Thanks for watching. Breaking news tonight explosively, testimony in the trump trial. After Heating Clashes between the judge and the former president s lawyer for the next, hour well take you inside the courtroom from gavel to gavel as the historic Hush Money Criminal Case unfolds, Tabloid Executive david pecker has wrapped up a second day on the stand as were awaiting the judges ruling on Whether Trump violated his gag order are reporters and experts are standing by to break down all of todays most important developments and look ahead to whats next welcome to our viewers here in the United States and Around The World. Im wolf blitzer with a Special Report in the situation room, the trump trial today in our trial coverage tonight, former National Enquirer executive, david pecker, details his efforts to quote, catch and kill negative stories about donald trump with the express goal of helping trumps first president ial campaign. The testimony getting to the heart of the prosecutions argument that trump illegally conspired to influence the 2016 election cnns Kara Scannell has all or breaking news from inside the courtroom explosive witness testimony from a Tablet Executive in former president Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial on tuesday x National Enquirer publisher david pecker described acting as the eyes and ears of trumps 2016 campaign notifying trumps attorney, Michael Cohen about any negatives stories to help get them killed in the leadup to the Election Pecker is a key player involved in the crux of the prosecutions case and alleged scheme to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up her alleged affair with trump to influence the 2016 election questioning centered on an august 2015 meeting between pecker cohen and trump, where the alleged conspiracy was hatched. Pecker who ran the National Enquirer testified that after meeting, i said what i would do is i would run or publish positive stories about mr. Trump and i would publish negative stories about his opponents he additionally offered if i hear anything negative about yourself or if i hear anything about women selling stories, i would notify Michael Cohen as i did over the last several years. And Michael Cohen, then he would be able to have them killed another magazine or have them not published, or somebody would have to purchase them trump stared at pecker as he described, the 25minute meeting, but he did not react. Pecker said after the meeting, he told the enquirers editor in chief about the mutually beneficial agreement. He said, were going to try to help the campaign and to do that, i want to keep this as quiet as possible. Joshua steinglass then asked pecker about a specific catchandkill incident where a negative trumps story was bought and buried. Pecker testified he found trumps doorman was selling a story that he fathered a child with someone other than his wife, and he immediately alerted cohen pecker said his colleague negotiated a purchase. The story for 30,000. And when he called cohen to tell them, cohen responded, the boss would be very pleased even though the allegation was disproven. He testified i made the decision to purchase the story because of the potential embarrassment it would have to the campaign. And mr. Trump steinglass also asked pecker about another catch and kill scheme, Buying Former Playboy model Karen Mcdougal story about an alleged year long relationship with trump. Pecker described a phone call he had with trump after his colleague interviewed mcdougal, pecker said, i told him, i think you should buy it and trump responded saying, anytime you do anything like this, it always gets out he said he would think about it and pecker would hear from cohen, trump denies having an affair with mcdougal the morning started with a contentious hearing to determine if trump violated a gag order, not to talk about jurors or witnesses after he did so in social media posts, almost a dozen times which to me is totally constitutional. Trumps lawyer, todd blanche said the order was not clear about reposts, and he tried to argue that the former president was actually trying to comply with the order. Judge juan merchan exasperated with blanches argument, scolded him and said, youre losing all credibility with the court now, the judge has not ruled yet on whether donald trump violated the gag order in this case, theres no court tomorrow, but court is back in session on thursday. David pecker will be back on the Witness Stand and he is expected to continue to testify about this pattern of hushmoney payments, including the one hundred 30,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels . Thats at the center of this meeting involving donald trump, Michael Cohen, and david pecker is certainly central to the prosecutions case against trump. And its a claim of a Criminal Conspiracy cnn legal analyst joey jackson is taking a closer look, force. Joey, lets dive into the socalled agreement among friends. That was what they called it an agreement among friends that david pecker testified about . Yeah. Without question, wolf and so looking at this, were looking at the prosecutions case. Remember, the theory and you noted It Conspiracy and coverup lets take you into what that looks like. This is the august 2015 meeting for conspiracy not that thats whats charge, but thats the essence of the claim that donald trump was the ring leader of this conspiracy of these people to bring together this Election Interference leading to the fraud and leading to the intent. Now what do we have here at the meeting . Well, what we have is we have packer, we have tropic, we have Michael Cohen. These are the participants, catch and kill is born. Why . Because the intention with respect to what theyre going to do, theyre going to catch these stories by paying for them. Theyre going to kill them by suppressing them. They own the rights. And as a result of that, they could get rid of this one all right. But when it comes to favorable things for the president , thats something not then president Person Running for president. Thats something that they would otherwise do. Now so take a look at that. Those are the principal participants, Michael Cohen being the middle person. Lets go and lets take a look at the state of mind. Now, this is significant wealth because this is for civic testimony today. Why is this relevant . Lets start here when were looking, were looking at is the issue of the president ial campaign the concern about women, that National Enquirer. So what does he say in court today in a president ial campaign, i was a person that thought there would be a lot of women who would come to try to sell this stories because mr. Trump was wellknown as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women. And it was clear that based on my past experience that when someone is running for Public Office like this, it is very common for these women to call a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories very important with respect to intent state of mind, and the issue of Election Interference. Wolf and joey, david pecker testified about Michael Cohens role in that socalled agreement. How did that translate into what tabloids actually published . Yes. So thats very critical. Lets take a look at that. So now when we look at this again, taking you into these specific tests some one, this is packers testimony. Michael cohen, again, a central figure. Were going to take a look at the negative articles, right . And about embellishments. So heres how it played testimony directly from pecker in court today, Michael Cohen would call me and say we would like you to run a negative article on a certain, lets say, for arguments sake on and these are the enemies right at the particular time, ted cruz, right . Michael cohen then would send information about ted cruz or ben carson and marco rubio and that was the basis for our story. And then we would embellish from their last point, that is, you have the positive stories as it relates to trump, right . Trump taking charge there. You have the negative story. Ted cruz, father link to jfk assassination, and thats the basins, the essence of it. And thats testimony that we heard today interesting, ari joey jackson, thanks very much. Lets break all of this down with our legal and political experts and katelyn polantz, youve been doing excellent reporting on all of this explain why prosecutors spend so much time establishing how catch and kill that theory of catch and kill worked in coordination with Michael Cohen, the former president s fixer and lawyer. Will this charts the ark of what leads to trump allegedly falsifying these . Dozens of Business Records. Who checks to Michael Cohen and what david pecker is doing on the Stand Yesterday And Today is hes laying out the scheme, the catch and kill scheme. Hes also establishing the network around trump. Its not just that hes in the room with trump having conversations with him. Theres also Michael Cohen in that network in the political sphere from Trumps Campaign at the time. And then hes underlining the motivation. He says over and over again on the stand today to that jury that he wanted to protect the campaign and donald trump from embarrassment from these stories coming out. So hes putting those pieces together theyre going to work as Building Blocks as the trial goes on, where other witnesses will illuminate different aspects. He also had a very important point that he made on the stand that it was donald trump himself and pick a witness. This who would review invoices and sign his checks when they were brought to him by an assistant, another Building Plot were very likely to be hearing about that again, with other witnesses was pick will be hearing more and more about that. Ankush khardori, a former federal prosecutor, and i want to read a key exchange from today. Prosecutors s. Pecker. This and im quoting now prior to the august 2015 meeting, had you ever purchased a story to not print it about mr. Trump . Pecker responded on no. So how does that help bolster the case that this was potentially criminal interference in the president ial election . Yeah. Was at the timing of that particular meeting helps do it because therell be right around the time we would expect that trump would be contemplating his run gearing up for the run, worried about potential negative press and i completely agree with kaitlan here. This is the start of a story that is really going to be extending throughout this trial. Its not actually the crux of the criminal case. The crux of the criminal case concerns how and why Stormy Daniels was paid through Michael Cohen. Thats gonna be the main event for the jurors with this as all crucial context with the jurys to undo stan all of everything that leads up America Brewers with us as well. A former us attorney, michael, lets talk a little bit about peckers testimony. He said trump was quote, frugal in his approach to money. Frugal, a direct quote personally reviewing all expenses. What is the significance of that . Yeah. Well, im glad to be with you we expect that theres going to be a tape can an out with Michael Cohen where he taped drop at some point and theres some allegations or at least some statements in the tape at the appears that trump is relying on what weisselberg and cohen were doing and saying, look, i dont really know, just tell me what to do, whats the amount of money . There may be getting ready to refute some of that bus and now hes actually very much in control of his business. He is very much in control of his finances. Hes not somebody who just signs off on a check or an invoice that somebody places in front of him and so my guess is that the prosecutors trying to prepare for that witnesses today, were like what trial is like a book and the witnesses and they were like blank pages if theyre sticking into the book and throughout the trial, then well be filling in these bits and pieces. The chapter by chapter. And one of the chapters, i think hes going to be released from the Defense Trump really wasnt the man in charge is Michael Cohen, as we saw, even from some of the things in the clips we looked at earlier let me ask you though, trump. Well, you were his Campaign Press secretary. You understand where hes coming from . Where all right. Now, awaiting the judges decision, did trump violate the gag order that had been opposed that if he did, lets get to be the penalty. And as i say, you know, trump well do you think no matter what the penalty will be, whether its a few thousand dollars or something else. You think trump is going to honor that. Its gonna be hard to imagine that he will honor it. I mean, look, hes already violated it more than a dozen times, i believe. And right now, i believe the fine if they do end up finding him is 1,000. Thats like change each time for each violation. Exactly. And thats chump change to him. And so until i think theres an actual threat of maybe jail time, i believe it can be 30 days in jail is what could happen if they decided to escalate it. I dont know if i foresee the judge going as far as that, but at the same time, how do you keep donald trump in check . Because as hes complaining that hes totally gagged and its ironic because hes complaining about it while addressing the press outside of the courtroom. And hes not gagged. He can talk about the judge. She can talk about the prosecutor. He can talk about how he thinks this case is unfair. What he cant do though, is go after innocent people like the jurors, the witnesses, and the staff of the courtroom, and their family members, and look a gag order like this is necessary for someone with Donald Trumps megaphone because he could do some serious harm by putting a target on these peoples backs and harassing them and kind of making it a message than 200 followers. Hey, go after these people target them, harass them draws serious security concerns. And so i do think its necessary for this gag order to be in place because donald trump has shown that he does not care about the security of those that he goes after very interesting and do our guys, everybody standby. Thanks to all of you coming up. Theres breaking news on planning for how to respond if donald trump is sent to jail, he on that former new york judge is here with her perspective, standby. Well be right the sinking of the titanic. 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