Pecker delivered more substantial testimony today, speaking for nearly two hours and describing the origins of his relationship with Trump. He also clearly described the formation of the “catch-and-kill” scheme as something that was done as part of Trump’s campaign for office. Pecker made clear that the National Enquirer was little less than an extension of that campaign. He didn’t just trap “stories by women” about Trump: Pecker coordinated with the campaign through Cohen to both publish false positive news about Trump and false negative news about Trump’s opponents.
That included publishing a story about a Marco Rubio “love child” and a Ted Cruz porn star affair that mimicked actual stories that Pecker was suppressing about Trump.
The prosecution was moving through how the “catch-and-kill” scheme operated, using the examples of doorman Dino Sajudin and Playboy model Karen McDougal when the day reached a close. But already it’s clear that the scheme was closely embedded in the Trump campaign and more directed at preserving Trump’s viability as a candidate than protecting any personal reputation.
Along those lines, Pecker described Trump as an “eligible bachelor” who was “dating” many beautiful women at a time when he had been married to his third wife for a decade. So it seems that Trump had good reason to expect “stories by women.” It’s just amazing the woman behind one of them wasn’t named Melania.
As interesting as all that was, the highlight has to be the gag order hearing held at the beginning of the day. Trump’s defense was absolutely blistered in that hearing. The prosecution went into the day asking for a simple $1,000 fine for each of Trump’s violations of the gag order on social media. But the hearing ended with the judge clearly peeved at Trump’s defense, telling lead attorney Todd Blanche that he was losing credibility with the court. Neither Blanche’s claims that Trump was allowed to attack witnesses for political reasons, nor his insistence that Trump was talking about the two tiers of justice in Merchan’s courtroom endeared him to the judge.
Merchan has still not ruled on the gag order, but whatever the official outcome, Trump lost a lot more than $10,000.
And that’s it for today. See you next week!
