you did not mention Hope Hicks, right?
Pecker: Can I see what you are referring to?
Bove: I'll bring it up. Only for Mr. Pecker and the parties
Bove: This is a report on the meeting we're talking about. You did not tell the government that Hope Hicks was there, in the Trump Tower meeting...
Pecker: I don't know what page you're referring to.
Bove: That's why I gave you the document.
Laffy
60/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Bove: And on August 2, 2028 you met again with the prosecutors about the August 2105 meeting
Pecker: I need to see the report...
Bove: You need to see a report to remember?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: At no point did you mention Hope Hicks
Gov't: Objection!
Laffy
58/ Press:
Bove: Soon the FBI came to your house, you were subject to an FEC inquiry - it was important for you to get everything out, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: But you didn't tell anyone Hope Hicks participated in the meeting, right?
Prosecutor: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Please approach.
[Sidebar. Then:]
Justice Merchan: Sustained.
Laffy
55/ Klasfeld:
Pecker holds firm on the crux of his testimony:
"What I said under oath is the truth. That's all I plan on doing today."
Pushing back at Bove's suggestion, Pecker says, softly but decisively: "It's not a script."
Laffy
56/ Klasfeld:
Pecker agrees that Cohen acted as an intermediary for potentially negative stories.
Bove notes that Cohen worked for Trump for at least eight years before the Trump Tower meeting.
Prosecutor objects, and the parties approach the bench for a sidebar, after Trump's counsel mentions David Pecker's testimony before the federal grand jury.
Laffy
57/ Press:
Bove: And Michael Cohen, he asked you for help that had nothing to do with President Trump, right?
Pecker: Yes.
Bove: To help with his daughter's rock climbing company, right.
A: Yes.
Bove: Cohen told you he was not working for the campaign?
A: Yes
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