Pecker says again that he "didn't want anything to do" with the Stormy Daniels story
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Day 8 of Trump New York hush money trial

By CNN's Kara Scannell, Lauren Del Valle and Jeremy Herb in the courthouse

Updated 6:31 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024
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2:30 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Pecker says again that he "didn't want anything to do" with the Stormy Daniels story

Steinglass is setting up Pecker to testify again that he told then-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard that he "didn't want anything to do with a porn star" when he first learned about the Stormy Daniels story.

Pecker said the reason he notified Cohen when he learned about Daniels' allegation of an affair with Donald Trump, he reached out to Cohen because, "if he heard it from somebody else he would go ballistic."

When it came to purchasing Daniels' story, Pecker testified, “I said to Michael Cohen that after paying for the doorman story and the Karen McDougal story, I wasn’t going to pay anything further and I wasn’t a bank.”

Pecker says of the Stormy story that he wasn't going to, "Print it or buy it or be associated with it."

But he was still going to tell Michael Cohen about it to fulfill his obligation to the agreement he reached with Trump and Cohen in 2015.

Some context: This served as a quick rehash of Pecker's direct testimony, as Steinglass winds back up for further questioning of a key witness for the prosecution.

2:23 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Steinglass is asking Pecker about how he likely learned the term "catch and kill"

Steinglass has gone back to the Wall Street Journal article published on November 4, 2016.

The purpose was to have Pecker explain that he likely learned the term "catch and kill" in the press.

Yesterday during cross-examination, Pecker said he learned of it from federal prosecutors.

Trump's eyes are closed and he's leaning back in his chair as Steinglass continues his redirect.

2:21 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Prosecutor Steinglass is resuming his questions for David Pecker

Testimony is resuming in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, with prosecutor Joshua Steinglass picking back up with his questions for ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

"Good afternoon, jurors," the judge says, as the panel files back into the room.

"I'm going to try not to keep you here too much longer," Steinglass tells Pecker as he begins.

2:19 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Nauta, Miller and Epshteyn have been around with Trump today in courthouse

Before entering the courtroom, Trump waved to cameras.

You could see Trump's valet Walt Nauta in the background behind the double doors.

He and Stephen Miller and Boris Epshteyn have been around today with Trump.

The former president did not answer questions.

2:17 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

David Pecker is back on the witness stand

The former publisher of the National Enquirer has returned to the witness stand.

Judge Merchan reminded Pecker that he is still under oath.

We're waiting for the jury.

2:15 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

The court is back in session

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the court is back in session after taking a lunch break.

2:13 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Trump is back in the courtroom

The former president is back in the courtroom.

1:42 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

David Pecker has now been on the stand for nearly 10 hours across 4 days

From CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield

Witness David Pecker has now been on the stand for just under 10 hours over the course of four court days, according to CNN's courtroom team calculations.

  • The prosecution questioned Pecker for a little over six hours total Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
  • The defense questioned him for roughly 3 hours and 15 minutes across Thursday and Friday.
  • Prosecutors have done about 30 minutes of redirect so far. 

Prosecutors said they had less than a half hour left of redirect, which is set to continue after the lunch break. The defense team said they would then do some re-cross. 

1:40 p.m. ET, April 26, 2024

Prosecutors try to re-establish David Pecker's credibility during redirect. Here's what happened

On re-direct prosecutors were trying to re-establish David Pecker’s credibility after the defense exposed small inconsistencies in the tabloid king's statements.

Here’s what happened:

  • Prosecutor Josh Steinglass sought to infer to the jury that an election law attorney reviewed the Karen McDougal agreement without the underlying context of Pecker's secret agreement to benefit Donald Trump's campaign.
  • Pecker also re-confirmed that the purpose of the contract with McDougal was to acquire her life rights and suppress her story to influence the election, and the additional items about writing articles and appearing on covers were extraneous.
  • Prosecutors also sought to establish that the deal with Trump’s former doorman was not “standard” as the defense had tried to paint it because it had a $1 million liquidated damages clause and was in perpetuity.
  • Pecker reiterated the content of the August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower. He outlined that it was his understanding that he would flag negative stories to Michael Cohen. Steinglass also elicited that before the arrangement made at that meeting, Pecker had never shared positive stories about a candidate ahead of time or shared negative stories about a candidate's opponent.
  • American Media Inc.’s 2021 conciliation agreement with the Federal Election Commission: The defense had tried to hone in that Pecker did not have to admit to a campaign finance violation. Pecker disputed that. Steinglass asked Pecker whether AMI acknowledged in the agreement that "the conduct it had admitted in connection with the Karen McDougal payment" had violated federal campaign election law. "Yes," Pecker responded.

CNN's Kristina Sgueglia contributed reporting to this post.