David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified on Tuesday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial about the so-called “catch and kill” agreements between the former president and the tabloid. These agreements involved payments to individuals who claimed to have damaging information about Trump, in exchange for their silence.
Pecker’s testimony centered around two specific incidents. The first involved Trump’s former doorman, Dino Sajudin, who alleged that Trump had fathered a child with a Trump Tower maid in the 1980s. Pecker testified that he paid Sajudin $30,000 for the exclusive rights to the story, at the behest of Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen. However, the story was later determined to be false and was never published.
The second incident involved former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. Pecker testified that Cohen also asked him to look into this story and that Trump refused to buy the exclusive rights to it. American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, later paid McDougal $150,000 for the story, which was never published but was intended to help protect Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Pecker’s testimony provides further evidence of the hush money payments made by Trump and his associates during the 2016 election. Prosecutors allege that these payments constitute campaign finance violations and that Trump was directly involved in the scheme. The trial is ongoing, with more witnesses expected to testify in the coming days.
