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at sundown. >> martha: the trump hush money trial moving full steam ahead. opening statements underway in a few minutes from now. team fox coverage. andy mccarthy who has written on this is joining us in a moment. eric shawn is standing by outside the courthouse this morning in new york city. hi, eric. >> good morning, martha. the first witness in the trial expected to be david pecker. he was the publisher of the "national enquirer" and friend of former president trump expected to testify against him according to reports. pecker, when he takes the stand, is expected to outline the so-called catch and kill scheme was cooked up with trump running for president at the time and his long time lawyer michael cohen. ami admitted it tried to influence the 2016 presidential election by paying former playmate mcdougal $150,000 to
trial. by the way, jose, i never refer to it as a prosecutor as a story. stories are fiction. this is fact. >> let's go back to vaughn because, vaughn, the jurors are hearing about another person who could be an important character in all of this, potential witness for the prosecution. fill us in. >> reporter: karen mcdougal, a former playboy model who is alleged to have had a ten-month affair with donald trump. she was paid in 2016 as well $150,000 to keep her story silent as part of this alleged catch-and-kill scheme. she was paid directly by ami, which david pecker was the head of. karen mcdougal's story is different from stormy daniels because donald trump nor michael cohen ever actually reimbursed karen mcdougal -- i should say ami for that $150,000 payment.
payment of $130,000 made to stormy daniels and the $150,000 paid to karen macdougall. then they'll move to the defense and talk about michael cohen and stormy daniels and how they had an ax to grind. they'll say this was legal fees. this was an attorney that worked for donald trump for a very long time and donald trump didn't know what michael cohen was doing with stormy daniels and karen macdougall in arranging these payments. and then onto that first witness we are learning is david pecker, who sat above ami for almost two decades and helped arrange those payments to karen macdougall. they'll talk about the white house meeting in 2017 when david pecker visited donald trump as he was the president of the united states. it is going to be a jam-packed
donald trump and michael cohen, they arranged the catch-and-kill scheme that led to karen macdougall to be paid $150,000 to not bring her story to the election. but also david pecker was the one who ordered his team to contact michael cohen about the stormy daniels' story and the fact that stormy daniels a month before the 2016 election was prepared to go to the national public and have her story printed in the national enquirer. that is when michael cohen arranged $130,000 to stormy daniels to keep her quiet. david pecker could be a very crucial witness, and he will be the first one out of the gate to set up 2015 all the way into 2017. the district attorney's office is prepared to bring evidence
"national enquirer" spent on as witness to describe what is called an illegal scheme with donald trump to buy negative stories about him to help the trump election campaign. pecker explain the process at the tabloid how the stories are prepared and their case sometime spot and how it was up to him to okay paying for the "juicy stories." one of those juicy stories was from former "playboy" playmate karen mcdougal to. they claim she had an affair with trump which the inquirer bought for $150,000 but did not run as part of that catch and kill scheme. trump defense lawyer told the jury that the former president did not violate the law. the former president thought that checks to the lawyer michael cohen over his legal expenses and not his prosecutors claim to reimburse cohen to pay stormy daniels. "i have a spoiler alert. there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. it's called democracy.
going to do is they're going to have to as we say, pull the staying, they're gonna have to say look, folks, you've heard, you will hear that he's pled guilty to perjury and other crimes, but the prosecution will argue now he's come clean. now you can bank on him. we also expect the prosecution to look forward to who it's other key witnesses will be to introduce those to the jury, including david, who we expect to be the first witness today, just to be clear, i'm pointing out here karen mcdougal, who is somebody who was allegedly paid $150,000 by david. but she hurricanes was not a criminal charge foundation. it's about stormy daniels payment. that's an issue here. exactly. right. and the evidence that mcdougal will be introduced by the prosecutors to show that this is a pattern. one more key theme we'll hear from the prosecutors. they will say that everything you hear of importance for michael cohen or everyone else is corroborated. prosecutors love that word. corroboration. it is backed up by documents including, but not limited to the checks that donald trump signed that we're used to reimburse michael pollan for those hush money payments. they're going to say, you don't want to take
trying to be the king of new york city, of manhattan. when you think about like new york city in the '80s, it's like donald trump coming out of a limo. how extraordinary is it? these two are never, ever getting back together. >> 150,000%. and -- oh, that's donald. >> who could this be? >> is that donald? >> luckily it's not a family member. they call and i'm like seriously? >> that's a devoted mom. i do it too. >> it's like he's wanted to be the cool guy from manhattan. and he's not. he is the criminal in manhattan. and i -- i hate to say it, but i love watching it. i love watching it. >> technically being judged by his peers. listen, i know ten people that fit all those descriptions of those jurors. i know ten people in manhattan. >> right. but how can you be unbiased?
people get their money but on prepayment meters, one of the things i think we can be proud of as we got rid of the premium people who are on prepayment meters were paying and thatis prepayment meters were paying and that is really important. you prepayment meters were paying and that is really important.— that is really important. you have set more people _ that is really important. you have set more people will— that is really important. you have set more people will get - set more people will get compensation, how many and when? ofgem are overseeing the spot as many as soon as possible and ofgem will come back with final figures and people see action we can take but it's right we get people compensation.— but it's right we get people comensation. ., . , , compensation. how many people rou:hl , compensation. how many people roughly. at _ compensation. how many people roughly. at the — compensation. how many people roughly, at the moment - compensation. how many people roughly, at the moment it - compensation. how many people roughly, at the moment it is i compensation. how many people | roughly, at the moment it is tiny, 1500 out of 150,000 cases. i ultimately want to see everyone get compensation. it’s ultimately want to see everyone get compensation-— compensation. it's been in lots of race and a — compensation. it's been in lots of race and a gimmick _ compensation. it's been in lots of race and a gimmick in _ compensation. it's been in lots of. race and a gimmick in westminster, allegations about mark menzies, a conservative mp suspended by the party over claims he misused party funds but it is acceptable the tory party do about this for several months, lo and behold he was only suspended when the allegations made their way into the papers? i
social media, or the people contacting me and my colleagues, they expressed before the israeli attack, they were extremely stressed. people were asking if there is going to be a war coming soon. people are really worried about that. but right now it seems that people feel the wars are settled, so they feel relieved and there is a sigh of relief, we can go about our business and that is not going to be a more at least. that is interesting- — going to be a more at least. that is interesting. and _ going to be a more at least. that is interesting. and we _ going to be a more at least. that is interesting. and we have _ going to be a more at least. that is interesting. and we have a - going to be a more at least. that is interesting. and we have a article l interesting. and we have a article online analysing a lot of the videos you and your colleagues are receiving from inside iran. the energy secretary says the number of compensation payouts made to people wrongly put onto prepayment meters is "completely unacceptable". just 1,500 out of 150,000 people assessed have had financial redress from energy suppliers who forced—fitted the meters into their homes. claire coutinho says she has spoken to the regulator to sort compensation payouts