When prosecutors present their case to a jury, one thing they have to figure out is the order in which to present witnesses. In Donald Trump’s first criminal trial, in Manhattan, that first witness was David Pecker, for good reason.
While Pecker may be less familiar than some other potential witnesses, such as former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen or adult film star Stormy Daniels, he’s a crucial one — and it makes perfect sense to have him set the stage for the state’s case. After opening statements Monday morning, the state called Pecker, who testified briefly before court was adjourned for the day. His testimony will continue Tuesday.
After all, the backdrop of the prosecution’s case is the alleged “catch and kill” plot to suppress negative information about Trump as he ran for president in 2016. The former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors have alleged that Trump falsified records to cover up the reimbursement of hush money Cohen paid Daniels just ahead of the election. Daniels said she had sex with Trump, which he has denied.
And what does all that have to do with Pecker, who was head of the company that owned the National Enquirer?
Well, the tabloid publisher was there from the start. According to the state, at a 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen, Pecker said he’d be the eyes and ears for the campaign, looking for negative Trump stories and alerting Cohen. Prosecutors say this was the genesis of the payoffs to Daniels as well as Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had an affair with Trump, which the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee has also denied.
Pecker testified Monday that the Enquirer used “checkbook journalism” and paid for stories, setting the seedy stage for the state’s election interference theory of the case. So while some of the most salacious and acrimonious testimony may come from the likes of Daniels and Cohen, putting Pecker first is a sensible way to understand the backdrop to the alleged scheme. And, to be sure, Pecker’s testimony may be shocking to the jury in its own right — describing an alliance between a presidential campaign and a tabloid — so it could prompt fireworks of its own to start the testimony in this historic case. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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