Trump trial to continue with third day of testimony by witness David Pecker

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is expected to continue testifying Thursday in Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial, his third day on the stand.

Court is set to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. to resume proceedings and will overlap with another significant legal development for the former president. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over whether Trump should be immune from federal prosecution in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The judge overseeing the trial denied Trump’s request to attend the arguments in the capital.

In his testimony on Tuesday, the most recent day of the trial, Pecker described his efforts to use the National Enquirer to bury negative stories about Trump and attack his rivals during the 2016 presidential campaign. Pecker was the chief executive of the Enquirer’s parent company, a role he held until 2020.

Pecker testified that he agreed to be Trump’s “eyes and ears” in 2015 and alert Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, to damaging stories that might hurt the campaign. Cohen is now an ardent critic of Trump, and is expected to be prosecutors’ key witness against him.

Pecker described a tactic called “catch and kill” that he used to buy the rights to stories about Trump, without publishing them, effectively keeping them hidden.

His testimony is expected to continue through much, if not all, of the day’s proceedings Thursday.

Prosecutors allege a $130,000 “hush money” payment Cohen made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days before the election was tied to the “catch and kill” scheme. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements to Cohen. He has accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pursuing the case for political gain.

Judge Juan Merchan may also rule Thursday on a motion by prosecutors seeking to hold Trump in contempt for a series of social media and campaign posts they say violated a gag order in the case. 

The order limits what Trump can say publicly about many of those involved in the case, including witnesses like Cohen and Daniels.

Merchan held a contentious hearing on the motion Tuesday. Prosecutors have asked him to impose a $1,000 fine for each post and order Trump to take them down.

“His attacks on witnesses clearly violate the order, willfully and flagrantly. The court should now hold him in contempt for each of the 10 posts,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said. “No one is off limits to the defendant. He can attack and seek to intimidate anyone he wants to in service to himself.”

Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, argued that his client was responding to political attacks in his posts, and did not believe he was violating the order when reposting or quoting others. The judge seemed unpersuaded, but did not make a ruling immediately.

“Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you that right now. You’re losing all credibility with the court,” Merchan said at one point.