Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial, Week 2: Live Updates

Trump filed out of the courtroom around 2 p.m.

Pecker described hearing from former National Enquirer Editor-in-Chief Dylan Howard that former Playboy model Karen McDougal was shopping around a story about an alleged affair with Trump. Pecker called Cohen and told him what he’d heard. According to Pecker, Cohen said the affair didn’t happen, but told Pecker to look into it.

Cohen eventually told Pecker that they should move their conversation on McDougal from a landline to the encrypted app Signal.

“I’d never heard of it before,” the 72-year-old Pecker said of the app.

He explained that Howard had gone to interview McDougal and came to believe she did not actually want her story to be made public. When Trump called to discuss McDougal, Pecker said he told Trump to buy the story. But Trump said he doesn’t buy stories because, in his experience, the story always leaks out, Pecker testified. He added that Cohen appeared to be under a lot of pressure to handle the situation.

An addendum to ex-Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin’s agreement with AMI from late 2015 stipulated that if he went elsewhere with his story, he would owe AMI $1 million. It also said the exclusivity agreement with AMI would be extended in perpetuity. Prosecutors showed the jurors evidence in the form of a December 2015 email titled “INVOICE FOR DINO G. SAJUDIN.”

Pecker said he eventually determined the story was not true. He told Cohen that the doorman was “very difficult to deal with,” and that he thought they should release the man from the exclusivity agreement. Cohen made Pecker promise not to do so before the 2016 presidential election, Pecker testified. Sajudin was told he was being released from the agreement on Dec. 9, 2016.

As we near the end of proceedings for the day, jurors are largely attentive, taking notes on their notepads. Most are looking studiously at Pecker, but some turn their gaze elsewhere. There is no lunch break today, as court will adjourn at 2 p.m. for Passover.

Pecker explained how he became aware of a story being peddled by a former Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, who alleged that Trump had fathered a child with a Trump Tower maid at one point. He called Cohen, who told him it was “absolutely not true,” but instructed Pecker to look into it anyway. One of the first steps was to pay the doorman $500 to take a polygraph test.

“I called Michael Cohen, and said, we have to go forward with the story,” Pecker said. Steinglass had told him not to reveal the results of the test. The doorman would need to be paid $30,000, Pecker testified.

“I said, I’ll pay for it,” Pecker. “This could be a very big story, I believe it’s important that it be removed from the market.” While he had no intention of publishing the story, at least before the election, Pecker said if he were to do so, the National Enquirer would see the biggest day of sales "since the death of Elvis Presley."

A copy of the agreement between AMI and Sajudin, dated Nov. 15, 2015, was shown to the jury.

Trump leaned heavily into a bizarre conspiracy during the 2016 primary alleging a link between Sen. Ted Cruz’s father and the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

“His father. I don’t know his father, I met him once,” Trump said at a speech shortly after accepting the Republican nomination. “I think he’s a lovely guy. I think he’s a lovely guy. All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast.”

Pecker testified Tuesday that the National Enquirer concocted the baseless claim.

“We mashed the photos and the different picture with Lee Harvard Oswald ... we mashed the two together," Pecker told the jury. "That's how that story was prepared — created, I would say."

With the jurors momentarily out of the courtroom, lawyers for both parties argued over how questions should be handled with regard to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s alleged influence on what the National Enquirer published during the 2016 presidential campaign. Prosecutors agreed to drop the line of questioning and move on.

Pecker testified that Cohen would essentially dictate various pro-Trump headlines for the National Enquirer, and Pecker would run embellished versions.

"After the Republican debates, and based on the success that some of the other candidates had, I would receive a call from Michael Cohen and he would direct me, and direct Dylan Howard on which candidate and which direction we should go," Pecker testified.

Here’s a sample of the headlines they published:

• DONALD TRUMP: THE MAN THE LEGEND
• TED CRUZ SHAMED BY PORN STAR
• DONALD TRUMP GETS THE DUKE'S BLESSING
• BUNGLING SURGEON BEN CARSON LEFT SPONGE IN PATIENT’S BRAIN
• JFK'S SECRET SON ENDORSES DONALD TRUMP
• DONALD DOMINATES!
• OBAMA'S HALF-BROTHER-CHEERING ON DONALD AT DEBATE
• TED CRUZ SEX SCANDAL — 5 SECRET MISTRESSES
• CRUZIN' TO VICTORY! TED ENDORSES DONALD
• DONALD TRUMP BLASTS TED CRUZ’S DAD FOR PHOTO WITH JFK ASSASSIN
• ‘FAMILY MAN’ MARCO RUBIO’S LOVE CHILD STUNNER!

The meeting Trump called at Trump Tower lasted only about 20 to 25 minutes, Pecker testified. He described what came out of it as “an agreement among friends,” rather than a more formal arrangement.

It was important for the deal to be kept secret, Pecker said, due to the number of people who worked at his publishing company.

“I did not want anyone else to know,” he said.

Jurors were shown a series of National Enquirer headlines praising Trump. After gazing at a series of National Enquirer headlines attacking Trump's political opponents, Pecker testified that Cohen would simply tell him what he wanted to see published about Trump's enemies, and Pecker's staff would then "embellish" the claims.

Cohen also got PDFs of the stories before they ran, in order to provide feedback.

Negative stories about Hillary and Bill Clinton would provide “a mutual benefit” for both Trump and Pecker, he said.

Trump was “pleased” about the idea that AMI publications would be pushing stories about former President Bill Clinton’s “womanizing,” Pecker recalled.

Pecker was asked to give details of the August 2015 meeting between Trump, Cohen and Hope Hicks at Trump Tower that was organized by Trump — or “the boss,” as Cohen apparently called him then.

“At that meeting, they asked me what can I do and what my magazines can do to help the campaign,” Pecker said. “So thinking about it as I did previously, I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents. And I said … I would be your eyes and ears, because I knew that the Trump Organization had a very small staff."

Anything he heard that was "negative" about Trump or "about women selling stories,” Pecker would notify Cohen about, he said.

“I was the person who thought that a lot of women would come out to try to sell their stories, because Mr. Trump was well-known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women," Pecker testified. "And it was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone is running for office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories."

Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer hit back at the former president Tuesday after he repeatedly ranted about Cohen on social media, potentially in violation of a gag order.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the scheme that Trump is now on trial for.

“After the Trump administration had me remanded to solitary confinement for a total of 51 days, I learned that I am much stronger than I ever imagined," Cohen told NBC in a statement.

"Strong enough to ensure that truth will prevail over Donald and his acolytes’ incessant lying and denigration of me; in the court hallways or his unTruth Social platform. Regardless. no one is above the law.”

Asked to describe Trump as a businessman, Pecker said he was “very knowledgeable” and “very detail-oriented.” He was “almost a micromanager … he looked at all the aspects of whatever the issue was.”

“His approach to money — he was very cautious and very frugal,” Pecker testified.

Pecker first met Cohen at a bar mitzvah in 2000, he said. Seven years later, Trump hired him as his personal attorney, and Pecker recalled that anything he had to tell Trump would have to go through Cohen after that point.

Before Trump announced his presidential run, Pecker said he spoke to Trump “probably, maybe, once a month.” After that point, he said he talked to him through Cohen “at a minimum of every week” if not “daily.”

“It was an instant success,” Pecker said of Trump’s NBC reality TV show.

He said that the show, and its “Celebrity Apprentice” offshoot, made Trump into a “major celebrity” and elevated his profile nationwide.

Steinglass asked Pecker to confirm that the show was a competition between contestants who were competing to be hired by Trump, pointing out that even though none of the contestants had been hired, Trump eliminated them from the show with the line, “You’re fired.”

Judge Merchan didn’t respond favorably to Blanche’s argument this morning that Trump can repost whatever content he wants without fear of violating his gag order.

After the hearing, Trump promptly went after Merchan on social media.

Writing in all caps, the former president posted:

“HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF!”

Asked whether he was personally familiar with Trump, Pecker said yes.“How long have you known him?” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

“Since the late ‘80s,” Pecker said, adding that they met at Mar-a-Lago. “I’ve had a great relationship with Mr. Trump over the years.”

The former president is going back and forth between Blanche and Bove, whispering intently. He shook his head slightly. We are waiting for the judge and jury to enter.

Court has resumed after a short break following the gag order hearing. Trump is now back in the courtroom, holding a thick stack of papers.

Trump ignored reporters’ questions during the break, including:

• Are you going to keep [posting on social media?]
• How are your lawyers doing?
• Does your lawyer have any credibility?

The judge schooled Trump's lawyer, telling him that he should have come into the courtroom to say that Trump’s team was not clear whether reposts violated the gag order. “But that’s not what you did,” Merchan said.

“The fact that the People did not run in here immediately when your client started reposting things … is not probative of anything,” the judge said.

He then called for a quick recess.

As Blanche’s argument is not going well, he and Trump attorney Emil Bove briefly conferred over Bove's laptop. Blanche attempts to continue his argument but is soon interrupted by the judge.

"You are losing credibility. I have to tell you right now," Merchan told him. "You're losing all credibility with the court."

"Reposting an article from a news site … we don’t believe are violations,” Blanche told the judge, who said he wanted to talk about that and asked Blanche to elaborate.

“Tell me what case law you have to support that," the judge said.

“I don’t have any case laws. But it’s just common sense, your honor,” Blanche replied. He tried arguing that the act of reposting something was a passive act, but the judge wasn’t buying it.

“Passive conduct would be if someone makes a post and it somehow ends up in the client’s account without anybody doing anything,” Merchan said.

Blanche is attempting to convince Merchan that Trump is simply responding to “political attacks,” not violating the gag order.

“There were repeated, repeated attacks —“ Blanche said.

“Give me one, give me the most recent one,” Merchan interjected. But Blanche said he did not have a “specific tweet.”

An apparently frustrated Merchan later told him: “I’m asking the questions. I’m going to decide whether your client is in contempt or not, so please don’t turn it around.” He emphasized how long Blanche was taking to make his points and said he did not want to keep the jurors waiting when they arrived at 11 a.m.

“The People were allowed to speak as long as they wanted to,” Blanche said.

“The People were answering my questions,” Merchan replied.

Prosecuting attorney Christopher Conroy addressed Trump’s team’s claim that his social media reposts do not count as gag order violations because Trump did not create the content himself.

“What happened here is what the order is precisely there to prevent, and the defendant doesn’t care,” Conroy said, adding that Trump had demonstrated a “willfulness” to defy the court.

“Some of his most dangerous statements … are what he wants to carve out of the order by calling them reposts. That flies in the face of common sense,” Conroy said.

He gave as an example a repost that pictured a bat next to Bragg's head.

Blanche refuted this point and told Merchan, “Just to set the record very clear, President Trump absolutely knows what the gag order allows him to do and does not allow him to do.”

“Defendant has violated this order repeatedly and hasn’t stopped,” attorney Christopher Conroy told Merchan.

He said Trump violated the order once again on Monday, during comments made to the press outside the courtroom in which he complained about Cohen and the trial generally. Trump also posted an all-caps screed on the case to Truth Social.

(Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect Conroy was speaking, not Joshua Steinglass.)

Prosecutors allege the former president violated the terms of his gag order — preventing him, in theory, from publicly commenting on individuals involved in the case — 10 times.

They argued in court filings that Trump should be fined $1,000 for each incident, which have included a claim that “they are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.” Trump has dubbed the trial “Communism at its worst,” called Merchan a “HIGHLY CONFLICTED & CORRUPT JUDGE,” described the court and Bragg as “animals” and labeled Cohen a “sleaze bag” who engages in “lies and misrepresentations.”

Trump has complained endlessly about his gag order.

Prior to entering the courtroom, Trump addressed reporters, attacking President Joe Biden over the pro-Palestinian protests taking place at college campuses across the country.

“It’s all Biden’s fault and everybody knows it,” he said.

He then went on to call Biden "the worst president in the history of our country."

The former president is now seated in the courtroom with his attorneys.

Judge Merchan will hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. this morning on the prosecution's motion to have Trump held in criminal contempt and sanctioned for allegedly violating his gag order with social media posts about Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Jurors will come back to the courtroom at 11 a.m. and the trial will continue, according to CNN.

Speaking to the press outside court, Trump complained about Cohen and the case, which he said was keeping him off the campaign trail.

"[Cohen] represented a lot of people over the years. But they take this payment and they call it illegal," Trump said. "This is taking me off the campaign trail."

He added: "I should be in Georgia now. I should be in Florida now ... and I’m sitting here. It’s very unfair.”

Trump remained seated for a moment as attorneys for the prosecution gathered their things. He then stood and laid a heavy hand on a low wooden fence at the front of the courtroom before exiting with his attorneys, carrying nothing.

At about 12:25 p.m., Merchan dismissed the jury early for Passover and one juror's scheduling conflict.

Around 2015, Dylan Howard was serving as the National Enquirer’s editor in chief and as chief content officer for all of AMI. Howard reported to Pecker, he said, and his job was “to ensure we had the most exclusive and current content.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker to confirm that a health issue has prevented Howard from appearing at the trial, which he did.

Asked whether he had final say over publishing decisions made by the National Enquirer and other publications, Pecker replied: “Yes … at least on the tabloid side.”

“We used checkbook journalism and we paid for stories,” he said. Pecker said he generally told his editors that they could not spend more than $10,000 on a story without seeking further approval.

Back in 2019, Pecker threatened to publish embarrassing photos of Jeff Bezos after the Amazon magnate (and owner of the Washington Post) ordered an investigation of Enquirer parent company American Media Inc.

According to Bezos, Pecker was “apoplectic” about a Washington Post investigation into his companies, particularly on links between AMI and the Saudi royal family.

Bezos called the Enquirer’s bluff in a public blog — and Pecker wilted.

“Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,” Bezos wrote.

“I won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.”

Private investigators hired by Bezos “concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone and gained private information” and accused AMI of being “in league with a foreign nation that’s been actively trying to harm American citizens and companies.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in 2018 ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in retaliation for negative coverage of the regime.

A separate investigator, meanwhile, said he believed sensitive information had also been leaked by the brother of Lauren Sanchez, whom Bezos is now engaged to.

AMI responded by saying it launched an investigation into Bezos’ claims, though the company denied its conduct reached the level of blackmail and believes it “acted lawfully.”

Pecker stepped down as AMI CEO In August 2020.

Merchan paused Pecker’s testimony briefly to allow the jurors the chance to raise their hands if they wanted note-taking materials. Nearly all of them did so.

David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer and head of AMI, is the prosecution's first witness. Pecker, dressed in a grey suit and yellow tie with grey hair combed back, has been sworn in.

Opening statements have now concluded. Trump did not speak to reporters as he left the courtroom, instead showing a raised fist.

Over the course of his opener, Blanche tried to color the charges as insignificant and tried to put as much distance as he could between Trump and the alleged criminal conduct.

He suggested that the “catch and kill” schemes involving the National Enquirer’s publisher were not so unusual and that the evidence involved was ancient history. The conversations at the center of the trial occurred from 2015 to 2017 — or as Blanche put it, "years and years ago."

“She’s similarly extremely biased against President Trump,” Blanche said of Daniels. He added that he while he expects Daniel to testify, he does not believe she has "any idea” about the alleged criminal behavior at the heart of the trial.

“So her testimony, while salacious, does not matter,” he said.

Merchan asked the parties to approach the bench after a series of objections made by the prosecution during a prolonged attack on Cohen's credibility.

“He has a goal and an obsession with getting President Trump. I submit to you that he cannot be trusted," Blanche told jurors of Trump's former personal attorney.

Blanche acknowledged that while Cohen was “very loyal” to Trump and his companies “for many years,” Cohen was also allegedly cheating on his taxes and lying to banks “unbeknownst to President Trump."

Blanche also claimed: “Michael Cohen wanted a job in the administration. He didn’t get one.”

In 2019, Cohen testified that he "was offered jobs" in the White House but "did not want to go to the White House." Trump's sons, Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump, claimed Cohen wanted to be chief of staff.

“I have a spoiler alert: There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy,” Blanche said, continuing to downplay the allegations against his client.

“Entering into a nondisclosure agreement is perfectly legal,” Blanche said. “You will learn that companies do that all the time with some regularity.”

“There’s nothing illegal about it.”

"President Trump had nothing to do with any of the 34 pieces of paper … except he signed the checks in the White House while he was running the country. That’s not a crime,” Blanche said.

Trump's attorney told the jurors that the 34 counts correspond to the repayments Cohen received in installments of $35,000 over a series of months.

“The 34 counts … are really just 34 pieces of paper,” Blanche said. "None of this was a crime."

“President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said, adding that this case should never have been brought. Blanche said because Trump has “earned" the title of president, “We will call him ‘President Trump’ out of respect.”

“He’s also a man. He’s a husband. He’s a father. He’s a person just like you and just like me,” Blanche said.

Colangelo told jurors that he was confident they would conclude that “Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records with intent to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election.”

Cohen’s testimony will be backed up by testimony from Pecker and McDougal attorney Keith Davidson, along with “an extensive paper trial, bank records, emails, text messages, phone logs, business documents and other records that we will show you sometimes at length during this trial,” he said. Trump’s own words on tape, from social media posts, his books and video of his speeches will also be shown.

As it became clearer and clearer that Trump might actually win the 2016 election, Karen McDougal's lawyer Keith Davidson seemed to have regrets about agreeing to the "catch and kill" scheme.

Colangelo says Davidson sent a message to National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard expressing unease: “What have we done?”

The prosecution outlined the crux of the case: How Trump managed to pay Cohen back for the hush money Stormy Daniels received. They couldn’t just write “reimbursement for porn star payoff” in the memo line of the repayment checks, Colangelo quipped, so they "cooked the books." The result was 34 allegedly falsified business records for “legal services.”

“That was a double lie,” he said. “There was no retainer agreement... It was instead what they thought was a clever way to pay Cohen back without being too obvious about it.”

Trump agreed to pay Cohen a total of $420,000: They started with the $130,000 hush money payment, added $50,000 that Cohen said he was owed for campaign tech services, then agreed to double that amount to account for taxes Cohen would owe, and then added $60,000 as a year-end bonus. Colangelo noted that it was highly unusual for the Trump Organization to pay anyone double what they’re owed “for anything.” Trump's willingness to do so allegedly highlighted how important the matter was to him.

“You will see evidence at trial that Donald Trump is a very frugal businessman,” he said.

After the “Access Hollywood” tape became public and elicited a huge backlash against Trump, his team had to figure out what to do about a third person who came forward with negative information about then-candidate Trump — Stormy Daniels.

Trump allegedly directed Cohen to try and delay finalizing the deal as long as possible. He also allegedly tried to get AMI to cover the payment, as they did for McDougal.

But Pecker was unhappy that he had never been paid back for the McDougal deal, Colangelo said. That’s why Cohen ended up transferring the $130,000 to Daniels.

"It was election fraud, pure and simple," Colangelo said.

Colangelo read part of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape transcript to the jury, introducing the panel to the Washington Post scoop that threw the Trump campaign into turmoil.

Prosecutor Colangelo is outlining the three “catch and kill” deals that he says came out of the 2015 Trump Tower meeting.

The first came from a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. After Pecker’s publishing company, AMI, determined the story was not true, Cohen allegedly told him to wait to release the doorman from his nondisclosure agreement until after the 2016 election, when it could no longer hurt Trump’s campaign.

The second “catch and kill” deal was the account from former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump for around a year while he was married. Cohen allegedly asked AMI to make arrangements to purchase McDougal’s story quickly and confidentially, and AMI ultimately agreed on a sum of $150,000. Trump initially intended to pay AMI back, Colangelo said, and had his attorney Cohen set up a shell company in order to facilitate that payment, but the deal fell apart.

Colangelo told jurors they will hear a recorded phone call that Cohen made between himself and Trump regarding that payment.

Colangelo is outlining the broad strokes of the case, beginning with an alleged 2015 Trump Tower meeting between Trump, Cohen and AMI CEO David Pecker, who was publishing the National Enquirer tabloid at the time.

"Those three men formed a conspiracy at that meeting to influence the presidential election by concealing negative information about Trump in order to help him get elected,” Colangelo said.

The meeting allegedly resulted in three decisions: that Pecker would act as the “eyes and ears” for the Trump campaign, that he would use his publications to push flattering stories about Trump, and that he would also use them to attack Trump’s political enemies.

“As the man in charge of AMI, Pecker had the ultimate say over publication decisions,” Colangelo said, noting that Trump’s team was allowed to review stories before they were published and have a say in any accompanying illustrations. He also explained the concept of "catch and kill," wherein publishers buy damaging information from a source in order to prevent its release.

“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to disrupt the 2016 presidential election,” prosecuting attorney Matthew Colangelo told the jurors, adding that Trump then lied about it “over and over and over again.”

The jurors are not permitted to discuss anything relating to the case with their family, friends, employers or others. They can only reveal the basic fact that they are on the jury. Merchan told them to report directly to him if anyone tries to influence their opinion in the case.

The 12 members of the jury have taken their seats ahead of the start of opening arguments. Judge Merchan is providing them with instructions around the basic tenets of the criminal justice system, including explaining that the burden of proof lies with the prosecutors.

The judge said that, if Trump testifies in the trial, the prosecution will be allowed to tell the jury about four past legal entanglements that ended poorly for Trump in order to impeach his credibility.

They will be able to bring up the February verdict finding that Trump fraudulently stated the value of his assets for economic benefit, including two instances in that case in which Trump was fined a total of $15,000 for violating a court order by attacking the judge’s law clerk.

Prosecutors can also bring up the outcome of two defamation-related cases brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, and a 2018 order dissolving the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the former president's charitable organization, over fraud claims.

Merchan said that a juror contacted the court over the weekend to express concerns about the level of media attention the trial has elicited, echoing the concerns heard from certain prospective jurors during proceedings last week. The judge confirmed that she would continue serving.

Prosecutors told Merchan they need about 40 minutes to make their opening statements. The defense said they need about 25 minutes.

The former president is now seated in the courtroom and chatting intermittently with his attorneys.

CNN showed images of Trump departing his residence at Trump Tower for the courtroom.

Trump finished off his weekend by complaining about Alvin Bragg on Truth Social, calling him a "Corrupt Soros Funded District Attorney" who "has totally lost control of Violent Crime in New York."

Early Monday morning, he appeared to encourage MAGA fans to protest "at the front steps of Courthouses, all over the Country." He claimed that "Palestinian protesters, and even rioters" are allowed to "basically do whatever they want."