MANHATTAN (CN) — A retired media mogul who claims to have had a longstanding transactional relationship with Donald Trump described an elaborate scheme by the former president to cover up an affair with model Karen McDougal during testimony at Trump's ongoing criminal trial.
David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media, previously testified that he'd agreed to be the “eyes and ears” of Trump's first presidential campaign. Under the deal, he bought the exclusive rights to some of Trump’s more scandalous rumors in order to shield them from the public.
When Pecker caught word that McDougal, a former Playboy model, was claiming to have had a year-long affair with Trump, he said he immediately called Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen.
“First, he said the story wasn’t true,” Pecker said Thursday. But Pecker and Cohen both believed the rumor to be a threat to Trump’s campaign.
“I felt that this story should be purchased," Pecker testified. "I believed the story was true.”
Pecker said he eventually talked to Trump, who described McDougal as a “nice girl” and asked him if other publications were looking to buy her story.
“I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Trump eventually told him, Pecker testified.
Pecker agreed, but having recently paid $30,000 for the rights to another damning Trump rumor, he said he was hesitant for his company to front another $150,000 to buy McDougal’s. Pecker said Cohen was insistent that American Media be the side to pay, however.
“Why would I pay?" Pecker recalled asking Cohen. "I just paid $30,000 for the doorman story, now you’re asking me to pay $150,000 for the Karen story?"
Cohen repeatedly assured Pecker that he would be taken care of and told him not to worry about reimbursement because “the boss would take care of it,” Pecker testified Thursday.
So, Pecker drew up a contract for McDougal that stipulated American Media would pay her $150,000 for an array of services — including a batch of ghostwritten stories to appear in his magazines. He admitted Thursday that those services were added to “disguise the true nature” of the contract: to purchase McDougal’s love affair story about Trump.
The rights to “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man” were to be transferred to American Media, one paragraph of the contract said. It was buried between details of McDougal’s purported work obligations.
Pecker said he paid McDougal, but Trump never reimbursed him. Cohen eventually tried to keep the deal in place, but Pecker said he did so by starting a shell company to discreetly wire the cash — and Pecker, fearful of violating campaign finance laws, pulled out of the agreement at the last minute, much to Cohen’s disdain.
“The boss is going to be very angry at you,” Cohen said, according to Pecker. “I can’t believe it. I am a lawyer, I am your friend.”
Prosecutors claim the incident was part of a broader effort from Trump to meddle with the 2016 election by killing negative press about his campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump last year, is accusing the former president of falsifying business records to cover up the supposed hush-money scheme.
Prosecutors say this became necessary for Trump because Pecker, after not being reimbursed for past cover-ups, refused to keep buying stories. When it came to light that Stormy Daniels, an ex-porn star, was planning to share a story about her own affair with Trump, Pecker said Trump’s team pressured him to buy the rights.
But Pecker said he held firm.
“We already paid $30,000 to the doorman, we paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal,” Pecker recalled thinking. “I am not a bank... I am not purchasing this story.”
Rumors about Daniels started swirling at a particularly inopportune time for the Trump campaign. It was autumn 2016, with the presidential election mere weeks away, and Trump already was dealing with the fallout of the infamous Access Hollywood tape resurfacing in which he can be heard boasting crudely about his sex life.
“It was very embarrassing, very damaging to the campaign,” Pecker admitted. “And everybody was very concerned. The campaign was very concerned about what impact it would have."
Since Pecker refused to foot the bill, Cohen had to pay Daniels out of his own pocket, Pecker testified. Trump’s eventual reimbursement of Cohen would lead to the charges in this case.
Pecker claims he wasn't involved in the Daniels transaction.
But the McDougal deal eventually would come back to bite Pecker anyway. In 2019, he made a deal with Manhattan prosecutors to tell them about his meetings with Trump and Cohen. It would be the beginning of the end of his speaking relationship with Trump, but Pecker said he still harbors no ill will towards the former president.
“To the contrary,” he said. “I felt that Donald Trump was my mentor, he helped me throughout my career… I still consider him a friend.”
Thursday was Pecker’s third day on the witness stand. So far, his recounting of events is nearly identical to that of the prosecutors.
In the afternoon, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove started his cross-examination of Pecker, in which he insinuated that Trump’s relationship with Pecker was par for the course among celebrities.
Pecker told the court he had a similar relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had Pecker buy stories about him while he was running for governor of California. Schwarzenegger never paid him back for those stories either, Pecker said, despite them costing his company “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.
Pecker will return to the witness stand on Friday to continue his cross-examination. Trump pleaded not guilty last year to the 34 counts of falsifying business records. He denies any relationship with McDougal or Daniels.
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