Five takeaways from day two of Trump’s New York hush money trial testimony

Prosecutors focus on ‘catch and kill’ scheme, accuse Trump of violating gag order in historic trial.

The second day of arguments in former United States President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has concluded with the prosecution’s questioning of former tabloid publisher David Pecker dominating much of the proceedings.

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents in connection to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The 2024 Republican presidential candidate is accused of mislabelling reimbursements made to his lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair. Trump has denied that affair took place.

For the felony charges to hold, prosecutors must persuade a jury that the falsifications were done with the intent to commit another crime. They have so far focused on alleged malfeasance to influence the 2016 presidential election, which Trump eventually won. Trump’s defence has maintained he did nothing wrong.

On Tuesday, prosecutors focused on a “catch and kill” agreement between Pecker and Trump, in which the publisher would buy negative stories about Trump but not publish them in the National Enquirer.

Here are five takeaways from the trial:

Pecker says he agreed to be “eyes and ears” of Trump campaign

While describing a relationship with Trump that dated back to the 1980s, Pecker told prosecutors that Trump and Cohen pressured him to “help the campaign” at an August 2015 meeting, roughly 15 months before the 2016 presidential election.

Pecker said he agreed to be the campaign’s “eyes and ears” and to notify Cohen when people were trying to sell unflattering stories about Trump to the National Enquirer.

Cohen, in turn, would regularly call Pecker to ask him to run negative stories on Trump’s challengers for the Republican nomination, including primary opponents Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Pecker initially said stopping negative stories about Trump from running benefitted both the tabloid and Trump’s campaign but later acknowledged that the strategy only benefitted the Trump campaign.

‘Catch and kill’ scheme detailed

Much of Tuesday’s proceedings involved Pecker elaborating on the process that he, Trump and Cohen called “catch and kill”.

He described how American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, paid a doorman $30,000 for his story alleging that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. The agreement included a clause that said the doorman would be liable for $1m if he still went public with the claim.

Pecker called it “basically a lever” over the doorman to assure his compliance.