“Help the Campaign”: Former National Enquirer Publisher’s Testimony Seems Pretty Bad for Donald Trump

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified Tuesday in the hush money trial of Donald Trump, and unfortunately for the ketchup bottles at Mar-a-Lago,* it did not appear to go well for the ex-president.

Pecker told the jury that in August 2015, “I received a call from Michael Cohen telling me that the boss wanted to see me.” The boss, of course, referred to Trump, whom Pecker said he subsequently sat down with at Trump Tower, along with Cohen. There, Pecker said, Cohen and Trump asked him what he could do to “help the campaign,” a claim that seemingly bolsters the prosecution’s argument that the hush money payments at the heart of the trial, which Pecker helped arranged, were made to help Trump get elected. According to Pecker, following the 2015 meeting, he worked closely with Cohen, who fed him information that was beneficial to Trump’s campaign. For instance, Pecker testified that following the GOP debates, Cohen would ring him up and request negative coverage of whichever of Trump’s competitors had given the best performance. The Enquirer, per Pecker, would then “embellish” the stories, meaning, per the ex-publisher, that it would run fake news to benefit Trump. Some of the headlines attacking Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination included:

Ted Cruz’s Father — Caught With JFK Assassin‘Family Man’ Marco Rubio’s Love Child Stunner!Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge In Patient’s Brain!Ted Cruz Shamed by Porn Star“Michael Cohen would call me and say, uh, we would like for you to run a negative article on a certain, let’s say it’s on Ted Cruz,” Pecker told the jury on Tuesday. Cohen, Pecker explained, would send over “information about Ted Cruz…that was the basis of our story, and then we would embellish it from there.” While Cohen always made sure to insist he wasn’t working for the Trump campaign, Pecker said he assumed the then attorney was discussing the matters with Trump.

Of course, more crucial than the negative stories ran about Trump’s rivals were the negative ones about Trump that, thanks to the Enquirer, never saw the light of day. Per The Washington Post:

Pecker told jurors Tuesday that he offered in 2015 to intercept negative stories about his longtime friend Donald Trump and to flag any efforts by women who would try to profit by selling stories about the then-presidential candidate…The witness testified late Tuesday morning that it was common for women to try to sell stories about political candidates, so he offered to intercept them for Trump and his campaign, sometimes paying to “kill” the stories.

“Mr. Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women,” Pecker said. In his experience, he said, “when someone is running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell these stories.”

Pecker said he offered to be “the eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign, explaining that Trump’s company had a small staff and that his efforts to support Trump were mutually beneficial because they helped his magazine.