Who is the Ex-National Enquirer publisher and why did he testify at Trump’s hush money trial?

David Pecker, former publisher of National Enquirer, has testified in the hush money criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York. The former CEO of American Media (AMI), parent company of the tabloid, was the first witness called to testify in front of jurors.

Testifying over three days, Pecker said he promised Trump that he would keep an eye out for negative stories about him during his first presidential bid, and carry out “catch and kill” schemes when needed.

A “catch and kill” refers to a practice where a media outlet pays for the exclusive rights to a story with the intention of suppressing or burying it, rather than publishing it for public consumption. In this scheme, the story is “caught” by the media outlet, and then “killed” by ensuring that it is never published or widely disseminated.

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Why did former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testify at Trump’s hush money trial?

Pecker admitted that AMI executed such a “catch and kill” scheme in the case of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed that she had an affair with the former president.

The company paid McDougal $150,000 for rights to her story, with plans to kill it to avoid hurting Trump’s presidential campaign, per the New York Times. The ex-publisher said he expected Trump to cover the payment, but that he was never reimbursed for the expense.

Pecker also talked about hearing that adult film actor Stormy Daniels was trying to sell her story of having a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006, and how he gave Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen a heads up regarding the matter.

The Enquirer publisher said he told Cohen the tabloid was not going to buy the story, and that he later learned that the lawyer paid off Daniels with his own money.