In Hush Money Trial, Pecker Says Trump Thanked Him for Burying Stories – The New York Times
Trump Hush-Money Trial
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David Pecker, former publisher of The National Enquirer, testified that Donald J. Trump thanked him for burying stories.
Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess and
Days before Donald J. Trump became president in 2017, a cadre of advisers, officials and allies descended on his office at Trump Tower: a future secretary of state, his soon-to-be chief of staff, the F.B.I. director — and the publisher of The National Enquirer.
The publisher, David Pecker, may have seemed out of place, but he had just performed an indispensable and confidential service to the Trump campaign: He had paid off a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who had said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, and a doorman who had heard that Mr. Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. The future president, triumphant, thanked Mr. Pecker for his service.
“He said, ‘I want to thank you for handling the McDougal situation,’ and then he also said, ‘I wanted to thank you for the doorman situation,’” Mr. Pecker testified at Mr. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan Thursday, leaving it unclear if anyone else heard the exchange. “He said that the stories could be very embarrassing.”
Mr. Trump also asked after Ms. McDougal: “How’s our girl?” Mr. Pecker said he replied, “She’s cool. She’s very quiet. No issues.”
That remarkable scene — where Mr. Trump’s lofty new status as president-elect collided with his colorful New York habitat — was private until Thursday, when Mr. Pecker recounted it to jurors. He described in vivid detail how Mr. Trump depended on him to buy and bury damaging stories that could have derailed Mr. Trump’s campaign, the plot that prosecutors put at the center of the case.
Here’s how key figures involved in making hush-money payoffs on behalf of Donald J. Trump are connected.
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