Testimonies Continue in Trump Trial With Ex-publisher David Pecker on the Stand

President Trump showed a stack of papers to the press in the hallways outside the courtroom.

"Well, I think the gag order is totally unconstitutional. Can't even allow articles to be put in," he said. "These are articles over the last day and a half."

"I'm not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me," President Trump said.

Mr. Pecker said that Mr. Howard had come to him with the Karen McDougal story.

"He received a call from one of his major sources in California that she [McDougal] is trying to sell a story about a relationship with Donald Trump," Mr. Pecker said.

Mr. Pecker said he thought they should vet it first. They did not discuss payment at this stage.

The contract also stated that Mr. Sajudin would be paid within five days of signing the agreement.

"Is it unusual to pay a source before the story was run?" attorneys asked.

"Yes it is. Dylan [Howard] finished the vetting of the story and we hired a private investigator, sent out to where the supposed illegitimate child was, and we discovered that it was absolutely untrue," Mr. Pecker said.

Mr. Pecker said Mr. Cohen thanked him on behalf of "the boss," referring to Mr. Trump, after he called to say he would purchase the story.

Later, Mr. Cohen called Mr. Pecker "and said the story is absolutely not true. He said Mr. Trump would take a DNA test."

"I told Michael Cohen that won't be necessary, we'll vet the story," Mr. Pecker said. He added that he thought the doorman was shopping the story around and it would "get out very quickly."

Mr. Pecker recounted the story they purchased from former Trump building doorman Dino Sajudin.

He said that Mr. Howard had come to him about a tip he received that this doorman was shipping around a story that Mr. Trump fathered an illegitimate girl with a maid that worked at his penthouse.

Mr. Pecker said he immediately called Mr. Cohen about it, and gave him the name of the doorman and housekeeper.

After a break, Mr. Pecker returned to the witness stand. He affirmed devices that stored his emails, and that texts on a thumb drive presented were collected in response to a search warrant for this case.

Prosecutors sought to enter several messages into evidence, and the defense objected, leading into another sidebar with the judge.

The judge overruled the hearsay objection, allowing them into evidence.

Mr. Pecker said he met Steve Bannon, political consultant to Donald Trump, in October 2016. They discussed some stories Mr. Pecker had published and Mr. Bannon requested some copies of the National Enquirer. Mr. Pecker then"boxed up stories about Hillary and others and I sent them to his apartment on the Upper West Side."

Mr. Pecker was going to get into a conversation he had with Mr. Bannon when the defense objected, and the judge sustained the objection. Mr. Pecker then said something about involving the Hannity Show leading to another objection.

The defense requested a sidebar with the judge, and the judge called for a short break.

Mr. Pecker said he only worked with Mr. Cohen on stories.

Mr. Cohen would request negative articles about political rivals, and Mr. Pecker described that workflow.

"Let's say it's on Ted Cruz, and then he, Michael Cohen, would send me information about Ted Cruz or Ben Carson or Marco Rubio, and then that was the basis for our story, and we would embellish it from there, the National Enquirer," Mr. Pecker said. He added that he would talk to Mr. Howard to put together the story and photos.

Mr. Pecker said this was "just an agreement among friends," not something put in writing.

He said when he went back to his office, he met with Dylan Howard, chief content officer at his company, and described the meeting and concept and told him the agreement "has to be highly, highly confidential."

He asked Mr. Howard to notify the other bureaus chiefs to flag stories about Donald Trump or his family.

Mr. Pecker was asked about a cover he ran with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

"As I mentioned earlier, my having the National Enquirer, which is a weekly magazine, and you focus on the cover of the magazine and who and what is the story that is the topic  of the week. Hillary running for president and Bill Clinton as a womanizer was one of the biggest sales I had," he said.

He said the story was about former President Bill Clinton as a womanizer, and Mrs. Clinton as an "enabler of Bill with respect for me to womanizing."

Mr. Pecker said he was the one who brought up the idea of women selling stories, because that was what he thought would happen during a presidential campaign.

"Because Mr. Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women, and it was clear based on my past experience that when someone is running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories," Mr. Pecker said. "Or I would hear it in the marketplace, through other sources, that stories were being marketed."

Mr. Pecker affirmed he was present at a Trump Tower meeting in August 2015.

"Most of the time when I received a call from Michael Cohen he wanted something, so I assumed I was going to asked for something, I didn't know what it was before I got there," Mr. Pecker said.

"At that meeting, Donald Trump and Michael, they asked me, what can I do and what my magazines could do to help the campaign," Mr. Pecker said.

"It was clear that Mr. Trump was viewed as the boss. Seat him in the boardrooms, on each of his the shows every week," Mr. Pecker said. "So I discussed with him and we did a poll in the National Enquirer about Mr. Trump running for President."

He said 80 percent of the magazine's readership wanted Mr. Trump to run for president.

"I passed that information on to Donald Trump shortly after he was being interviewed on the Today Show." he said. He recalled Mr. Trump commented that part of his decision was that poll.

Mr. Pecker said as a publisher his company did a lot of research on what made for a good cover story, and "every time we did this, Mr. Trump would be the top story."

This accounted for a lot of his interest in Mr. Trump during his time at "The Celebrity Apprentice."

Communications increased when the presidential run was announced, Mr. Pecker added.

"I would say a minimum of every week, and if there was an issue, it could be daily," Mr. Pecker said.

He said Hope Hicks became the communications director for Mr. Trump. He knew her previously when she worked for Ivanka Trump's fashion brand and when she worked in communications for a company under American Media.

Mr. Pecker said he met Michael Cohen at a bar mitzvah in early 2000. A vendor had invited Mr. Pecker to his son's bar mitzvah and there introduced Mr. Pecker to Mr. Cohen.

Later, in 2007, Mr. Pecker was in Mr. Trump's office when he was introduced again to Mr. Cohen as his personal lawyer.

He said he was told "that he's done a lot of great things for him, and all contacts that I had with Mr. Trump ... now go through Michael Cohen."

Prosecutors asked Mr. Pecker whether he had observed Mr. Trump's business practices over the years.

"Yes. I would meet with Mr. Trump in his office and when I was  there, his assistant Rhona [Graff] would bring in a batch of checks to sign," Mr. Pecker said. "I noticed he reviewed the invoice, looked at the check, and then he would sign it."

He said he visited Mr. Trump at Trump Tower over the years.

Jurors were brought in and David Pecker, former head of American Media Inc., took the witness stand to continue his testimony.

"Are you personally familiar with Donald J. Trump?" prosecutors asked.

"Yes, since the late '80s," Mr. Pecker said. He said they met at Mar-a-Lago through a client of Mr. Pecker's.

After the hearing, President Trump took to social media to criticize Justice Merchan.

"HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF!" he wrote.

The judge said Mr. Blanche didn't give him anything to support the argument that reposts are allowed by the order.

He called for a break before the jurors arrived, saying he would reserve his decision on the fines.

President Trump did not take questions during the break.

Justice Merchan pressed Mr. Blanche to provide the posts President Trump was responding to with each gag order violation.

"You're losing all credibility with the court! I have to tell you right now," Justice Merchan said.

Mr. Blanche reiterated the defense's position that these posts were not violations.

"It's your client's position that when he was reposting these things, he was not violating the gag order?" Justice Merchan asked.

"Correct," Mr. Blanche said.

"Are you testifying under oath that that's his position? That at the time he reposts anything to one of his accounts, he did not believe that he was violating the gag order? I'd like to hear that. Or do you expect me to accept it just because you're saying it?" Justice Merchan asked.

Mr. Blanche added that the post didn't attack Mr. Pomerantz's credibility, and then said President Trump was expressing frustration "with the two systems of justice that are happening in this courtroom."

"There's two systems of justice in this courtroom?" Justice Merchan asked.

Mr. Blanche said that was what his client was in saying, referring to the fact that former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was sent back to prison.

The next post related to whether Mark Pomerantz, who wrote a book about the investigation in this case, had violated secrecy rules.

"Mr. Pomerantz is not a witness," Mr. Blanche argued.

"He's not in the witness list?" the judge asked.

Another alleged violation was President Trump posting a statement by Ms. Clifford denying an affair, which she had later retracted.

Mr. Blanche said he didn't dispute this document may come up at trial, but argued it is a document that has been public "for years and years."

President Trump's post is not about her being a witness at trial but about her credibility, Mr. Blanche argued.

Mr. Blanche said their argument was that, one, President Trump is allowed to respond to attacks, and, two, when he speaks about witnesses it cannot have anything to do with the coutr proceedings.

These were limits put in place by a federal appeals court, which the New York court has modeled in its order, Mr. Blanche argued.

"He's responding to the fact that Mr. Cohen has repeatedly talked about his qualities and candidacy for the office he's seeking," Mr. Blanche said.

Justice Merchan asked if the defense had talked to Mr. Avenatti.

"No, of course not," Mr. Blanche said.

"How can you interpret what he means? You believe everything Mr. Avenatti said does not relate to the trial, but the use of the word 'pardon' by Mr. Avenatti makes it political. When a client is violating a gag order, I expect more than one word," Justice Merchan said.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that President Trump is aware of the gag order and what it prohibits, and did not violate it in any of the 10 posts.

"There is no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks from all sides," Mr. Blanche said. "Three posts were in direct response to comments made by these witnesses. President Trump's comments back to them were not about testimony at the witness stand."

Mr. Cohen had made a post about Mr. Avenatti throwing President Trump a "hail Mary," referring to President Trump as the "orange menace" and referring to his possible reelection. Later, President Trump reposted a comment by Mr. Avenatti.

Prosecutors maintained the order gave President Trump "substantial freedom" but that he went "beyond those criticism" and instead was "launching attacks on two witnesses."

Prosecutors argued that New York defamation law states that those republishing defamation are as subject to prosecution as the one who originally published it.

They added they were not seeking jail time, but wanted a $1,000 fine per post.

Prosecutors argued that President Trump's complaints about the gag orders was evidence toward his violating the order. They cited complaints against the gag order on April 2, 6, 10, 11, and 15, and the appeal against the gag order.

"They want to come out and try to muddy the waters and say, well judge, we can respond to attacks, there is no provision in this order for responding to attacks," prosecutors argued. 

"By his logic, if someone covered by the order is mean, or not nice, he can respond," prosecutors said, arguing that logic was "tortured at best."

Prosecutors said President Trump reposted Fox host Jesse Waters, who said "They are catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge in order to get on the jury."

They argued that Mr. Waters had gone on his segment "giving lots of details about various jurors" and the next day the original Juror 2 changed her mind and said she couldn't serve.

"What happened here was precisely what this order was designed to prevent!" the prosecution argued.

Prosecutors said another violation was President Trump reposting a post by Michael Avenatti, former attorney to witness Stephanie Clifford, or Stormy Daniels.

The original post read "We can't be hypocrites when it comes to the first First Amendment.”

President Trump added a "thank you" in his own post.

Prosecutors argued that President Trump's reference of key witness Michael Cohen in remarks to the media on April 22 constituted yet another violation.

"He said, ‘As you know, Cohen is a lawyer and he represented a lot of people over the years. When he puts in an invoice, a bill, and called it a legal expense, and I got indicted for that,'” they argued. 

Justice Merchan said the prosecutors alleged gag order violations on April 15 and then again on April 18.

"The purpose of this hearing is to find whether Mr Trump should be held liable for one or all of these violations," Justice Merchan said.

Prosecutors submitted 10 documents of the alleged violations. The judge said eight of the posts were on Truth Social and two on donaldjtrump.com.

President Trump made a campaign plug for Pennsylvania has he arrived to the courtroom, before criticizing his political opponent as the "worst president in the history of our country."

He said he saw protestors outside the courthouse on his way in, and "police presence like you've never seen." He appeared to contrast this with the pro-Palestine protestors who have had a "radical" presence on many college campuses, and then said President Joe Biden had a part in the unrest in the Middle East.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is holding a hearing on alleged gag order violations. Prosecutors say that former President Donald Trump's recent social media posts referencing witnesses amount to at least seven gag order violations. Defense attorneys say the post did not violate the "ambiguous" gag order, and argued the order expressly allows President Trump to defend himself against political attacks.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has charged President Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records, alleging it was to cover up a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. Defense attorney say no crimes were committed and President Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.

The gag order prohibits President Trump only from making statements, or directing others to make statements, about jurors, witnesses, court staff and counsel and their families, if it is done to materially interfere with the case proceedings.