Trump hush money trial live updates: David Pecker returns to witness stand

Pecker admits that the August 5 2016 contract does not mention Trump reimbursing him, Cohen, the plan to reassign life rights to Trump, nor the arrangement at Trump Tower.

“Does the contract even mention the word campaign?” Steinglass asks. (No, it does not.)

Pecker confirms that the “true purpose” of the McDougal contract with to acquire the life rights of her story, and that the other parts of the agreement – columns, cover appearances, blog posts, ghostwriters, etc. – gave the deal “plausible deniability”.

Pecker: “It was included in the contract basically as a disguise of what the actual purpose of it … The actual purpose of it was to acquire the lifetime rights … It would be published by American Media. It would not be published by any media source.”

Bove asks about an October 2019 meeting with the District Attorney’s office, in which Bove suggests he described that paragraph 3 was “wrong and inaccurate”.

Bove reads: “I think that may be inaccurate. I think that came up with the feds. I have never heard Pecker saying that.”

“Do you remember that?”

Pecker: “My testimony I gave, I offered at that meeting to be the eyes and ears … The stories, women would be selling them and I would offer them to Michael Cohen. Selling and purchasing here are synonymous. Someone has to buy them.”

“Based on your experiences, Michael Cohen was prone to exaggeration?”

“You could not trust everything he said?”

This feels too close to an attempt to impeach another witness who hasn’t testified yet.

Here’s the paragraph of the non-prosecution agreement that is being focused on by Bove questions:

3. In or about August 2015, David Pecker, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AMl, met with Michael Cohen, an attorney for a presidential candidate, and at least one other member of the campaign. At the meeting, Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate’s relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided. Pecker agreed to keep Cohen apprised of any such negative stories.

“AMI’s assets are worth less to Hudson News Group if AMI is subject to federal investigation?”

Pecker: “The investigation is not going to reduce the earnings of the company, of the magazines.”

But what if AMI had been indicted? Bove asks. He hits the word indicted like it’s italicised.

Pecker admits that yes that would’ve been an issue.

The non-prosecution agreement is just that, however. It does not criminally charge AMI.

“There’s no admission by AMI in this agreement of a campaign violation, correct?” Bove aks.

Bove is focusing on a clause about the federal government prosecuting AMI for “false, incomplete or misleading testimony or information.”

That “gives the federal government some options if it determines that AMI or its representatives give false or misleading testimony, right?”