Donald Trump made a surprise campaign stop at a construction site in New York early on Thursday morning en route to day seven of his hush money trial, where the jury heard further testimony from a former tabloid mogul who detailed the “catch-and-kill” scheme.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker has testified about his agreement with his “mentor” Mr Trump and former attorney Michael Cohen to “kill” stories about the defendant’s alleged affairs.
New York Justice Juan Merchan is yet to rule on whether Mr Trump should be held in contempt and fined $10,000 for allegedly violating a trial gag order by posting about witnesses and jurors on Truth Social.
Elsewhere, 11 local Republicans and several key Trump allies have been indicted in Arizona for allegedly joining a failed “fake elector” plot during the aftermath of the 2020 election to falsely certify Mr Trump’s victory in the state.
And, in Washington DC, attorneys for the former president will today deliver oral arguments in front of the US Supreme Court in support of his “presidential immunity” defence against prosecution in what promises to be a landmark hearing.
Alex Woodward is providing live updates from the courthouse in Manhattan.
Pecker testimony gives insight into Trump’s preoccupation with McDougal affair
Oliver O’Connell25 April 2024 21:08
Bove: “Because in fairness it’s hard to remember the dates of these things even when they happened a couple of months ago, right?”
Trump is the most alert he’s been all day. Chin up, staring at Pecker, jerking his head.
Bove keeps trying to suggest prosecutors prepped him for testimony and has been instructed to say what he’s saying today.
“What I said under oath was the truth,” Pecker says. “That’s all I planned on doing today.”
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 21:06
Bove’s line of questioning about Pecker not giving an exact date for the Trump Tower meeting in August 2015 suggests that he is trying to cast to the jury that his testimony is unreliable. He notes that Trump wasn’t even in New York City in the first week of August because he was preparing for a debate.
“You changed your testimony this week on this issue,” Bove says.
Steinglass keeps trying to object.
“Why did you change your testimony?” Bove says.
Pecker wasn’t sure what the date was, just that it was in the middle of August.
“I don’t mean to put you on the spot,” Bove says. “Even when you’re doing your best … it’s hard to remember what people said almost 10 years ago, correct? … You fill in some details to keep them in sequence, and to make them sound logical?”
Pecker can only say yes. Bove will certainly be using this against him to make the rest of his testimony look wholly unreliable.
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 21:01
Trump is slouching with his right arm slung over his chair.
Bove gets Pecker to admit that he bought a story about Tiger Woods in order to use it for leverage to get him to appear in AMI titles.
Trump has put his arm back down. Now he’s crossing his arms and squinting and jerking his head to get a look at Pecker on the witness stand.
We’re hearing about Pecker’s deals to suppress other stories about Rahm Emanuel and Mark Wahlberg.
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 20:58
Bove is asking many yes or no questions. Pecker hasn’t said much other than “yes”.
Pecker agrees with Bove that he had never heard of a “catch-and-kill” scheme until after this case.
Bove’s questions all typically end with a “right?” or something to that effect, prompting Pecker to say some version of “yes”. It gives Bove a lot of control of the narrative to the jury.
For example, here’s Bove coming back to the Arnold Schwarzenneger scenario from 2002:
In that period, you were trying to expand AMI’s holding in the fitness business? Yes.
A huge deal, right? worth about $365m? You wanted this to go through very much? Yes to all.
You needed Arnold’s blessing, correct? Yes.
You met him in person and you reached an agreement? Yes, we did.
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 20:50
Trump puts his sons ‘in charge of picking Trump administration officials round two’
The brothers are not running the transition team, leaving that responsibility to the Trump campaign’s senior adviser, Susie Wiles, but are instead playing a lead role in vetting prospective officials and staffers on ideological grounds, according to the site.
By doing so, they reportedly hope to ensure a greater degree of loyalty than the former president experienced during his chaotic first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
Oliver O’Connell25 April 2024 20:45
As cross-examination by Mr Trump’s defence team begins, Pecker agrees that AMI would publish half of the stories they purchased.
“Your ability as an executive and leader at AMI to control the release of the story was standard operating procedure between 1999 and 2020,” Bove says.
“AMI has used hundreds of thousands of source agreements in the way we just talked about.”
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 20:33
Cross-examination of David Pecker begins
With approximately an hour left of court today, cross-examination of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker begins with Donald Trump’s attorney Emil Bove now questioning the tabloid mogul.
Alex Woodward is reporting for The Independent live from the courtroom.
Oliver O’Connell25 April 2024 20:31
Sounds like we’re winding down with Pecker.
Steinglass asks him if he has any bad feelings about Trump.
“On the contrary,” he said. “I felt that Donald Trump was my mentor. He helped me throughout my career.”
He mentions an incident in Boca Raton in the wake of 9/11 when one of his editors inhaled anthrax and died.
“The first person who called me if I needed help was Donald Trump,” Pecker said. “I have no ill will at all. Even though we haven’t spoken, I still consider him a friend.”
Both sets of attorneys approach the bench and speak with Judge Merchan.
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 20:23
Pecker is reading his agreement with the DA’s office to speak on 25 October 2019 to discuss his meetings with Trump and Cohen and his transactions with McDougal, Cohen, and Daniels.
He’s also reading the part of the agreement about the “materially false or incomplete information” that could compromise his immunity.
Alex Woodward25 April 2024 20:19