Trump hush money trial: tabloid publisher says he buried stories to help billionaire’s 2016 presidential bid
- David Pecker testified that the National Enquirer paid for stories of Trump’s sexual misbehaviour but never published them, a practice known as ‘catch and kill’
- The tabloid gave ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal US$150,000 for her account of a sexual relationship with Trump, and another US$30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman
The first witness in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, testified on Tuesday that he used his supermarket tabloid to suppress stories that might have hurt Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.
Pecker, 72, testified in a New York court that the Enquirer paid two people who were peddling stories of Trump’s sexual misbehaviour but never published them – a practice known as “catch and kill”.
“When someone’s running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories,” Pecker testified.
Pecker said the decision to bury the stories followed a 2015 meeting at which he told Trump that the Enquirer would publish favourable stories about the billionaire candidate and keep an eye out for people selling stories that might hurt him. He said he told an editor to keep the arrangement secret.
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.