(23 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
1. STILLS: Various, Former US President Donald Trump, with lawyer Todd Blanche, left, attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City.
STORYLINE:
Veteran tabloid publisher David Pecker returned to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s hush money case on Tuesday.
Testimony in the case resumed just before midday following a morning hearing on the former president’s alleged gag order violations.
Pecker, the National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime friend of Trump’s, was the only witness Monday. He is expected to tell jurors Tuesday about his relationship with Trump and his efforts to help him stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors say Pecker worked with Trump and Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, on a “catch-and-kill” strategy to buy up and then spike negative stories. At the heart of the case are allegations that Trump orchestrated a scheme to bury unflattering stories about his personal life that might torpedo his campaign.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in opening statements Monday painted competing portraits of the former president — one depicting him as someone who sought to corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and another describing him as an innocent, everyday man who was being subjected to a case the government “should never have brought.”
Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments in internal business documents.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
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