Trump trial live: Pecker says deal to bury Trump stories was ‘agreement between friends’

Prosecutors are questioning David Pecker on the first “catch-and-kill” arrangement he orchestrated for Trump at the National Enquirer.

In 2015, a doorman named Dino Sajudin was buying a story that Trump fathered a love child with a housekeeper at Trump Tower.

Pecker explains that he contacted Michael Cohen when he caught wind of Sajudin’s story. Pecker had Sajudin enter into a $30,000 contract to sell his story exclusively to the National Enquirer, to be paid if they published it.

The intention was to stop Sajudin from shopping it to other outlets, Pecker said.

If the story turned out to be true, Pecker said it would probably be the most-read edition of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley. But Pecker said he would have sat on the story until after the election, so as not to harm Trump’s campaign.

But the story turned out to be “absolutely, 1,000% untrue,” Pecker tells the court.

They amended their original agreement to Sajudin to purchase his story “in perpetuity,” and pay him the $30,000 anyway.

Pecker said he purchased a false story in perpetuity because if it got out in another publication, “it would have been very embarrassing for the campaign”.