Second day of testimony wraps in Trump hush money trial

David Pecker said he told Michael Cohen the story about Donald Trump allegedly fathering a child wasn't true and that he wanted to release the doorman from the agreement.

Pecker said that Cohen asked him to wait to release him until after the election.

Cohen initially didn't understand why, Pecker testified, and he explained, "I said that to have him locked into us; its only going to cause more problems, so I suggested I wanted to release him. "

General counsel emailed the doorman, Dino Sajudin, in December 2016, informing him he had been released from the exclusivity agreement.

Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that the exhibit can be displayed with a redaction.

The exhibit prosecutors are showing is an email about the paperwork for a wire payment to Trump doorman Dino Sajudin.

The email references "Trump non published story."

Donald Trump attorney Emil Bove objected to the next exhibit. The lawyers are now at the bench.

The agreement contained a clause that would require Trump doorman Dino Sajudin to pay AMI $1 million if he breached the agreement in which he was paid $30,000.

"It was basically a lever over him to make sure that that wouldn’t happen," David Pecker testified.

Pecker also said he determined jointly with Michael Cohen to amend the agreement to extend the timeframe to "in perpetuity."

David Pecker turned to the jury and said the story about Donald Trump allegedly fathering a child "was absolutely 1,000% untrue."

He said they determined that it was false after hiring a private investigator and sending reporters out to where the child "supposedly was."

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker why they were paying for a story that was not true.

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 former National Enquirer boss on Monday became the first witness called to testify in Donald Trump’s historic 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, first broke news in November 2016 — just days before the election — that Enquirer-parent American Media Inc. had paid former Playboy model Karen 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.