An incredible number of hours went into covering up #Trump's alleged affairs in 2016. #MicgaelCohen & the team at The #NationalEnquirer went to elaborate lengths & constantly communicated about how to keep #women quiet. Accounting departments were engaged. Front companies were created. Misleading invoices were produced.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal

That’s the crux of the #conspiracy that prosecutors say #MichaelCohen, #Trump, & The #NationalEnquirer entered into during the election: suppressing negative stories about Trump to aid his chances as a candidate.

Prosecution asks about Cohen’s work negotiating on Trump’s behalf in the #TrumpUniversity case— in which Trump was sued for defrauding thousands of students & paid a $25M settlement — an example of regular people suffering as a result of a Trump business.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#MichaelCohen says he had >30k contacts in his phone.

Cohen explains that part of the reason there were so many is because Trump had his own contacts synced onto Cohen's phone for ease.

Cohen describes his relationship w/ David #Pecker, the fmr publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, & the 1st witness at this trial. Pecker testified that he, Cohen & #Trump entered into a secret plan to suppress negative stories about Trump in 2015.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy

#MichaelCohen has now testified that he, #Trump & David #Pecker, the publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, entered into a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump. He says Pecker "would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out" & try to stop it from doing so.

This is the #conspiracy prosecutors allege Trump participated in - 1 of the potential #crimes that transforms the charges Trump is facing into #felonies.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference

#MichaelCohen describes the negative stories about Trump's #GOP primary rivals The #NationalEnquirer printed. Some of the smears were directed at #MarcoRubio, the #Florida senator who is currently a top contender to be #Trump's running mate.

Cohen says that he "immediately showed" such material to Trump, who would greet it with praise like "fantastic, unbelievable."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference

#MichaelCohen & prosecution discuss positive stories about #Trump that Cohen helped craft for The #NationalEnquirer:

Prosecution shows email back-&-forth between Cohen, & The Enquirer. Cohen is seen in the email editing what goes in & out of a puff piece about Trump. He doesn't want them to mention that Trump used to date a "Penthouse Pet" - evidence for the jury that Cohen was diligently micromanaging reporting of Trump's history w/women.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy

#MichaelCohen lays out the first #CatchAndKill story that he worked on w/ The #NationalEnquirer. It was about an allegation by a #doorman at a #Trump building that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cohen describes telling Trump about it.

This is the first of the 3 #HushMoney deals that jurors have heard about. The last of them is Cohen's own $130k payment to #StormyDaniels.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#MichaelCohen says he monitored the progress of the doorman's story closely, & that The #NationalEnquirer struck a deal to suppress the story. Cohen says that #Trump was very happy to hear of it - & that Cohen personally reviewed the agreement, & asked for a copy to show Trump so that he knew it was taken care of.

Cohen is describing seeking “credit" w/Trump for "accomplishing the task" of making sure the doorman's story stayed dead.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#MichaelCohen goes through his text messages w/ #DylanHoward, editor of The #NationalEnquirer, about #KarenMcDougal.

"I've got this locked down for you," Howard tells Cohen of the McDougal story. "I won't let it out of my grasp."

Cohen is asked about having been present for a conversation that #Trump had w/ David #Pecker about a week after those texts were sent. Cohen says Trump asked Pecker "how things were going," & Pecker said they had it under control.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#MichaelCohen reads more text exchanges w/ #NationalEnquirer’s #DylanHoward.

Jurors have already heard a recording, secretly made by Cohen as he talked to #Trump about #KarenMcDougal, corroborating this part Cohen's testimony.

Cohen said that #Pecker had told him the agreement w/McDougal was “bulletproof." That is exactly the same word that Pecker told the #jury that he had used w/Cohen.

#law #TrumpTrial

Big picture:

#Trump currently has senior #elected officials, including a possible future VP nominee, sitting in the courtroom listening to a recording of him, as a candidate, talking w/his lawyer about paying for material from The #NationalEnquirer. Trump has completely got the party under his boot.

#Pathetic #Deplorables #criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal

#TrumpTrial 🧵

Testimony started w/a bang last week as David #Pecker, the fmr publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, said that he had entered into a secret plot w/ #Trump & #MichaelCohen to #CatchAndKill negative stories about Trump as he ran for president in 2016.
#GaryFarro, the 3rd to testify, started off w/dry details about banking transactions. But #Farro is leading us to the #HushMoney payment

#criminal #law
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/30/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Questioning resumed.

#Pecker says of his time at The #NationalEnquirer: "We used checkbook #journalism, & we paid for stories.”

#Steinglass asked him whether he had "final say" over editorial decisions. Pecker said anything >$10k had to be approved by him.

Pecker said in his experience, the only thing that's important "is the cover" of a magazine.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Pecker described the types of people #tabloids typically use as sources: hotel workers, limo drivers, lawyers, etc.

#Trump's lawyers have tried to depict the ##NationalEnquirer #tabloid as a media company like any other. But Pecker's testimony that they practiced “#CheckbookJournalism," & his description of their editorial practices, undermines that argument.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Here’s a sampling of #NationalEnquirer covers leading up to the 2016 presidential election:

Remember the twitter #TrumpLovesPecker hashtag?

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#GiftArticle ICYMI: #LachlanCartwright’s “What I Saw Working at The #NationalEnquirer During Donald #Trump’s Rise”

“…reading the indictment was like stepping through the looking glass,

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/magazine/national-enquirer-trump-lachlan-cartwright.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU0.Bo8c.tkQySLkdTTR2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

#Blanche said that #StormyDaniels’s "testimony, while salacious, does not matter.”

Blanche equated the "#CatchAndKill" scheme w/The #NationalEnquirer, to ordinary editorial decisions made by newspapers, portraying the practice just how news outlets operate, NOT TRUE.

Blanche used the term "catch & kill" mockingly. Whether his tone lands depends on the jurors: some may agree it’s overblown, others may see it as akin to #StateMedia #propaganda.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial

#Colangelo insists that much of #Cohen's testimony will be #corroborated, incl’g by witnesses from The #NationalEnquirer & "an extensive paper trail."

Because the prosecution bears the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, it gets to go first (& last) in a #criminal case. The advantage of that can be seen in action here, as Colangelo gives the jury his own frame through which to view #MichaelCohen.

#law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Reportedly, #Trump pursed his lips at ↑ that & wrote a note which he passed to his atty Todd Blanche, then whispered to atty, Emil Bove.

#Colangelo described a communication from Keith Davidson, the lawyer for #KarenMcDougal, to Dylan Howard, a #NationalEnquirer editor, as it became clear Trump was winning the #election: "What have we done," he said.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Colangelo says #Pecker will testify that $150k was more than The #NationalEnquirer would typically have paid for such a deal, & that Pecker had trouble being reimbursed. Crucially, Colangelo says, Pecker will testify that he spoke to #Trump about it.

Colangelo mentions an audio #recording #Cohen made between himself & Trump discussing the #McDougal deal.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Colangelo is now describing the 2nd “#CatchAndKill” deal in question, relating to #KarenMcDougal, a fmr #PlayboyModel who said she had an affair w/ #Trump. #Colangelo says evidence will show that Trump “desperately” didn’t want that info public. “Before the meeting, during the meeting, after the meeting,” Colangelo says, #NationalEnquirer publisher was in touch w/ #MichaelCohen, putting this deal right at Trump’s doorstep.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Prosecutors to highlight 3 hush-money deals: #Trump & co-conspirators paid off the #PornStar, the #PlayboyModel & the #doorman.

#Colangelo emphasizes it was the 1st time ever that #DavidPecker, #NationalEnquirer, paid for info relating to Trump.

key: every one of these acts involving #HushMoney sprang from the meeting at which the #conspiracy was hatched.

IOW, prosecutors are accusing Trump of using The NE to do for Trump what Trump constantly says others do against him: promote “#FakeNews.”

#Colangelo describes “#CatchAndKill scheme, in which #NationalEnquirer bought stories that were problems for #Trump & buried them.
NOT NORMAL #journalism

Colangelo describes some NE headlines that helped Trump's 2016 #campaign, embarrassing campaign opponents incl’g #TedCruz & #MarcoRubio.
Prosecutors are limited to the HEADLINES per #Sandoval. They go to Trump’s #intent: to #influence the election by promoting negative stories about others & suppressing those about himself.

#law #TrumpTrial

Expected to be the first witness in the #TrumpTrial is #DavidPecker, the fmr publisher of the #NationalEnquirer, who bought & buried damaging stories about #Trump in a #CatchAndKill scheme to unlawfully #influence the 2016 presidential election.

#criminal #law #ElectionInterference #HushMoney