The efforts relied on a „catch-and-kill“ scheme prosecutors allege amounted to interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The former publisher of the National Enquirer testified Thursday at Donald Trump’s hush money trial about going to great lengths to help shield his old friend from potentially damaging stories using a catch-and-kill scheme prosecutors allege amounted to interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a different criminal matter involving Trump, who has claimed that he should be immune from prosecution over his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump asked to skip his New York criminal proceedings for the day so he could sit in on the high court’s special session, where the justices appeared likely to reject his claim. But it seemed possible Trump could still benefit from a lengthy trial delay, possibly beyond November’s election.
His request to go to Washington was denied by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments.
“I think the Supreme Court has a very important argument before it today,” Trump said outside the courtroom. “I should be there.”
Adding to the former president’s legal woes, his former lawyers and associates were indicted Wednesday in a 2020 election-related scheme in Arizona. And a New York judge rejected a request for a new trial in a defamation case that found Trump liable for $83.3 million in damages. The hush money case also includes a looming decision on whether he violated a gag order.
Trump has maintained he is not guilty of any of the charges. In New York, he says the stories that were bought and squelched were false.
“There is no case here. This is just a political witch hunt,” he said before court in brief comments to reporters.
Jurors heard from David Pecker, the longtime head of the tabloid, who described shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy up rights to potentially damaging stories for Trump, some in secret moves meant to avoid scrutiny from colleagues.
Trump watched intently as his friend spoke from the witness stand.
Pecker explained how he and his publication parlayed rumor-mongering into splashy stories that smeared Trump’s opponents and, just as crucially, leveraged his connections to suppress seamy stories about Trump, including a porn actor’s claim of an extramarital sexual encounter years earlier.
