Ex-AMI chief David Pecker continued his testimony Thursday morning on day three of ex-President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial. Pecker testified that Michael Cohen not only had knowledge of the catch and kill contract for former Playboy model Karen McDougal, but that he also believes Donald Trump had knowledge of it.
Adam Klasfeld reported the following exchange:
Exhibit: The Karen McDougal deal.
The contract purchased the “Limited Life Story Rights” for “any romantic, personal, and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with a then-married man.”
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The contract required AMI to pay $150,000 within two days of execution of the agreement.
AMI had “its sole discretion” over its “creative or business” decisions.
“Q: So by purchasing her life rights you had no obligation to actually print them?
A: No.”
Pecker agrees that he didn’t intend to print her story either.
Question from Conroy:
Question: Do you know if anyone other than Michael Cohen was aware of this contract?
A: Yes, I believe Donald Trump did.
This testimony directly ties the ex-president to the proposed catch-and-kill scheme, which underlies the prosecution’s ultimate goal of attempting to tie Trump’s payout to election interference.
Ultimately, Pecker says he backed out of the deal and Cohen told him the “boss” would be “very angry” with him. Klasfeld shared:
Next Exhibit: The Assignment Agreement AMI transferred the rights to McDougal’s story to Resolution Consultants LLC on September 30, 2016 for $125,000. The agreement was signed, but not actually implemented, Pecker says.
Pecker says of Cohen’s reaction: “He was very angry, very upset and basically yelled at me.” […] “Cohen said, ‘The boss is going to be very angry with you.’” But Pecker said he stuck to his guns: “I said I’m not going any further. The deal is done.”
So the prosecution has proof of this deal between a shell company set up by Cohen to reimburse AMI for capturing and killing the McDougal story, but Pecker says he ultimately backed away from it.
But for good measure, LA Times Senior Legal Affairs Columnist Harry Litman reported (in bold): “Pecker: We would not have fulfilled the agreement without Cohen’s promise that Trump (sic) would reimburse AMI. so (sic) DA is coming Trump’s liability for criminal conspiracy to circumvent campaign finance laws. Pecker: We bought the story so it wouldn’t be published by any other organization. and we – Pecker and Cohen – did that so it wouldn’t embarrass Trump, or embarrass or harm the campaign.”
And boom, there’s the connection to the Trump campaign and the motivation to hide information from voters as a campaign issue. However, just because a witness testifies about something does not mean that the jury will believe it or that the prosecution will make the case.
However, Pecker has entered into a non-prosecution agreement and must provide fair testimony.
“Pecker’s deal with Trump’s campaign has been called a ‘fake news mill,’ but his testimony suggests something much more. AMI served as its ‘eyes and ears’ – a private intelligence firm, a hush money fund and a propaganda organ that smeared rivals at supermarket checkouts across the US,” Klasfeld previously noted as he set the stage for the testimony. He added that SDNY revealed in 2018 that AMI had entered into a non-prosecution agreement to resolve a campaign finance investigation. AMI admitted the purpose of Karen McDougal’s hush money and agreed to improve campaign finance compliance.
That point about campaign finance compliance is critical to the prosecution’s case.
Hiding behind the salacious sex scandal and ‘hush money’ themes, this first criminal trial of a former US president in US history involves 34 counts of falsifying business records linked to the Stormy payoff Daniels, in an attempt to influence an election.
President Biden is literally rebuilding America as prosecutors build a case that could convict Donald Trump.
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