Donald Trump was in court again in Manhattan on Tuesday morning for the second day of witness testimony in his criminal trial over hush-money payments to a pornographic film star weeks before the 2016 election.
David Pecker, the ex-president’s longtime ally and former publisher of the National Enquirer – who prosecutors contend was integral in illicit catch-and-kill efforts – is expected to take the stand again following a brief appearance Tuesday.
First off, however, Juan Merchan heard arguments about a request from prosecutors to hold Trump in contempt of court. They said he repeatedly violated a gag order barring him from publicly attacking witnesses in the trial.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, argued that his client was just responding to political attacks with some of the alleged violations, not flouting the judge’s order.
He further argued that seven of the instances cited by the prosecution did not violate the gag order because they were re-posts of other people’s content on social media.
“Re-posting an article from a news site or a news program,” he said, “we don’t believe are a violation of the gag order.”
Merchan asked whether there was any case law on it. Blanche replied: “I don’t have any case laws, your honor, it’s just common sense.”
As Blanche continued to repeat that claim, the judge rebuked him.
“Mr Blanche you’re losing all credibility, I have to tell you right now,” Merchan said.
“You’re losing all credibility with the court. Is there any other argument you want to make?”
Merchan eventually called a short break and said he was reserving decision for the time being.
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Pecker first took the stand on Monday and provided brief testimony of his work as a tabloid honcho. “We used checkbook journalism and we paid for stories. I gave a number to the editors that they could not spend more than $10,000 to investigate or produce or publish a story, anything over $10,000 they would spend on a story, they would have to be vetted and brought up to me, for approval.”
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Pecker said he had final say over the content of the National Enquirer and other AMI publications. “Being in the publishing industry for 40 years, I realized early in my career that the only thing that was important is the cover of a magazine, so when the editors produced the story or prepared a cover, we would have a meeting and they would present to me what the story would be, what the concept was, what the cost was going to be.”
Prosecutors contend that Pecker was at the center of a plot to boost Trump’s chances in the 2016 election. Shortly after Trump in the summer of 2015 announced a presidential run, he met with his then lawyer Michael Cohen and Pecker at Trump Tower where, the prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement on Monday, they hatched a plan.
If Pecker caught wind of damaging information, he would apprise Trump and Cohen, so they could figure out a way to keep it quiet. That collusion came to include AMI’s $150,000 payoff to the Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Trump, prosecutors have said.
The alleged plot to cover up a claimed sexual encounter between the adult film star Stormy Daniels and Trump is the basis of prosecutors’ case.
In October 2016, the Washington Post published a video featuring Trump’s hot-mic comments during an Access Hollywood taping, in which he boasted about sexually assaulting women. The comments, which Colangelo read to jurors, included “Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
After they surfaced, the campaign went into panic mode, Colangelo said. It worked to characterize these comments as “locker room talk”, but, when Daniels’ claim came across Trump and his allies’ radar, they feared the backlash: people would see these ill-behaved ways were not mere talk.
“Another story about infidelity, with a porn star, on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape, would have been devastating to his campaign,” Colangelo also said in his address to jurors. “Cohen carried out a $130,000 payoff to Daniels which Trump allegedly repaid him in checks that he listed as legal services in official company records.
“Look, no politician wants bad press, but the evidence at trial will show that this wasn’t spin or communication strategy,” Colangelo continued. “This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures – to silence people with something bad to say about his behavior.
“It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
Pecker’s testimony will provide insight into the alleged plot, as discussions of concerns about damaging information – and the steps his cronies purportedly took to bury it – would speak to motive.
Trump’s camp has insisted that Trump did not do anything wrong and that the basis of prosecutors’ claims lacks legal merit. “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election,” the defense lawyer Todd Blanche said in his opening. “It’s called democracy.”