April 26 (UPI) — The hush money trial of Donald Trump reached its fourth day Friday with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker on the witness stand for cross-examination by the defense.
Pecker testified Friday morning that he did not want to be involved in publishing the story about adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ alleged affair with the former president.
Prior to this he testified to the prosecution that he had met with Trump at Trump Tower in 2015 to discuss suppressing negative stories about him. On Friday he said his reluctance to be involved in the Daniels story was not related to any agreement made with Trump in 2015.
The court took a short break following Trump attorney Emil Bove’s questioning about the Daniels story before resuming cross-examination about 10 minutes later. Bove said before the break he had about an hour of cross-examination left.
The former president is in the courtroom while Bove is cross-examining Pecker. The former publisher testified to purchasing and holding onto negative stories about Trump on Thursday.
Pecker was questioned Thursday about an alleged catch-and-kill scheme by the former president to bury stories of his extramarital affairs during his 2016 presidential campaign. Pecker said he purchased a story about an affair Trump allegedly had with a Playboy model to keep it from going public and harming his campaign.
When asked by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass if he purchased the story about the affair to influence the election, Pecker said “Yes.” After the defense’s cross-examination, Steinglass questioned Pecker about the story again. Pecker then elaborated on the purpose of purchasing it.
“[The] actual purpose was to acquire lifetime rights so it was not published by any other news organization,” Pecker said.
Pecker also testified earlier this week that he published negative and “fake” stories about Trump’s Republican primary opponents intended to harm their campaigns. Bove asked Pecker about the National Enquirer’s practice of recycling stories like these from other outlets.
Pecker confirmed that this is true. He later added that American Media Inc., the National Enquirer’s parent company, did not have an agreement to publish negative stories about Trump’s Republican opponents until the Trump Tower meeting in 2015.
Trump is charged with 34 counts related to falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to hide hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Republican presidential candidate and presumptive nominee has complained throughout the trial that it is interfering with his ability to campaign. Trump has alleged that this and other cases against him are politically motivated.
