Alvin Bragg Witness Smiles at Donald Trump

Former tabloid executive David Pecker, the first witness to take the stand in former President Donald Trump's criminal case in Manhattan, smiled toward the defense table as he left the courtroom for a short break on Tuesday.

Pecker, the longtime publisher of The National Enquirer and a friend of the former president, was called to testify by prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office. Bragg has accused Trump of falsifying business records in order to conceal an alleged hush money payment made to an adult film actress during the 2016 election.

While on stand Tuesday morning, Pecker detailed a meeting that he had with Trump and his former "fixer," Michael Cohen, in 2015 to discuss how The National Enquirer could publish stories that benefited Trump's first bid for the White House. Such stories would include positive articles about the former president or negative headlines attacking his opponents.

As the courtroom headed for a short break just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Pecker flashed a smile toward Trump, who is required as a criminal defendant to attend all trial hearings unless permitted otherwise by Judge Juan Merchan.

The Context

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts included in Bragg's indictment, accusing prosecutors of launching a "witch hunt" against him to upset his chances at taking back the White House in November.

Prosecutors say that the former president falsified records in order to conceal his reimbursements to Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign so that she would keep quiet about an alleged extramarital affair between her and Trump.

Cohen, who is expected to serve as a key witness against his former boss during the Manhattan trial, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018 in connection to the hush money payments and other unrelated crimes.

What We Know

Prosecutors say that Pecker's coordination with Cohen and Trump, which the ex-tabloid executive described as being "highly, highly confidential," was part of a "conspiracy" to conceal several scandals involving Trump and possible extramarital affairs during his 2016 bid.

According to Pecker, he told the former president that he could be the "eyes and ears" of his campaign during their meeting in 2015. He also said that the agreement between him, Cohen and Trump was not put into writing and was an agreement among "friends."

Following Tuesday's short break, Pecker testified about a time in 2015 when the then editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer flagged him about a tip that a man, who claimed he was a Trump Tower doorman, wanted to sell a story to the tabloid about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate child with a maid.

Pecker said he called Cohen after hearing about the tip, who adamantly denied the accusations against Trump. In order to conceal the allegations, the National Enquirer paid the doorman $30,000 to buy the rights to the story. The jury was also shown an AMI agreement that was reached between the tabloid and the doorman.

Pecker said that he believes the story would have been "the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley" if the tabloid had published the tip. He also told the jury that the accusations about Trump were "absolutely 1,000 percent untrue," but that he decided to buy the story rights because if it had "got out to another publication or media outlet, it would have been very embarrassing for the campaign."

Views

Several commentators said that Pecker's testimony helped prove that Trump was a part of a "fake news" scheme, something the former president has repeatedly accused others of perpetuating.

Ron Filipkowski, a vocal Trump critic and editor-in-chief at the progressive news outlet Meidas Touch, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that the "irony of Trump coming up with the 'Fake News!' epithet to describe mainstream media outlets is that he was literally running an orchestrated and coordinated Fake News operation with David Pecker at the time."

X user Brooklyn Dad Defiant, who is also an avid critic of Trump, said in his own post that the former president's claims about "'fake news' and people cheating and rigging elections" were "all projection."

He added that Trump "literally schemed with Pecker to spread false stories about Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, while hiding his own sordid truth from the public, just to win an election."

"I have no love for Cruz or Rubio whatsoever, but he lied about people with wives and kids and accused THEM of his own scummy behavior," the X user added.

Cruz and Rubio are Republican Senators who ran against Trump for the GOP nomination in 2016. Pecker testified Tuesday that he instructed the National Enquirer to run a number of stories attacking both lawmakers after making an agreement with Trump in 2015.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign, Rubio and Cruz via email for comment Monday afternoon.

What's Next?

Court adjourned Tuesday after Pecker gave over two hours of testimony.

The day ended without Merchan giving a final decision on whether Trump could be held in contempt and fined for violating his gag order in the case.

Prosecutors had requested Trump be held accountable at the beginning of the day on Tuesday after the former president and his campaign made a dozen posts to social media that Bragg's office claimed "pose a very real threat" to the judicial proceedings.

Trump told reporters as he left the courthouse Tuesday that he would "love to say everything on my mind but I'm restricted because of a gag order," according to CNN's report on the matter.

Update 4/23/24, 2:55 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.