By CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Brynn Gingras from the courthouse
Steinglass is asking Pecker if Trump said why he was so grateful about his help handling the negative stories.
After a long pause, Pecker said: "He said the stories would have been very embarrassing."
Trump appeared to be watching Pecker closely as Pecker paused to answer. (edited)
Pecker said that in the conversations he had with Cohen and Trump about these stories, Trump's family was not mentioned.
"So I made the assumption" the concern was the campaign, Pecker says.
At the end of the 2017 Trump Tower meeting, after the others left, Pecker testifies that Trump asked him, "How's our girl doing?" referring to McDougal.
Pecker says he told Trump she's doing well and writing articles.
Trump thanked Pecker for "handling the McDougal situation," Pecker says on the stand.
Pecker recalled visiting Trump Tower in early January 2017 and meeting former FBI Director James Comey, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
They were updating Trump on a shooting in Florida, he testified. Pecker said he'd never seen so much security at Trump Tower.
"Mr. Trump introduced me to each of them. He said, 'here is David Pecker, he’s the publisher of the National Enquirer, and he probably knows more than anybody else in this room,' as a joke," Pecker said.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche laughed, and Trump cracked a smile.
There was some laughter in the courtroom, too.
Pecker said on the stand, "unfortunately they didn't laugh," referring to the heavy hitters in the room at that briefing.
As Pecker discusses the conversation he said he had with Trump about Cohen, the former president is looking toward him on the witness stand.
Pecker is testifying he didn't know the details of the transaction between Cohen and Daniels in real time.
He said he later learned Cohen had paid Daniels out of his own funds. "That was the first time I had heard of that," he says.
Pecker testified that he met with Cohen at Trump Tower after the election, and that Cohen was still asking about the boxes of information about Trump. Pecker says he was not going to let Cohen go through the boxes.
Pecker assured Cohen there's nothing damaging to be worried about in the boxes, he testified.
Pecker says that after the Wall Street Journal published its story on the agreement between McDougal and AMI, AMI amended the deal.
AMI received a call from a new lawyer saying McDougal wanted to amend the agreement because she would like to speak to the press, Pecker says.
Pecker says that Michael Cohen "highly recommended" he did not amend the agreement. "He said, 'it was a very bad idea,' adding that the Trump would be very angry.
But Pecker says that he did not take Cohen's advice.
Pecker is saying he wanted McDougal to speak to the press because the Wall Street Journal "already set the stage and tone" to what the story was.
Pecker said he wanted to keep control of the story so it didn't go further in the market
They hired a a press consultant for McDougal who reported to Pecker, the former tabloid executive testified.
Following the Wall Street Journal story, AMI issued a statement denying it was killing negative stories about Trump, Pecker says.
On the stand, Pecker is acknowledging the denials were false.
Asked why he did it Pecker says, "I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted also to protect Donald Trump."
