Tabloid boss David Pecker took the stand at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial for the third day on Thursday, testifying about his scheme to bury a Playboy Playmate’s affair story that could’ve damaged the former president’s campaign.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass began questioning on Thursday by having Pecker walk the jury through the evolution of a $150,000 payment that Enquirer parent company American Media Inc. (AMI) made to Playmate Karen McDougal for the exclusive rights to her life story.
Pecker said former Enquirer Editor-in-Chief Dylan Howard approached him in June 2016 and said a source had called to say McDougal was trying to sell a story about a year-long “romantic” relationship she’d had with Trump.
“He said she was a 12 out of 10,” Pecker said Howard told him.
Pecker said McDougal told Howard she “didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky,” and was willing to negotiate a deal to suppress the information she was peddling. The cost for McDougal’s “lifetime rights” was $150,000, according to Pecker. She also “wanted to write for the celebrity magazines, she wanted to be on the cover on some of the health-and-fitness titles... and she wanted to be an anchor for the red carpet events with Radar magazine.”
At around the same time, Pecker said, Trump called him and asked about “a Mexican group” he said he heard was looking to buy McDougal’s story for $8 million. Pecker told Trump that he knew of no media outlet in Mexico soliciting McDougal for her sordid tale, but that he urged Trump to buy the rights to her story because “I believed [it] was true. It would have been very embarrassing to himself and also to his campaign.”
“He said he doesn’t buy stories because ‘it always gets out,’” Pecker testified. “He was going to speak to Michael [Cohen] and that [Trump] would be calling me back.”
When Cohen later phoned Pecker, he told him to buy McDougal’s story and that “the boss would take care of it.” This meant, according to Pecker, that “I would be reimbursed” by either the Trump Organization or by Trump personally, whom Cohen referred to as “the boss.”
“By purchasing her life rights, you didn’t have any obligation to print them?” Steinglass asked.
“No, we did not,” Pecker replied.
“Did you have any intention of printing them?”
“No, we did not.”
Still, Pecker said he was concerned he wouldn’t get paid back because he knew Cohen “didn’t have any authorization to disperse any funds from the Trump Organization. Any time we even went out for lunch, I was paying for it.”
Pecker said he had become “concerned” about the possible legal issues that could result from buying and spiking a story to sway a political campaign, recounting a tale about having previously done so for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he ran for governor of California in the mid-2000s. But after consulting with a campaign attorney who approved the McDougal contract in August 2016, Pecker told Cohen that everything was a go.
He said he included language in the contract about McDougal’s “writing” duties—which Pecker said would actually be ghostwritten by paid freelancers—to “substantiate” the agreement, and “validate” the $150,000 payment he would be making.
Was this, in reality, a sleight-of-hand meant “to disguise the true nature of this contract?” Steinglass asked.
“Yes,” Pecker said with a sigh. “Yes, it was.”
The contract also included a line, which Steinglass highlighted in court, that AMI would own the rights to her overall life story, including “any romantic personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man.”
And who did the “then-married man” refer to?
“Donald Trump,” Pecker replied.
In September 2016, Pecker testified, Cohen suddenly told Trump wanted all of the boxes of source material the Enquirer had amassed on McDougal, which was in storage, and held the damaging details of her stories. Trump was worried that if Pecker “got hit by a bus,” or if the company was sold, he wanted to ensure no one else would be able to obtain the information. Cohen was insistent that Pecker get the boxes to Trump as soon as possible, contacting him again and again during the month, pressing him on the issue.
Trump wanted Pecker and AMI to transfer the McDougall life rights to him, Pecker said. He explained that he believed McDougal’s “writing” duties were worth $25,000, and thus offered to knock Trump’s reimbursement down to $125,000.
“Michael Cohen wanted the contract done yesterday, and this was going on toward the end of September [2016],” Pecker said, explaing that he wanted to get paid back before Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal quarter. He said an invoice was prepared and funneled through AMI human resources executive Daniel Rotstein because money was flowing between AMI and the Trump Organization would “raise a lot of questions.”
Pecker said he later spoke to AMI’s legal counsel about the updated plan, and subsequently decided he no longer wanted to be paid back. He was prevented from explaining what the lawyer’s advice was, by an objection from the defense, but he had previously mentioned his fear of being exposed to legal jeopardy.
“I called Michael Cohen and I said to him the agreement was off, I’m not going forward, it is a bad idea, and I want you to rip up the agreement,” Pecker testified. “He was very, very angry, very upset, screaming, basically at me, and I said, I’m not going forward with this agreement. Rip it up. And Michael Cohen said, ‘The boss is going to be very angry at you.’ And I said, I’m sorry, I’m not going forward. The deal is off. He said, ‘I can’t believe it, I’m a lawyer, I’m your friend.’ … And he said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’”
Did AMI ever get reimbursed for McDougal’s story? Steinglass asked.
“No,” Pecker responded. “We never did.”
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