From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell in the courthouse
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."
"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 that I would also … be eyes and ears. I said I would be your eyes and ears," Pecker testified.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is now asking David Pecker about the August 2015 meeting in Trump Tower with Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.
"I received a call from Michael Cohen saying the boss wanted to see me," Pecker said.
Hope Hicks was in and out of the meeting, Pecker says.
Prosecutors have submitted an email from Michael Cohen as evidence.
On June 2, 2015, Cohen personally invited David Pecker to Donald Trump's campaign announcement event.
In the email, Cohen asks Pecker to attend the event.
"No one deserves to be there more than you," the email says.
"As a friend, I would love if you could make it. Let me know so I can save you a seat next to me on the atrium floor," the email says.
David Pecker says that he attended Donald Trump's presidential campaign announcement in June 2015.
Trump is watching Pecker as he testifies about being invited by Michael Cohen to attend the announcement at Trump Tower.
After Donald Trump's campaign for president began in 2015, David Pecker said interest in Trump through his magazines "skyrocketed."
Pecker said they did research on potential covers to see what would sell the best. It was Trump, viewed "as the boss" in a boardroom, Pecker said.
"Do you know somebody named Hope Hicks?" prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker.
"Yes, I do," Pecker replied.
Pecker said he knew Hicks when she worked for Ivanka's company and did public relations for Star Magazine, before she became Trump's campaign communications director.
In 2015 after Trump announced his candidacy, David Pecker said his contact with Michael Cohen increased to "a minimum of every week."
"If there was an issue, it could be daily," Pecker said of his contact with Cohen.
As prosecutors question David Pecker, Donald Trump has been both leaning back in his chair and forward with his arm on the table, with his body angled toward Pecker on the witness stand.
David Pecker says he first met Michael Cohen at a bar mitzvah in 2000.
Donald Trump introduced Cohen as his new hire to Pecker in 2007, Pecker testified.
Pecker said Trump told him "that now my contacts should go through Michael Cohen."
"If there was any rumors in the marketplace about Mr. Trump or his family or any negative stories that were coming out or things that I heard overall that I would go through, I would call Michael Cohen directly," he testified.
