Trump trial: Defense to grill National Enquirer publisher David Packer: Live update

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in a courtroom in Manhattan Criminal Court, Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York, U.S.

Gina Moon via Reuters

This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day.

Former President Donald Trump’s defense attorney continued his cross-examination Friday of former National Enquirer publisher David Packer, who gave three days of damning testimony for prosecutors in Trump’s New York criminal money laundering trial.

Trump’s lawyers began cross-examining Peck Thursday afternoon with a series of questions designed to poke holes in Peck’s credibility. That effort was opposed by prosecutors Thursday afternoon, and New York Judge Juan Melchan said the matter would be taken up Friday.

Once the cross-examination ends, prosecutors are expected to change direction.

Entering court Friday morning, Trump said he thought Thursday’s trial was going “very well.”

He complained that the courtroom was cold and he claimed the judge had a conflict of interest. He called the proceedings “a rigged trial”. Trump has repeatedly made the same accusations on social media.

Pekar testified about the “catch and mail” scheme he created with Trump and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen during the 2016 presidential campaign to buy the rights to negative tabloid stories about Trump without publishing those reports, actually killing them.

Pekar described how his publishing company paid $30,000 to a former janitor at Trump Tower for a story he believed was false, and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougall, for the rights to report on her alleged affair with Trump. He really believed it to be true.

Peck also explained that after buying the first two stories and not being paid by Trump, he was unwilling to pay an additional $130,000 to buy the silence of adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who claims he had sex with Trump during Ten Years of Poo. Had sex. . Before that, he contested for the presidency.

Pekar sat just a few feet away from Trump as Trump spoke, and the two occasionally glanced at each other. Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to cover up debt payments, which he ultimately charged after Cohen’s lawyers and personal handlers paid Daniels $130,000 to buy his silence.

Peck also testified that he suspected that the company’s payments to the concierge and McDougall’s story could constitute campaign finance violations because they were essentially undisclosed contributions to help Trump’s presidential campaign.

He consulted a campaign finance lawyer about the matter, but the Enquirer’s parent company, AMI Publishing, later received an inquiry from the Federal Election Commission about the payment.

The company eventually admitted to campaign finance violations and paid more than $100,000 in 2021. $180,000 reached an arbitration agreement with the FEC to resolve the matter.