Trump's lawyers set to grill David Pecker in hush money trial
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker will continue to be cross-examined by attorney Emil Bove, who's been trying to call his memory into question.
The prosecution's first witness in its case against Donald Trump is back on the stand Friday as defense attorneys try to combat the story he has laid out about how the former president was involved in efforts to quash "embarrassing" stories that could have hurt him during the 2016 campaign.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker's testimony marks the end of the second week of Trump's hush money trial.
Since he took the stand Monday, Pecker has told jurors that Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen had asked him to in a 2015 meeting be their "eyes and ears" when it came to salacious stories that could undermine Trump's candidacy, and also asked him to print negative stories about Trump's opponents.
Under questioning from Trump attorney Emil Bove on Friday, Pecker acknowledged his paper had already been running negative articles about Hillary Clinton, who would become the Democratic nominee for president Trump would face off against. Running negative stories about Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was "no issue for you, correct?" Bove asked. Pecker acknowledged it was not.
Bove also noted that negative articles about Trump's Republican rivals in the race at the time, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Dr. Ben Carson, contained information that was recycled from other news outlets, and asked if that “was cost-efficient and made business sense.” "Yes," Pecker replied.
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