The case filed against adult film actress Stormy Daniels, one of the four criminal cases filed against former US President Donald Trump, on charges that she paid a “hush fee” during the 2016 Presidential elections, continues on its second day. National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who took the witness stand yesterday and today, said Trump used him to suppress stories that could harm his candidacy in the 2016 presidential race.
“When someone is running for public office like this, it’s very common for these women to call a magazine like the National Enquirer and try to sell their stories,” Pecker said, explaining that she paid two people to sell stories about Trump’s sexual behavior but never published them.
Stating that the decision to hide the stories in question was taken after a meeting in 2015, Pecker stated that he told Trump at the meeting that the Enquirer would publish positive stories about him and that he would be careful of people who sold stories that could harm him.
Pecker said the Enquirer paid former model Karen McDougal for her affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007 and bought the story after Trump himself refused to do so.
American Media, the parent company of the Enquirer, announced that it paid 150 thousand dollars for the news in question in 2018. Trump has denied having an affair with McDougal. Pecker said that they paid 30 thousand dollars for the story of Dino Sajudin, the doorman of Trump Tower, who claimed that he had a child with a maid who worked for Trump, and it turned out that the story was not true.
Pecker stated that both payments were well above the amounts the newspaper normally paid for the stories, and said, “I made the decision to purchase the story because of the potential embarrassment it would cause to the campaign and Mr. Trump.”
Prosecutors alleged that Trump helped deceive voters by covering up allegations of extramarital affairs, given the other charges he faced in the 2016 election.
“He knows what he’s not allowed to do, but he does it anyway.”
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy pointed out that Trump called Stormy Daniels and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen “assholes” in his social media post dated April 10, and said that Trump violated the “no-speech” order against him. “He knows what he’s not allowed to do, but he does it anyway. His disobedience of orders is intentional. It’s deliberate,” Conroy said.
“I’m not allowed to defend myself”
Making a statement to journalists after the hearing, Trump reacted to the speech ban he was ordered to comply with and described it as a “disgrace”. Trump stated that he was uncomfortable having to sit back while other people talked about him and said, “I am not allowed to defend myself.”
Trump also pointed out that he could not campaign because he was confined to the courtroom all day.
