Deal to bury Trump stories was 'agreement between friends'

BBCCopyright: BBC

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Today was not a great show for Donald Trump's legal team, an expert told me.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani says Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, did a poor job defending Trump from claims he violated his gag order in the case.

"They can’t control their client, but when the judge tells a lawyer they are losing all their credibility, that's bad," Rahmani says.

He adds that if Trump is found to have breached the gag order, the bigger question will be if Justice Merchan will go beyond the "nominal fine" of $10,000 that prosecutors have asked for.

It is possible the judge could impose a more severe punishment that might better deter Trump from breaking the order down the line, Rahmani says.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Donald Trump starts his statement by hitting out at the gag order which he has been ordered to follow.

He calls it a "disgrace" and is annoyed by having to "sit back" while other people "talk about me".

"I'm not allowed to defend myself," he says.

The gag order was the subject of a hearing earlier today. Prosecutors say Trump breached it 10 times and we are still waiting for the judge to rule on the matter.

The former president goes on to say he can't campaign for the election because he is trapped in a "freezing" courtroom "all day long".

From all accounts, it is a very chilly courtroom.

Donald Trump is speaking to media outside court right now. You can watch by pressing the play button at the top of this page.

Court is adjourned for the day. Donald Trump held a large stack of papers as he left the courtroom, and appeared to frown deeply as he walked down the aisle and past the press.

The court is now hearing about allegations that Donald Trump had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump has repeatedly denied the affair - which the model alleges took place over the course of several months.

McDougal also received a hush-money payment, though hers is not the subject of this case.

David Pecker says when he called Michael Cohen to tell him about the alleged affair with McDougal, "I didn't even finish the conversation when he said that was untrue, absolutely not true".

Pecker directed someone else to go interview McDougal to vet the claims.

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 shopping 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, to not 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”.

Today's court sketches, by Jane Rosenberg, show some of the National Enquirer headlines that were read out earlier - including "Ted Cruz shamed by porn star" and "Boozin Ted Cruz Fixn' to lose".

Donald Trump seems to be looking up at the screen, while the judge, and Todd Blanche are focussed on the witness, David Pecker.

Reuters/Jane RosenbergCopyright: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

A lot has happened in a short time today, so here's a quick recap:

• The day started with a gag-order hearing. Prosecutors claim Donald Trump has violated a gag order 10 times
• Justice Merchan and Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche had several tense exchanges in the hearing, with the judge telling Blanche he is "losing all credibility"
• The judge has not yet decided if Trump has violated the gag order, we could find out later today. If he rules against Trump, the former president could be fined $10,000
• After the hearing, it was back to the hush-money trial. The first witness, David Pecker, continued his testimony
• Pecker has been explaining a "catch-and-kill" scheme he ran while publisher of the tabloid magazine National Enquirer. He says it was an "agreement between friends" to suppress negative stories about Trump during the 2016 election

Donald Trump has just returned to the courtroom after the brief break.

While we wait for David Pecker's testimony to start again, let's check in with an expert to see why the media mogul was chosen as the first witness.

Former Brooklyn prosecutor Julie Rendelman says having Pecker up first was a smart move.

"He provides the backdrop for how the whole 'catch-and-kill' scheme came to be, the players involved, and the timing as it related to Trump’s campaign," she tells me.

She adds that Pecker seems to "know Trump quite well" and gives the jury an inside view as to the part Trump played in the decision making for the scheme.

REUTERS/Jane RosenbergCopyright: REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

While the court is on a short break, let's look back at what happened this morning.

Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's lawyer, had several tense moments with Justice Merchan.

The pair exchanged terse words regarding Donald Trump's gag order, which prosecutors say has been violated 10 times.

This sketch from Jane Rosenberg shows Blanche arguing with the judge while Trump watches.

Justice Merchan has not yet decided if Trump broke the gag order, we could get that verdict later today.

Justice Merchan just sent the jury out, so that Trump's lawyers could raise issues with the prosecution's line of questioning. Prosecutors have brought up Steve Bannon, a former top Trump advisor on his 2016 and in the White House, and a right-wing media and political figure.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is questioning why Bannon is being brought up. He’s saying that there wasn’t proper notice that prosecutors would go in this direction, and questions why he’s relevant here.

Steinglass says that his office wanted to bring up Bannon to help prove their case that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016.

But before the judge can rule, Steinglass decides to move on from the line of questioning, effectively rendering the argument moot.

We are now taking a short break.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

We've got a good view of both sides - the prosecution plus Donald Trump and his legal team - here in the overflow room for media.

Reporters can see the former president's relatively expressionless face as he occasionally speaks with lawyer Todd Blanche.

Like most other days in this trial so far, he looks rather subdued.

On the prosecution's side, Joshua Steinglass with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office seems in good spirits as he occasionally turns to speak with another two lawyers on the case who sit next to him.

The prosecutors continue to show the salacious negative headlines the National Enquirer ran about Donald Trump’s 2016 Republican rivals.

Joshua Steinglass seems amused as he reads some of the outrageous headlines aloud.

One headline declared Texas Senator “Ted Cruz Shamed By Porn Star”.

David Pecker describes a process in which Michael Cohen would ask for negative stories about Trump’s opponents or pass along information and the National Enquirer staff would then “embellish” and “add content” to them to create stories.

To illustrate how the arrangement that David Pecker describes plays out, prosecutors are now showing a series of headlines which the National Enquirer ran about Trump or his opponents during the 2016 election.

One says "Boozin Ted Cruz fixin' to lose". Another reads "Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient's brain!"

Trump can see these boldfaced headlines on the monitor in front of him. He seemed to look at them quickly before turning his attention back to Pecker on the stand.

At Trump's lawyer's request, Justice Merchan instructs the jury that these headlines are only being admitted into evidence to show that they were published, not for the content contained inside them.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Pecker continues to detail his arrangement with Cohen and Trump to kill negative stories to help boost Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Pecker says after notifying Cohen about potential negative stories involving Trump and his relationships with women, Trump's former fixer “would try to vet it himself and then he would go to the individual publication to make sure the story wasn’t published and get it killed”.

The plan was never written in a formal contract, he says. It was just “an agreement among friends”.

Pecker told Trump they should keep the arrangement "as quiet as possible" to help the campaign.

Prosecutors are now trying to paint a picture of David Pecker’s involvement in boosting Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and quelling negative stories about him.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges Pecker, Cohen and Trump were involved in a “catch-and-kill” scheme, in which Pecker would purchase negative stories about Trump, but not publish them.

Pecker says that in a meeting, Trump and Cohen asked him what his magazines “can do to help the campaign”.

Pecker says he agreed to publish negative stories about Trump’s opponents while promoting positive ones about him.

This involved women’s stories about Trump, Pecker says, claiming he knew those stories would surface anyway because Trump was an “eligible bachelor” who “dated the most beautiful women”.

He agreed to notify Michael Cohen if he heard any negative stories about Trump’s behaviour with women, Pecker says.

Prosecutors are now asking David Pecker about another one of their key witnesses, Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer-turned-foe.

Pecker says he met Cohen at a bar mitzvah when Trump introduced them, saying Cohen had "done a lot of great things for him".

Trump added that contact between himself and Pecker should now go through Cohen.

Years later, the relationship between Trump and Cohen soured greatly.