Trump hush money trial live updates: David Pecker returns to cross-examination

The court is currently considering the payment to Mr McDougall.

Mr Bove asked whether everyone who signed it had followed the procedures and whether there had been any “false entries”.

“When you consulted your attorney, you had not done anything inappropriate.” [about McDougal]?…When you told Cohen the deal was 'perfect', did you mean it was because of legal advice?”

See Keith Davidson [McDougal’s lawyer]Bove asks about learning that Dylan Howard was “using a major lawyer as a source of information”?

Pecker: “I wouldn't classify him as a leading lawyer.”

Pecker said Howard was just one of “50 editors and several others” at the time, “all of whom had their own sources” and ways to obtain articles. That's what it means. He suggested there was nothing unusual about that pipeline.

The “major lawyer'' answer drew laughter from the audience. Pecker laughed a little.

Bove looks at the agreement signed by Karen McDougall and focuses on the bulk of the agreement regarding her role working at AMI's facilities.

“AMI told Ms. McDougall that promotions in AMI magazines were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?”

“Are you going to publish 65 articles under Mr. McDougall's name?”

“When AMI signed this contract, they believed it had a legitimate business purpose, right?”

Yesterday, Pecker said she included these roles to “support the $150,000 payment” to buy the rights to her story. “As for the campaign, er, law, I wanted to have a record that stipulated that in the contract. She was going to perform for the American media – there's a basis for that.”

Beauvais said that when Cohen tried to find work with Mark Cuban in the summer of 2016, Cohen asked Pecker for “a little help” in arranging paparazzi to cover their meeting. is reminiscing.

Releasing these photos would “put pressure on Mr. Trump to treat Mr. Cohen differently,” Bove said.

“Michael Cohen never said that to me,” Pecker says. He admits it may have looked that way.

Pecker recalled President Trump calling him in June 2016 and spoke at length about it earlier this week.

“Mr. Trump called my office…I was in Chatham, New Jersey, so my assistant transferred the call to Chatham. When the call came in, my assistant from the small office came and called Trump. He said the president was on the phone.

“When I talked to Mr. Trump, he wanted to know, he asked me, and I talked to Michael.” [Cohen]And I'd like to talk about Karen McDougall. So he said, “Is it true that there's a group in Mexico that's trying to buy this story for $8 million?” I said, “No, I don't believe that.” 2.He said this [long pause] I remember it perfectly.he said this [pause] I said this story about Karen should be taken off the market because it claims she had an affair with you. Trump said I don't buy the articles because they always get exposed. I said I still thought I should buy the story. Mr. Trump spoke with Michael and said he would get back to him. ”

Note: When Bove introduced McDougal, he was trying to get Pecker to admit that he knew her, since she was once a cover model for AMI Real Estate. men's fitness. But Pecker said the two had never met. He didn't know her.

Cross-examination turns to discussion of Karen McDougall.

Bove told Pecker that McDougal did not want to publish his articles, but wanted to restart his career at AMI.

“Her main interest wasn't getting this article published,” Bove asks.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is seeking to counter that Bove referred to Trump as “President Trump,” referring to a time when he was not president.

“He wasn't president in June 2016,” Steinglass said, partially unplugged from the microphone and with a disgruntled laugh.

The questioning then moves on to Dino Sajudin, the doorman at Trump World Tower who told a false story about Donald Trump fathering an illegitimate child with his housekeeper.

Mr. Pecker acknowledged that he had never spoken to Mr. Trump about it.

We are considering an AMI deal with Dino for $30,000 to purchase the rights to his story.

Beauvais reminded Pecker that he had previously testified that if the story were true and he published it, it would sell 10 million copies and become a bigger story than Elvis' death.

“At some point after the agreement was signed and the vetting process completed, Sajuddin began making threats.” [to] Go somewhere else, that's why you paid him $30,000, right?

“If that's true, we can't have him published in another publication, right?”

We are considering amending the contract.

Bove said there was “still a possibility” in Pecker's mind that the story was true and Pecker “couldn't walk away.” Pecker agrees.

Bove's series of questions are: Questioner It doesn't seem like they're trying to specifically promote negative articles about Trump, just reprinting them from other outlets.

“Almost all of the exhibits were on display… national inquirer Is it because it is cost-effective and makes good business sense to recycle content from other publications?”

Mr. Bove is trying to suggest that Mr. Pecker's 2015 agreement with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen was already consistent with the agreement. national inquirer However, it was not evidence of a conspiracy.

Like yesterday, he frames all questions as “yes” or “no.”

“It made sense for companies to run articles about Bill and Hillary Clinton…those articles were negative, right?…to continue doing that during the August 2015 conference. It’s easy, right? … It was good for AMI to do those stories. … It’s standard operating procedure to do what’s good for AMI, right?”

As for the negative stories about President Trump's opponents Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, “There wasn't much new in that article.” “It was standard operating procedure.” national inquirer To reuse content from other publications and structure it a little differently, right? ”

Bove gives examples such as: guardian had already published an article about Carson's misconduct. Questioner Carson made headlines for leaving sponges in people's brains.

Mr. Pecker reads in a defense exhibit a transcript of his testimony before a federal grand jury in 2018 about the fateful 2015 Trump Tower meeting.

Basically, Mr. Bove is trying to find out the fact that Mr. Pecker did not bring up Hope Hicks in a meeting with federal authorities, but then said that she was in and out of that meeting in some capacity. Ta.

Also, President Trump's advisor Boris Epshteyn is sitting in the same seat as yesterday in the courtroom, two rows behind Trump and one row behind the Secret Service.