Pecker’s Testimony Reveals Unique Deal between Trump, Tabloids During Election Campaign

Rewriting and Paraphrasing: In a criminal trial against former US President Donald Trump in New York regarding allegedly covering up payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, defense attorney Emil Bove cross-examined David Pecker – the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Bowe tried dismantling the prosecution’s case by highlighting that before meeting with Trump and Michael Cohen in 2015, negative articles about Hillary Clinton were already being published by The National Enquirer due to a long-standing practice Pecker followed for other political opponents too. Bove questioned whether this was mutually beneficial which the judge allowed but objected when he asked if it served both parties’ interests equally. During cross-examination, Bowe also revealed that negative articles about Trump’s Republican rivals in primary races were based on information from other news sources and recycling them saved costs as they would have been published anyway. Pecker admitted this was cost efficient but stated he still might run fake stories against public figures if evidence of their misconduct surfaced. Legal experts suggest Bove’s line of questioning is intended to establish that the meetings between Trump, Cohen, and Pecker were routine negotiations rather than an attempt at election interference like prosecutors argue. In 2016, while running for mayor in Chicago, Rahm Emanual was also allegedly involved with similar practices by The National Enquirer’s publisher. However, during the trial on Friday afternoon, Pecker admitted that out of hundreds of thousands of non-disclosure agreements executed by his tabloid magazines, Trump was the only presidential candidate he ever helped in such a manner – making it unique compared to other politicians and celebrities involved with The National Enquirer.