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

26 Apr 202414.25 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

And David Pecker is back on the witness stand.

Joshua Steinglass of the prosecution has more questions for him.

26 Apr 202414.14 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Trump is walking back into the courtroom, trailed by attorney Todd Blanche and several secret service officers.

Emil Bove, who conducted the cross-examination of former National Enquirer published David Pecker, followed.

Here is a refresher on David Pecker, one of the key witnesses in Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial.

The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

As the longtime chief executive of American Media Inc, Pecker developed a symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and the National Enquirer, an AMI tabloid specialising in salacious scandal …

Pecker is a key witness (with a non-prosecution deal) because when Trump ran for president in 2016, Pecker helped Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, orchestrate payoffs to Daniels, Karen McDougal (a former Playboy model who also claimed an affair) and a Trump Tower doorman trying to sell a story about a supposed illegitimate child.

For further details, click here:

26 Apr 202413.34 EDT

Prosecutor questions Pecker over stopping stories detrimental to Trump

Victoria Bekiempis

To further emphasise that Pecker’s handling of McDougal had not been business as usual, Steinglass asked whether a woman’s story about an affair with a married candidate would do well.

“That would have been kind of like National Enquirer gold?” Steinglass asked.

Pecker replied yes. Steinglass continued: “At the time you had entered into that agreement [with McDougal], you had zero intention of publishing that story? … Despite the fact that publishing it would help your bottom line, you killed it to help the candidate, Donald Trump?”

“Uh, yes,” Pecker said.

26 Apr 202413.23 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Steinglass also pressed: “What was your understanding about the part of the agreement that involved money?”

“My understanding is, those stories that come up, I would speak to Michael Cohen, and tell him that these are the stories that are going to be for sale that if we don’t buy them, somebody else will, and that Michael Cohen would buy them or make sure that they don’t ever get published. That was my understanding from that meeting,” Pecker said.

26 Apr 202413.13 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

On redirect, Steinglass is working doggedly to show that Pecker’s work to publish stories on Trump’s opponents was not business as usual, as Bove might suggest.

Pecker, under questioning, admitted that the payouts to women who had accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of misconduct around his California gubernatorial campaign were paid anywhere from $500 to $20,000.

Steinglass’s point of eliciting this testimony was to show that payouts were rarely, if ever, the more-than-$100,000 sums paid to McDougal and Daniels. Steinglass asked whether Pecker had ever let a candidate drive and edit coverage. “Uh, no,” he said.

The court is now on break.

Donald Trump has left the courtroom.

26 Apr 202412.54 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Steinglass grilled Pecker about the federal non-prosecution agreement, where he had outlined the conspiracy while meeting with prosecutors.

Steinglass asked about the fifth paragraph of this non-prosecution agreement, which said that the “principle purpose” of the deal between Pecker’s company AMI and Karen McDougal, who alleged an affair with Trump, was to prevent her account from surfacing as he ran for president.

Steinglass asked Pecker: Was his purpose in locking down rights to McDougal’s story to influence the election?

Pecker said yes. Were other perks in McDougal’s agreement – such as promises to put her on the tabloid’s cover – actual benefits, or to hide the true purpose of the payments?

“It was included in the contract, basically as a disguise,” Pecker said.

26 Apr 202412.32 EDT

Trump attorney finishes cross-examination of David Pecker, prosecution now asking questions

Victoria Bekiempis

Donald Trump’s attorney Emil Bove has wrapped up his cross-examination of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid.

Bove’s questions appeared intended to undermine the prosecution’s allegation of a conspiracy by Trump, and to undermine the credibility of its witnesses.

Now Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team gets a second chance to question its witness Pecker. Attorney Joshua Steinglass is representing the prosecution in this round of questioning, which is known as “redirect”.

This post has been corrected to note that the prosecution’s second round of questioning is called “redirect”, not “recross”.

26 Apr 202412.27 EDT

Victoria Bekiempis

Bove has been drilling down into the non-prosecution agreement, which was brokered after Pecker met with federal authorities and told them about the August 2015 meeting with Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen, and the scheme’s machinations.

Bove asked Pecker whether, during a meeting with the Manhattan district attorney, his lawyers took issue with the accuracy of the agreement.

Pecker pushed back and said that concern over accuracy was insignificant, involving the use of the word purchase and sell which, in his view, were interchangeable. Pecker explained that in this context, sell and purchase both referred to snatching stories off the market.

The defense also tried to ask Pecker more about Cohen. Was there a time that Cohen claimed, falsely, that Trump had then-US attorney general Jeff Sessions “in his pocket”?

“Based on your experience, Michael Cohen was prone to exaggeration?” Bove asked. Pecker said that was the case.

Bove appears to be using Pecker’s testimony to pick apart the credibility of Cohen, a former consigliere to Trump who is expected to testify at some point in the trial.