United States – David Pecker, former publisher of National Enquirer, will be questioned on his attempts to contain the dangerous information about Donald Trump during the 2016 election, as the trial of the former president’s criminal hush money scheme started on Friday.
Testimony Reveals Collaboration with Trump
Pecker, who is 72, had more questions from Trump’s lawyers. The lawyers gave examples of the practice of burying stories about celebrities to illustrate that the same practice existed in the tabloid before Trump’s presidency, as reported by Reuters.
Pecker, earlier, had testified that he was the eyes and ears of Trump, who did his bidding, to smother stories that could provoke Trump’s presidential bid, which was in trouble following multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
Pecker told the inquirers that his tabloid intentionally bought two of those stories to “catch and kill” and, moreover, warned Trump that porn star Stormy Daniels was also going to sell her story about a sexual encounter with Donald.
Unprecedented Charges Against a Former President

In what is an unusual move for the New Your prosecutors, Trump has been charged with falsifying business records data to hide the hush money payment to Daniels. Trump has pled not guilty and also denies the account.
Trump’s attorneys tried to prove that Pecker, the publisher, was not committed to Trump alone by citing his neglecting to pursue other stories involving Trump.
During the examination, Pecker testified it was customary for celebrities and politicians to butter up the Enquirer for uplifting bylines and that he tried to heel stories that would negatively impact the lives of many A-listers, too, like Schwarzenegger and Woods.
He stressed that the tabloid newspaper had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase stories from women who were having affairs with Schwarzenegger during the governor’s race of 2003.
Pecker told Trump first in 1998, at the time when Tranp had wife Marla Maples.
Pecker added that he still considers Trump his friend even though the latter hasn’t spoken with him since 2019.
Pecker’s deal with Trump, prosecutors maintained, had no other option but to have distorted the outcomes of the 2016 election. The offender promised to cooperate to evade penal charges.
Trump is the very first former president in the history of the country to be indicted. Biden would run through May as the only one of the four criminal prosecutions conducted. Thus, two months before Election Day, his face-off with Democratic President Joe Biden remains uncertain.
Apart from those related to Trump’s effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory, the Special Counsel has been requesting the Justice Department to postpone the cases in the U.S. Supreme Court for months as the Court deliberates on Trump’s claims of presidential immunity for any actions taken while in office.
During the oral arguments held on Thursday, justices from the conservative-majority bench voiced their opinion that Trump should have some protections from criminal prosecution.
Legal Battles
Justice Juan Merchan, who is hearing the case related to hush money, still hasn’t passed on a request by prosecutors to punish President Trump for corruption that’s accused of trespassing a gag order that bans him from criticizing witnesses, some court officials, and their relatives, as reported by Reuters.
Merchan declared that he will hold his hearing next Thursday to investigate the persecutors’ description of a so-called disclosure violation. Trump might be sentenced to a USD 1,000 fine or detention even though prosecutors claim that they do not want incarceration at the current stage.
Leave a Reply