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David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, testified Thursday at former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York that the then-presidential candidate had given him the impression he knew a Playboy magazine model he was trying to sell. the right to her story about allegations of an intimate relationship with Mr. Trump.
During a conversation in 2016, Mr. Trump described Karen McDougal as "a beautiful girl," Mr. Pecker testified Thursday. He said this led him to believe Mr Trump "knew who she was" even though he has denied having an intimate relationship with her.
Eventually, Mr. Pecker said, at the urging of Mr. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, his tabloid paid Ms. McDougal $150,000 to buy the rights to her story.
Mr Pecker called the payment to actress McDougal "a very, very big buy", but said he had no intention of publicizing her claim of an affair with Mr Trump, a practice the tabloid described as "catch and dispose".
The practice involves exclusively buying negative information about famous individuals and then refusing to publish embarrassing news from their lives.
A longtime friend of Mr. Trump's, Mr. Pecker told the 12-member jury that he "did not want the story (Ms. McDougal's claim) to embarrass or damage his 2016 presidential candidacy.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Pecker testified that he had agreed in a 2015 meeting to help his presidential campaign by publishing stories favorable to Mr. Trump and keeping an eye out for women trying to sell dating stories. them with Mr. Trump or other negative stories. Prosecutors have called the meeting in question at Trump Tower a "conspiracy session".
The prosecution argues that the deal between Messrs. Pecker, Trump and Cohen was part of a conspiracy to block voters from learning embarrassing information about Mr. Trump.
Buying defamatory information and not publishing it is not a normal practice in American journalism. Mr. Pecker said that Cohen's lawyer had told him that Mr. Trump would reimburse him for the $150,000 paid to Ms. McDougal, which he never did.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Pecker said that even before the conversation about Ms. McDougal buying the rights to the story, he had paid an employee at Trump Tower in New York $30,000 to debunk a fake news story that Mr. Trump had a child out of wedlock.
This is the first criminal trial against a former US president. Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide another payment, $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, in connection with rumors of an extramarital affair with her.
According to the indictment, the aim was to buy silence in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. It alleges an intimate night with Mr Trump a decade ago. Former President Trump has rejected her claim as well as all 34 charges she is facing./ VOA
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