Pecker explains "catch and kill" deal: "You had the choice to publish the article or not" (2024)

David Pecker is explaining the document the jury is seeing. "It's up to the publisher whether they're going to publish the article or not," he said.

He continued: "Paying the $30,000, you had the full exclusive for it and you had the choice to publish the article or not."

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass showed Pecker an amendment to the agreement that said the agreement is "extended in perpetuity and shall not expire."

David Pecker testified that if the story was true, "it would be probably the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley."

Pecker said if the story was verified he would have published it after the election, based on a conversation he had with Michael Cohen.

"If the story came back true, I would have published the story shortly after it was verified," Pecker said.

But Pecker said he would've held the story until after the presidential election, even if he verified it before then.

"That was the conversation I had with Michael Cohen and that’s what we agreed to," Pecker said.

David Pecker, the formerNational Enquirerboss on Monday became the first witness called to testify inDonald Trump’shistoric hush-money trial.

Sitting in the Manhattan courtroom, Pecker offered illuminating details into how the infamous tabloid operated and conducted so-called “catch and kill” operations.

It was the first time that Pecker has spoken publicly about the secret practice — buying exclusive rights to a story for the express purpose of never publishing the information — since the tactic gained widespread notoriety during the 2016 presidential election.

The Wall Street Journal, which led the way reporting on the story, firstbroke newsin November 2016 —just days before the election— that Enquirer-parentAmerican Media Inc.had paid formerPlayboymodelKaren McDougal$150,000 for the rights to a story about an affair she alleged with Trump.

But while The Journal and other news outlets reported heavily on how Pecker shielded Trump from the embarrassing affair allegations by purchasing the rights to damaging stories and then never letting them see the light of day, Pecker has never spoken a word about it — until now.

Read more about Pecker's testimony.

The jury is now viewing an agreement AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, struck with Dino Sajudin, the doorman selling a story about Donald Trump allegedly fathering a son.

The deal was to purchase the rights to story, and the document is dated November 15, 2015.

David Pecker testified that he asked former National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard “to negotiate a number, a price to buy the story and take it off the market," in regard to the doorman selling a story that Donald Trump allegedly fathered a child.

Pecker said Howard negotiated to pay $30,000 to buy the story. He called Michael Cohen to tell him, and Cohen asked who would pay for it.

Pecker says that when he agreed to buy the story, Cohen told him, "The boss will be very pleased."

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked him to specify who the boss was. “The boss would be Donald Trump,” Pecker replied.

Witness David Pecker started to say on the stand thatthey discussed having Dino Sajudin, a former Trump Towerdoorman, take a polygraph test — but prosecutor Joshua Steinglass quickly cut him off.

"What you were about to say, don’t say that," Steinglass said.

The judge previously ruled polygraph information could not come into evidence.

Steinglass again told Pecker not to discuss any results of the polygraph test Sajudin took.

After David Pecker alerted Michael Cohen that a doorman was selling a story about Donald Trump allegedly fathering a child, Cohen called Pecker back, Pecker testified.

Cohen told Pecker he verified that the two names were on the payroll and asked Pecker to check out the story, Pecker testified.

Pecker explained that he called Cohen because of their August 2015 meeting where he agreed that with anything he "heard in the marketplace that was going to be negative" to Trump, his family or the campaign, that he'd notify Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump shook his head and leaned back at the defense table as David Pecker recalled a doorman who was selling a story that Trump had allegedly fathered a child.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is now moving onto asking David Pecker about the story of Dino Sajudin, the doorman who was selling a story that Donald Trump had allegedly fathered a child. This is the first catch and kill deal that has come up.

"I immediately called Michael Cohen and I described to him exactly what I was told by Dylan (Howard)," Pecker said, referencing the National Enquirer editor.

According to Pecker on the stand, Cohen responded, “Absolutely not true, but I’ll check it out”."