What the prosecution wants from first hush money trial witness’s testimony: legal expert

22 April 2024

Former National Enquirer editor David Pecker was up first to testify in ex-President Donald Trump's New York hush money trial Monday.

Forbes reporter Sara Dorn contends that the ex-media magnate's testimony will be "'crucial' to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s allegation 'that Trump, with Pecker's help, sought to kill allegations he had an affair before the 2016 election.'"

During the latest episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace asked legal correspondent Lisa Rubin, "in terms of laying out the onus of a crime, what does the prosecution want from David Pecker?"

Rubin replied, "The prosecution wants him to establish the conspiracy, it's that unholy trinity of Trump, [former Trump lawyer and star witness] Michael Cohen and David Pecker."

She continued, "According to prosecutors today, it was Trump who invited David Pecker to come to this meeting at Trump Tower in 2015. They were joined by Michael Cohen there. When we've seen that meeting described in public filings, it comes across really differently. They say there was a meeting between Cohen and Pecker, and a third member of the Trump campaign. We know from our colleague tom [NBC News investigative journalist] Tom Winter's reporting in 2018 —"

Wallace interrupted Rubin, asking Deadline producers whether or not the footage of Winter's reporting was available.

It was.

In the clip, Winters said, "The first discussion of this so-called catch and kill comes up in August 2015. So the Wall Street Journal reported back in November, and NBC News has now confirmed, that, in fact, the other campaign official in the room is the guy at the head of the campaign himself: Donald Trump."

Wallace emphasized, "So that was established through NBC's reporting and others back in 2018. People that know Trump know he's such a maniac with the details. But they have this alternate myth that he somehow floats around and doesn't know who is in his office. This was his meeting."

Rubin replied, "Yes, it was his meeting, and he's micromanagerial to the core. And the legal import to that is that Donald Trump had knowledge and intent to influence the 2016 election all along through the cooperation of the National Enquirer — to bury stories about him, to accentuate his positives, and then to write damaging stories about his rivals like [former GOP presidential candidates] Ted Cruz and Ben Carson."

The NBC legal expert then referenced a clip Wallace played earlier of Trump lawyer Todd Blanche's opening statement, when he said, 'I have a spoiler alert: It's not a crime to influence elections — it's called democracy.' Well, that's like saying, 'I have a spoiler alert: It's not a crime to lie — it's called the First Amendment.' Except that, there are instances in which lying is a crime, and there are also instances in which nondisclosure agreements can be criminal, where they are entered into, for the purpose of unlawful, in-kind corporate campaign contributions or individual contributions. That is why Michael Cohen went to jail. Not because NDAs are criminal but because of the purpose to which those NDAs were put."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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