The former publisher of the National Enquirer linked “catch and kill” deals to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump’s lawyer is trying to poke holes in that testimony.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove attempted to use a non-prosecution agreement that David Pecker’s former company struck with federal prosecutors to raise questions about the company’s motivations and undermine some of Pecker’s previous testimony.
Pecker admitted that at the time the agreement was struck, in late 2018, his then-company, American Media Inc., was in the final stages of a potential $100 million sale to Hudson News Group, and the sale hinged on AMI resolving the investigation by federal prosecutors.
“That was ultimately written into the deal papers, that the investigations had to have been resolved?” Bove asked.
“Yes,” Pecker replied.
Trum Trum Trum Trum Trum Trum Trum Trum Trum
Bove also used the technical language of the agreement to question Pecker’s earlier testimony about how the company had “admitted to a campaign violation.”
The agreement said the company wouldn’t be criminally prosecuted if it abided by certain terms, meaning it wouldn’t be charged with a violation, but it also contained admissions that AMI had paid $150,000 “in cooperation, consultation and concert” with Trump to silence Karen McDougal in order to “influence [the 2016] election.”
Bove also confronted Pecker about a paragraph in the agreement that described the August 2015 meeting between Pecker, Donald Trump and Michael Cohen in which Pecker agreed to help Trump’s campaign. According to the non-prosecution agreement, Pecker said he would help in part by identifying negative stories for the campaign “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”
Bove presented notes from a subsequent meeting between Pecker, his lawyers and prosecutors from the district attorney’s office in which Pecker’s lawyer said of the paragraph: “I think that may be inaccurate. I think that came up with the feds. I have never heard Pecker say that.”
Pecker, however, said Bove’s evidence didn’t refresh his recollection on that point, and maintained that his earlier testimony was “that women would be selling them and I would offer them to Michael Cohen.”
Defense attorney Emil Bove attempted to undercut the description David Pecker gave yesterday of a Trump Tower meeting where he said the former president thanked him for burying negative stories about him.
At the Jan. 6, 2017, meeting, Pecker testified Thursday that Trump thanked him for “handling the McDougal situation” and the “doorman situation,” referring to American Media Inc. buying stories about Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and an apparently false story from a Trump Tower doorman.
Today, Bove presented Pecker with an FBI document that summarized a meeting he had with investigators in 2018, which states Trump “did not express any gratitude to Pecker or AMI” at the 2017 meeting.
Pecker acknowledged the inconsistency, but suggested the FBI document was incorrect.
“I know what I said yesterday happened,” he said. “I know what the truth is.”
Trump lawyer Emil Bove just said he has less than an hour left of cross-examination of David Pecker. When Bove is done with cross-examination, prosecutors plan to question Pecker further.
