Former President Donald Trump’s trial on allegations of business fraud related to hush money payments featured former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who was back on the stand Tuesday to detail how he offered to deploy the publication’s “catch and kill” strategy to intercept negative stories about Trump. (WaPo)
“We used checkbook journalism,” Pecker candidly confessed, “and we paid for stories.” It was the first time Pecker has spoken publicly about the secret practice—buying exclusive rights to a story for the express purpose of never publishing the information—since the tactic gained widespread notoriety during the 2016 presidential election. (CNN)
Pecker explained how he and the National Enquirer parlayed rumor-mongering into splashy tabloid stories that smeared Trump’s opponents and, just as crucially, how he leveraged his connections to suppress seamy stories about Trump, including a porn actor’s claim of an extramarital sexual encounter one decade earlier. (AP)
Pecker said the Enquirer paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007. He said he bought the story after Trump refused to do so himself. The tabloid also paid $30,000 for a story peddled by Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin, who claimed that Trump fathered a child with a maid who worked for him. The story turned out not to be true, Pecker said. (Reuters)
“Why are you paying $30,000 for an untrue story?” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked while displaying the contract Pecker had with Sajudan to the jury. “Because if the story got out to another publication, it would have been embarrassing for the campaign,” Pecker said. “So, this was a way to lock it up?” Steinglass asked. “That’s correct,” Pecker responded. (ABC News)