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Items tagged with: Pecker
Justice #Merchan is done, & now the court reporter will read the #testimony. 2 court reporters will read. The first explains that she is the “lawyer” & that her colleague, on the witness stand is “David Pecker.” They start w/ testimony pertaining to a phone call that #Pecker & #Trump had in June 2016, acc/to Pecker’s testimony.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
This #testimony is good for the prosecution.
David #Pecker testified that #Trump acknowledged speaking to #MichaelCohen about the issue & acknowledged knowing #KarenMcDougal, one of the women who was eventually paid to keep quiet during the 2016 campaign about her story of having had an affair w/ Trump.
“Karen is a nice girl,” Trump said on this call, according to Pecker’s testimony.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#Pecker testified that he recommended that #Trump buy #KarenMcDougal’s story. The portion of #testimony ends before the #jury hears what comes next. Pecker testified that #MichaelCohen called him back & told him to buy McDougal’s story on Trump's behalf.
Jurors heard the portion of Pecker's testimony when he said he believed the story of Trump having had an affair w/McDougal was true, & would be embarrassing to Trump.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
Next the court reporters read the second part of David #Pecker’s #testimony that the #jurors asked to hear, where he explains that he decided he did not want to be repaid for #KarenMcDougal’s story after purchasing it. The implication was that he was concerned about the #legal consequences of accepting a reimbursement - he testified that the concern was regarding FEC violations.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Jurors hear #Pecker recall that after he said he wasn’t going to go thru w/the agreement w/ #MichaelCohen, who was to pay him for the rights to #KarenMcDougal’s story using an LLC, Cohen told him: “The boss is going to be very angry at you.”
Court reporters read the 3rd portion of Pecker’s testimony. This part pertains to the Aug 2015 #TrumpTowerMeeting in which Pecker, Michael Cohen & #Trump entered a #conspiracy to suppress negative news about Trump during the #2016election.
#Pecker’s #testimony here is key to prosecution's case. Jurors also asked to hear MichaelCohen’s testimony about the #TrumpTowerMeeting. They will hear that next.
One of the major arguments the defense made during closings also pertained to this meeting, & concerned the idea that the phrase #CatchAndKill was not used during it.
(It’s not used in the charges either. It’s just a characterization not a legal term.)
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
The #jurors just again heard #Pecker’s #testimony that the reason he was purchasing negative stories on #Trump’s behalf was to benefit his presidential campaign.
Defense atty Emil #Bove cross-examined Pecker, & jurors are hearing part of that cross now. Bove elicited testimony that Pecker misremembered the exact date of the Aug 2015 meeting, & more generally that Pecker was testifying about events from a long time ago.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
Testimony readbacks can highlight moments that were seemingly rushed by during trial.
Here, we see that it was very important for the defense for #Bove to call #Pecker’s memory about this meeting into question.
Also the importance of objections becomes very apparent. Any objection that was sustained by the judge — & several were in this cross of Pecker — is not read aloud as the jury considers a potential verdict.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial
#Pecker testified on cross-examination that the phrase “#CatchAndKill” was not used at the Aug 2015 #TrumpTowerMeeting — & that there was no financial agreement made in concert w/the plan for him to supress negative stories about #Trump AT THAT MEETING.
The defense has argued that both of those data points should cast doubt on the prosecution’s theory.
The end of the cross-examination of #Pecker was less good for the defense. It was just read aloud again. “There was a discussion about that I was going to be the eyes and ears of the campaign,” Pecker testified. “And there was a discussion that I would be notifying Michael Cohen of any women that were in the process of or going to be selling stories.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
Court reporters now read the 4th & final portion of #testimony that jurors asked to hear: #MichaelCohen’s recounting of that same #TrumpTowerMeeting.
Cohen’s testimony matches Pecker’s account closely. #Pecker testified that he had said he would be #Trump’s “eyes & ears” & watch out for negative stories. Cohen recalls him saying he would “keep an eye out for anything negative.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass list the many witnesses who testified who are still loyal to #Trump: #HopeHicks, #MadeleineWesterhout, #JeffreyMcConney, #RhonaGraff & David #Pecker. Steinglass says that Pecker has “absolutely no reason to lie here,” & adds, “and yet, his testimony is utterly devastating.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Steinglass outlines their theory of the Aug 2015 meeting between #Trump, #MichaelCohen, & David #Pecker, of #NationalEnquirer, in which they agreed to a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump & promote negative stories about his opponents.
Steinglass punctures one of #Blanche’s go-to arguments —that The Enquirer is like all publications & Pecker's arrangement w/Trump wasn’t unusual. There is nothing normal or standard about what the tabloid was doing w/Trump.
#Steinglass goes back over The #NationalEnquirer’s Pecker’s testimony.
#Pecker came off as a genteel & soft-spoken person who still loves #Trump. And he offered some of the most damaging testimony of the trial.
FYI: criminalizing what Pecker & parent co AMI were doing is not part of the charges.
Steinglass shows how their actions & practices went far beyond what reporters actually do. The details of Pecker’s testimony demonstrate that the aim was to help Trump’s candidacy.
#Steinglass uses the case of the #TrumpOrganization doorman to illustrate a point about looking at testimony in its full context.
#Blanche had noted that #Pecker said he would have printed the doorman's story, about #Trump fathering a child out of wedlock, regardless of whether it was true. But Steinglass shows the jurors that Pecker added that he would have waited until after the election to do so. “Because that was what they agreed to do.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial
#Steinglass now talks# about the 2nd of 3 hush-money deals, which involved #KarenMcDougal & was arranged by The #NationalEnquirer. He says that #Pecker & #DylanHoward of The Enquirer & #KeithDavidson, McDougal's lawyer, spoke in code. But you don’t have to be a codebreaker, he says, to understand what they were talking about
Steinglass also notes that the trio was communicating w/ #MichaelCohen, who testified that he had been charged w/keeping #Trump apprised of their progress
#Steinglass tells the jury that #Pecker was willing to sacrifice his bottom line in service of #Trump’s campaign, & adds that this deal was “the very antithesis of a normal legitimate press function.”
Steinglass shows through call records the degree to which Trump would have had knowledge of the discussions around acquiring #KarenMcDougal’s life rights. Cutting against Blanche’s portrayal of Trump as a dupe who people took advantage of.
To believe defense, you’d have to take #Blanche’s word #MichaelCohen went rogue & #Trump was clueless about the #StormyDaniels deal.
Steinglass details calls between #Pecker & #MichaelCohen, w/ #HopeHicks occasionally in the mix, reminding jurors how enmeshed Cohen was & how much he talked to the campaign.
As he takes jurors through the mountain of documentary evidence, he sympathizes, “We don’t need to show all these calls & emails… they’re in evidence if you want to see them.”
#Steinglass needs to show the jurors that the *alleged* #Trump Tower conspiracy between David #Pecker, #MichaelCohen & #Trump involved using “unlawful means” to aid Trump’s election.
Steinglass displays one of the unlawful means, a document called a business information overview that Cohen created as he sought to obtain the cash to pay #StormyDaniels.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche is trying to suggest that the meeting that Trump & #MichaelCohen had in 2015 w/ #Pecker, of The #NationalEnquirer, when prosecutors say they hatched a plan to suppress damaging stories about #Trump & promote negative ones about his rivals, was SOP between a presidential #candidate & the #press. It was not.
Blanche suggests that bc Pecker’s relationship w/Trump, & their #CatchAndKill agreement, was not an #election #conspiracy bc it predated the campaign.
#Blanche reminds #jurors that The #NationalEnquirer #Pecker testified that #Trump was a top celebrity who sold magazines.
“Absurd.” “Preposterous.” “Makes no sense.” Blanche’s closing is filled w/terminology ridiculing the government’s argument.
He argues it’s absurd to think that Trump would have entered a #conspiracy w/ The Enquirer to sway a national election, because they’re a tabloid.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche says that despite the prosecution arguing that David #Pecker agreed to suppress negative stories on #Trump’s behalf in 2015 — a practice known as #CatchAndKill — the phrase "catch & kill" was not used at that meeting. “Make no mistake about it,” Blanche says.
Blanche argues there was “nothing unusual” about catching & killing, & that Pecker testified that The #NationalEnquirer only published ~½ of the stories it purchased.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche addresses the 3 specific #CatchAndKill deals prosecutors allege #Pecker was involved in, all of which they say were designed to protect #Trump. Defense argues all 3 stories are false.
He characterizes the 1st, involving a doorman at a #TrumpOrganization bldg, as “literally a made up story designed to harm President Trump.”
Blanche talks about Playboy model #KarenMcDougal who sold the rights to her story of an affair w/Trump to The #NationalEnquirer's parent co, #AMI.
Prosecutors have objected to #Blanche 2X,
w/1 overruled & 1 sustained, as #Blanche talks about #Pecker saying he consulted lawyers about the deal.
Blanche attacks the phrase #CatchAndKill as if it were central to prosecution’s case. Prosecutors have stayed away from using it. It wasn’t in their opening statement, or the portion of the statement of #facts they released when #Trump was #indicted explaining their theory of the #conspiracy.
#Blanche claims that #MichaelCohen fully fabricated an encounter that he had w/Pecker in which #Pecker expressed anger that he had not been repaid for 1 of the #HushMoney deals. “Ladies & gentlemen, that lunch did not happen,” Blanche said. “Cohen made it up.”
Blanche doesn’t provide any #evidence Cohen made it up. Instead, Blanche reminds jurors that they should pay close attention to documentary evidence in assessing Cohen’s testimony.
Neither Rodriguez nor Howard testified, & their absence may give #Blanche room to *spin* his theory. He notes that, in a text, Howard said that he was not working on #Trump’s behalf. Blanche suggests Howard was acting against the interests of David #Pecker, his publisher.
Blanche again tells the jury, that NDAs are not inherently problematic, adding that there is nothing “illegal,” “sinister” or “criminal” about them.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
