Hush-money trial live: Trump appears to repeat call for lifting of gag order after Pecker testimony ends – as it happened

26 Apr 202409.54 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Trump defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of Pecker.

“We were talking about Hope Hicks, right?” Bove asked, referring to the former campaign and White House aide to Trump. Pecker answered in the affirmative.

Bove is going over Pecker’s prior direct testimony about Hicks. Pecker said that he knew Hicks prior to August 2015; she’d worked at Hiltzik Strategies and did work for Star magazine. Pecker also said that Hicks was in and out of the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting in which they allegedly planned to catch and kill damaging information to protect the then candidate in the 2016 election.

“It’s not as if you’re saying that she participated in the meeting, correct?” Bove pressed. Pecker again answered yes. And he did not recall Hicks speaking during the meeting? Correct, Pecker said.

26 Apr 202409.47 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Former American Media Inc (AMI) head David Pecker has taken his seat at the witness stand once again in the hush-money criminal trial of his longtime pal Donald Trump.

It’s Pecker’s fourth day testifying. The veteran tabloid honcho has testified that he colluded with Trump and Michael Cohen to keep negative stories about the real estate mogul from surfacing. Pecker told jurors that shortly after Trump announced his candidacy in summer 2015, the three met at Trump Tower. Pecker said he would apprise them if any potentially damaging information had surfaced. Prosecutors contend this agreement was at the heart of a “catch-and-kill” scheme, which Trump used to influence the 2016 election in his favor.

Pecker said on the stand that AMI, which publishes the National Enquirer, paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. AMI also footed the bill for a $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Pecker also said he told Cohen that he needed to buy adult actress Stormy Daniels’ story about a sexual liaison with Trump. This $130,000 payment to Daniels is at the core of the prosecution’s case. They contend that Trump listed repayment to Cohen as legal expenses in his business records. The 34 counts of falsifying business records involve his alleged misrepresentation of these payments to Cohen.

26 Apr 202409.38 EDT

Donald Trump in court as cross-examination of former tabloid publisher continues

Victoria Bekiempis

Donald Trump walked into Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom wearing a navy suit. He whispered in his lawyer’s ear and sat down at the defense table. His tie was a lighter shade of blue, and his lips appeared pursed as he walked down the aisle into the well.

A group of photographers snapped photos of Trump as he sat at the defense table. Some crouched low, others stretched their hands high. They had but a few moments to capture Trump’s demeanor, which has largely vacillated between a glower and a frown over the course of his criminal trial.

Merchan then gaveled the court into session. He is currently going over housekeeping matters with attorneys before the jury is brought in and testimony resumes.

Donald Trump has arrived at the courthouse and, as he usually does, given brief remarks to reporters before heading into the courtroom.

1:05

It was the usual from the former president – the case is “unconstitutional”, the judge is biased and the courtroom is too cold.

He wished his wife, Melania, a happy birthday, and noted that she was in Florida. “‘I’ll be going there this evening after this case finishes up – this horrible, unconstitutional case.”

He then went after Judge Juan Merchan, saying he “is highly conflicted, the most highly conflicted judge I have ever seen”.

The final target of his opprobrium was the courtroom thermostat. “We have another day of court in a freezing courthouse. It’s very cold in there, for one purpose, I believe. They don’t seem to be able to get the temperature up. It shouldn’t be that complicated.”

Donald Trump aide Jason Miller emerged from a courtroom next to the one where the ex-president’s trial is taking place, in New York’s criminal court building.

He told the assembled press that Trump would appear at about 9.30am and give remarks – about 10 minutes from now.

Earlier this morning, wire photographers spotted the former president departing Trump Tower for his trial in Lower Manhattan:

View image in fullscreen

26 Apr 202409.08 EDT

Text messages show dismay at Trump's election from figures in 'catch and kill' scheme

Sam Levine

Two key players in Donald Trump’s “catch-and-kill” schemes to prevent publication of negatives stories ahead of the 2016 election expressed dismay that he won that year’s election, according to recently released text messages:

26 Apr 202408.43 EDT

Hugo Lowell

Meanwhile, over at the US supreme court, there was a different Trump issue at play yesterday – arguments on whether the president should be immune from prosecution for acts done while in office.

The justices expressed interest in returning Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election back to a lower court to decide whether certain parts of the indictment were “official acts” that were protected by presidential immunity.

During oral arguments, the justices appeared unlikely to grant Trump’s request for absolute immunity from criminal prosecution. But Trump’s lawyer and the justice department’s lawyer agreed there were certain private acts that presidents would have no protection for.

But the chief justice, John Roberts, and the conservative justices seemed to imply that presidents should have some level of immunity, and looked likely to favor the presiding trial judge in the case deciding whether any acts in the indictment were official and should be expunged.

26 Apr 202408.19 EDT

Prosecutors allege Trump has violated gag order 14 times

Lauren Aratani

Before David Pecker took the stand on Thursday, prosecutors said that Trump had violated his gag order – which bars him from speaking publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, court staff and their relatives – four more times over the course of the week.

This brings the total violations to 14, prosecutors allege. Prosecutors said Trump had continued to talk about the witnesses, including saying that Pecker had been a “nice guy”.

“This is a message to Pecker, be nice. This is a message to others, I have a platform, and I can talk about you,’” the prosecutor Chris Conroy told Judge Juan Merchan. “It’s a message to everyone in this courtroom.”

Prosecutors said Merchan should hold Trump in contempt of court and fine him $1,000 for each violation. Merchan has yet to rule on the alleged violations.

Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: What to know

• A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far

• What to know about the arguments, players and jurors

• How will Trump’s trial work?

My colleague Sam Levine was at the Manhattan courthouse yesterday to see Pecker’s testimony firsthand. Here are his main takeaways:

Welcome back.

David Pecker is due back on the stand in the hush-money trial of Donald Trump for a third day.

Trump’s lawyers will continue to cross-examine Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and Trump ally, after he said earlier this week that the “catch-and-kill” schemes to buy negative stories about Trump in order to bury them was specifically about helping Trump’s 2016 campaign. He even said he nervous about whether the payment would violate campaign contribution laws.

Yesterday, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove grilled Pecker on his recollection of specific dates and meetings. Pecker insisted his testimony was based on his “best recollection of the time”.

Here’s what else happened at the trial yesterday:

• Bove traced Pecker’s long relationship with Trump, showing how he helped his friend long before the presidential election. Pecker spoke about how he gave Trump a heads up about a negative story about Trump’s then wife, Marla Maples.

• Trump addressed the media as he left the courtroom, describing Pecker’s testimony as “breathtaking and amazing”. “This is a trial that should’ve never happened, this is a case that should’ve never been filed and it was really an incredible, an incredible day,” he told reporters.

• Pecker said he agreed to buy a story from the Playboy model Karen McDougal specifically to bury it so that it did not “embarrass or hurt the [Trump] campaign”. He said a $150,000 payment he agreed to make to McDougal in August 2016 was so his publication could “kill” McDougal’s story about a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier. The jury was shown records of the $150,000 payment, including an invoice from McDougal’s lawyer.

• Pecker said Trump called him for advice after he became a presidential candidate, telling him “Karen is a nice girl”, and that he was worried news of the affair would hurt his campaign. “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market,” Pecker recalled telling Trump.

• Pecker said he worked with the former National Enquirer editor-in-chief, Dylan Howard, and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to facilitate the payment. Pecker admitted that the goal of the paper’s publisher American Media Inc (AMI) was to try to prevent the story from interfering with the Trump campaign, and that he was concerned the payment could violate federal campaign finance law.

• But Pecker said things turned sour when he ultimately backed out of the agreement. Pecker confirmed that AMI consulted with an election law attorney, and that Cohen was “very, very angry, screaming basically” about it.

• Pecker said he received a frantic call from Howard in early October 2016, saying Stormy Daniels was trying to sell a story about her sexual relationship with Trump. He said Howard claimed Daniels wanted $120,000 for the story. Pecker said he did not want to be involved with a porn star, and that Cohen told him “the boss will be very angry with you”.

• Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass repeatedly tied Trump’s motive for quashing the story to protecting his presidential campaign. The prosecution’s case is that it was interference in the 2016 election, which Trump won. “I made the assumption that his concern was the campaign,” Pecker said when asked if Trump ever expressed any concern for his wife and children.