Pecker says his agreements with Trump were not in writing (2024)

David Pecker said his agreements with Trump were not put into writing because “it was just an agreement among friends."

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass also had Pecker confirm that the positive stories about Trump were of mutual benefit, but stopping stories from being printed about Trump only benefited the campaign.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker if he ever purchased a story about Donald Trump in order for it not to be printed prior to the August 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen in Trump Tower.

"Ah no," Pecker said.

"Did that part help the National Enquirer at all?"

Pecker replied, "No, that didn’t help."

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker how Trump reacted to Pecker's suggestion he would continue running negative stories about Bill and Hillary Clinton.

"He was pleased," Pecker said.

Pecker said stories about Bill and Hillary Clinton were great sellers for the magazine.

To underscore the point to the jury, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker a series of questions about what he offered to do.

He asked Pecker to confirm that he offered to publish positive stories about Trump, publish negative stories about his opponents and alert him about damaging information involving women.

To each question, Pecker answered "yes."

Pecker testified, "I think it was a mutual benefit. It would help his campaign, and it would also help me."

David Pecker continued to recall what he offered Donald Trump in the August 2015 meeting.

"Anything that I hear in the marketplace — if I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen as I did over the last several years," Pecker said.

"And Michael Cohen —then he would be able to have them killed in another magazine or have them not be published or somebody would have to purchase them," he added.

Pecker explained why he raised women at the meeting.

"In a presidential campaign, I was the person that thought that there would be 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 says.

Former tabloid executive David Pecker's testimony is an important part of the hush money trial because he says he witnessed Donald Trump signing invoices and checks, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Hong said.

"David Pecker said, 'I saw, with my own eyes, Donald Trump's assistant would bring him invoices and checks, he would look at them and sign them,'" Honig noted, adding that one of the key questions of this hush money case is the falsification of business records.

The prosecution is also showing that Pecker was close to the former president, CNN's Phil Mattingly explained.

“They are using David Pecker as the vehicle into painting the picture of Trump’s world. A world in which Michael Cohen was the point of contact for David Pecker, who was very close to the former president,” Mattingly said.

Describing the 2015 Trump Tower meeting, David Pecker said:

"At the meeting, Donald Trump and Michael (Cohen), they asked me, what can I do, and what my magazines could do, to help the campaign?"

Pecker said he "would be your eyes and ears."