Testimony ends for the day in Trump hush money trial

Donald Trump asked about former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who alleged she had an affair with the former president, at least two times unprompted after the 2016 election, David Pecker testified Tuesday.

These are the two incidents Pecker described:

Trump also called Pecker the day after McDougal's interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper aired in March 2018, Pecker testified.

Pecker testifies that Trump called him about the Daniels' interview with Anderson Cooper.

He told Pecker that based on the agreement she signed with Michael Cohen that she should owe him $24 million for breaching the agreement by talking about Trump in the interview, Pecker said.

Pecker says he wanted to extend McDougal's contract so she wouldn't say anything negative about AMI, which is the National Enquirer's parent company, or Trump.

When asked, Pecker confirms McDougal filed a lawsuit against AMI. She wanted to get back her lifetime rights, Pecker says.

Pecker says Trump was skeptical of the idea. "He said it’s your business, you should do whatever you plan on doing," Pecker says of Trump.

They settled the lawsuit and AMI returned her lifetime rights to her, Pecker says.

Joshua Steinglass asked David Pecker to recall a phone conversation he had with Trump's White House staff members.

Pecker testified he remembers a call with Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

"Both of them said that they thought it was a good idea," Pecker said, referring to extending McDougal's contract.

Pecker is testifying about a call he got from Trump the day after Karen McDougal was interviewed by Anderson Cooper in March 2018.

He said Trump called him and said that he thought they had an agreement with Karen McDougal "that she can't give any interviews or be on any television shows."

Pecker then told Trump on the call that he had amended McDougal's agreement. Trump was angry, Pecker testified.

"He was very upset, he couldn't understand why I did it," Pecker said, referring to Trump.

The questioning has moved back to discussing Michael Cohen paying Stormy Daniels not to discuss her relationship with Trump.

Steinglass is showing the jury the January 12, 2018, article in the Wall Street Journal that first reported the payment of $130,000 to Daniels.

Trump has his eyes closed and is sitting back in his chair in the courtroom.

The first witness prosecutors put on the stand during a trial is important — they need to set the scene and lay the foundation for the jury. David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, is doing just that, a CNN legal analyst said.

Pecker has been on the stand for more than five hours over the first few days of the trial. He has testified about three different schemes he orchestrated on behalf of former President Trump to buy the rights to negative stories so they don’t get published.

Pecker also is helping introduce the jury to the key players in the case and how they fit together in the story prosecutors are trying to tell, Honig said.

While Pecker represents a solid start for the prosecution, they still have a long way to go in proving their case, Honig added. 

“They have not established all the elements of the crime, nor could you possibly do that as a prosecutor with your first witness,” Honig said, adding if he was an attorney on this case, he would be pleased with what Pecker has done so far.

Pecker testifies that he had lunch with McDougal and her attorney Keith Davidson for lunch in New York. in New York in August 2017.

According to Pecker, McDougal talked about the articles that she was working on with ghost writers. She was a little upset because Howard had to change ghostwriters because they weren't working well with Karen, Pecker says.

She also complained she hadn't been given media training, noting she still wanted to be the red carpet anchor for RADAR magazine, Pecker says.

Describing the the purpose of the meeting, Pecker says it was to make sure AMI was holding up their end of the agreement.