It is good to be back with you for this second hour. At this hour, is a former Tabloid Publisher the star witness in the people versus donald trump . What david pecker revealed about his close friendship with the former president and the catch and kill scheme before the hush money scandal exploded. Plus from the courtroom to a meeting with japan. Trump prepares to host another International Leader as the campaign tries to show theyre just doing business as usual. And standing by for a judges ruling. Will trump be held in contempt for violating a gag order . Well tell you what happened during a heated hearing this morning. And code name, plazic echo. What a newly unsealed document reveals about the documents case and a witness who warned trump to just give everything back. Our nbc News Reporters are following the latest developments. We begin outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan with vaughn hillyard. Vaughn, david pecker was the only witness again today. He was questioned about conversations he had about buying stories. What have we heard . Reporter court just ended for the day on this second day of testimony from david pecker, chris, and we are in the middle of him detailing the Karen Mcdougle story. The former Playboy Model who alleged in a sexual affair with donald trump for ten months now is part of this story, we are getting new details that have not been publicly discussed before. This is coming from david pecker directly where david pecker says in june of 2016, this is testimony in the last few minutes here, that he received a phone call from donald trump in june of 2016 when the Karen Mcdougle story came to light behind the scenes. That she was shopping around the story of her alleged affair with him. At this point in time, michael cohn was engaging with an attorney and thats what led donald trump to pick up the phone, give the enquirer a phone call and discuss the offer and whether the National Enquirer may potentially buy her story. Donald trump said he heard that Dancing With The Stars was interested in purchasing her story. Donald trump told pecker that he didnt want to personally by her story because that always gets out were the words of donald trump according to pecker. But this is a detailed back and forth. Ultimately, we expect pecker tomorrow to testify that american media, the Parent Company of National Enquirer, ultimately purchased the rights to Karen Mcdougle, but we are not that at that point in time. Theres a lot of the back and forth vaughn, im going interrupt you because donald trump has come out of court. And i dont even know, a gag order. Which to me is totally unconstitutional. Im not allowed to talk to people. So they can talk about me, say whatever they want. They can lie, but im not allowed to say anything. I just have to sit back and look at why the conflicted judge has ordered me to have a gag order. I think anybodys ever seen anything like this. Id love to talk to you people. Say everything thats on my mind, but im restricted because of a gag order and im not sure that anybodys ever seen anything like this before. And even somebody writes an article, if i read every one of these in complete, ill look at headlines and the case is a sham. But i cant read the whole thing. Id be reading, this is like reading a novel. So i put and then some of these names, somewhere deep in the article and im in violation of a gag order. I think its a disgrace. Its totally unconstitutional. I dont believe its ever not to this extent happened before. Im not allowed to defend myself yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me. Very, very unfair. Having to do with the closings, thats bidens fault. By the way, this trial is all biden. This is all biden just in case anybody has any question and theyre keeping me in a courtroom thats freezing by the way. In a courtroom all day long. So donald trump once again making statements. Ill come back to you, vaughn, on this. That are patently untrue. First of all, that this is bidens trial. It has nothing to do with any of the federal agency he keeps talking about how he doesnt want to be gagged but the fact of the matter is you are not allowed in any place to go after witnesses. Youre not allowed to intimidate witnesses. There is something called witness intimidation. He apparently has a pile of articles, things he has wanted to retweet, things that supportive of him and then he says but they mention people. This is part of what was argued in the gag order hearing today, vaughn, right . About whether or not something he retweets, whether they could violate the gag order. Just to be clear, were giving donald trump a chance to Say Something new, something that is news worthy, but he continues to make the same claims he has made in the past. I interrupted you. Would you like to pick up there . Reporter right. Theres the hearing over the gag order this morning. The judge has not ruled whether he has violated it, but for reference point, the gentleman on his right was todd blanche. Throughout the day, weve referenced todd blanche. Hes his lead attorney, doing most of the talking on behalf of the defense team. What is so key, what he did not respond to, the testimony that came from david pecker, his friend of several decades. He did not explicitly refute there any of the testimony that came from david pecker here today and of course, he would have the opportunity to do that. Not only in a public setting but also in the courtroom if he chose to testify himself in his defense. Donald trump here heard the words of david pecker testify, number one, that donald trump sat in a meeting in august 2015 with him at trump tower and told him he was pleased about this scheme to catch and kill stories, salacious story, and plant negative stories about rival candidates. We also had david pecker testify in front of donald trump today that trump picked up the phone to call him about the Karen Mcdougle story. Karen mcdougle alleged a ten month affair with him. And what you get from david peckers testimony in the middle of this Karen Mcdougle story here is the extent to which pecker was intimately involved with not only trump, but also Michael Cohen. Saying and testifying today that he would have multiple conversations with him a week. Sometimes when things were intense like around the mcdougle story, daily. I want to let everybody look at a part of the exchange that our team inside was able to transcribe where david pecker talked about encrypted messages sent back and forth between him and michael cohn which would suggest that perhaps not all the evidence that could be out there will ever make its way into the courtroom because it was encrypted. David pecker says that michael cohn said we should not speak over land line. We should use signal. Quote, i didnt know what it was. David pecker continued it was an encrypted app by michael cohn. Theres no way to trace or paper trail and the conversation is destroyed after the call to which pecker says he told cohn i still to this day dont know if thats true or not. This hits at the heart of the prosecutions effort to not only provide Corroborating Evidence to Michael Cohens expected testimony, but also those who were in the room with donald trump or on the other line of the phone with donald trump explicitly about the plan that led to that reimbursement of michael cohn for the Stormy Daniels payment. That this was a Barter Scheme and thats today when david peckers testimony started to do. Around the Trump Tower Door Man Story and the mcdougle story. We could anticipate the daniels case. Back on the stand thursday. Thank you. Lets talk about the big meeting that donald trump has planned tonight. Dasha burns is following that story for us. Trump is scheduled to meet with the former Prime Minister of japan. He is still a key member of the ruling party. So whats in it for both sides . This is part of a series of meetings with foreign leaders hes been taking over the last couple of weeks. Last week, he met with the president of poland. The week before, he met with the British Foreign secretary, david cameron. This is an attempt, while he is in court, to show that look, he is still doing this kind of work and foreign leaders are reaching out to him. Hes in conversation with them. One thing youll hear often from the former president on the Campaign Trial and in interviews is that you know, the world was much more peaceful while he was in office. Hes trying to present a contrast when it comes to Foreign Policy between himself and president biden. Heres what he had to say in a Radio Interview yesterday. Every one of these trials, every single one of them, is coming out of the white house. Its to help get biden elected who cant put two sentences together. And this is the guy thats negotiating Nuclear Weapons with and talking about World War Iii possibly. You never thought in terms of World War Iii when i was your president. People are talking about it all the time now. So again, a message weve heard over and over again. When i reached out to the campaign about this meeting with the japanese Prime Minister, they told me in part meetings and calls from World Leaders reflect the recognition of what we know here at home. Joe biden is weak and when President Trump is sworn in at the 47th president of the united states, the world will be more secure and america will be more prosperous. So again, he is limited from going out there from sending that message on the Campaign Trail so these meetings sort of highlight the work hes doing. For those other leaders, its also not necessarily uncommon for president s, Prime Ministers, foreign leaders to be speaking with the frontrunner of the other party. Thats not in charge. So this isnt out of the ordinary given the former president is you know, in equal standing or ahead in some of the polls between himself and president biden. Yeah. As hedging their bets is often how its seemed. Thank you. Lets go to the question now of whether donald trump did violate his gag order in the Hush Money Trial. Rehema ellis is reporting from the courthouse in New York City. Do we have any idea when we might get a ruling here . Reporter no, we dont. The judge hasnt given any indication as to when he might rule on this. Again, it should be mentioned this kind of thing, the discussion of all this went on this morning and this was outside of the earshot of the jurors. None of them were in the courtroom at the time. The judge heard these arguments and the prosecution basically saying that donald trump has violated his gag order over and over again and his words were this is precisely what the order was designed to prevent. And that is him retweeting and talking about potential jurors, et cetera. He says the defendant doesnt care and it seems like he is angling for the court to do something about it. What the court will do, they have asked for 1,000 per violation of the order. There have been ten violations according to the prosecution so far. That would be 10,000. The court, the prosecution said is not looking to incarcerate donald trump on this. They just want him to stop. The judge has taken this all under advisement. Well have to see when he makes a ruling on this. Chris . Thank you. And joining us now is msnbc contributor and New York Times correspondent, sue craig, who just got out of court. As were following along with this on the document, there is fascinating detail about how this whole process of catch and kill worked, but to reiterate what weve been seeing from the beginning, thats not illegal. Payoffs, hush money, are not illegal. So to the point of the case, whats your big takeaway today . Well, there was discussion about the conspiracy and i think thats what theyre trying to prove. If they can get to that, then they can, you know, its going to influence how the jury looks at this in terms of is it a guilty or a not guilty. And the conspiracy was laid out this morning through david pecker. I know vaughn has been on talking about it. Im sitting in the Overflow Room just listening to him, watching him on a screen. Very credible witness. Hes very even and he laid out quite a story. He talked about how he first met donald trump at maralago years ago. He was brought to the resort. He was a guest of nick rivas who worked for donald trump. And he just talked about their relationship and he, you know, they had kept in touch during The Apprentice. They had this mutually beneficial relationship when donald trump became a star on The Apprentice where david pecker would get stories about The Apprentice, about contestants. This continued for years then in june 2015, donald trump is running for president and he gets a note from michael cohn asking him if hed like to come to the announcement donald trump is running for president and michael cohn actually said in his note, no one deserves to be there more than you. David pecker came and he attended. Then a few months later, david pecker found himself in that now infamous meeting that everybodys been talking about in august 2015 where interestingly hope hicks had attended, david pecker, Michael Cohen and donald trump. David pecker gets a call saying the boss wants you to be there and he comes and thats where they come up with this agreement where david peckers agreed to help the campaign. Hes going to catch and kill stories that are unfavorable to donald trump and run stories about Donald Trumps opponents that are not favorable. So it was interesting even at one moment, they were talking about, they were anticipating there would be women come forward and david pecker was asked about that by the governments lawyer. He said he didnt have anything specific in mind of a story, but he called donald trump that he was considered in new york to be an eligible bachelor. This despite the fact he was married. That was kind of the famous meeting that we know of from august 2015. You know, you mentioned the fact hes very credible and something that we have talked a lot about over the last couple of weeks is that when your star witness has credibility issues, as Michael Cohen does, he is someone who the defense can certainly say is someone with an ax to grind. Someone who wanted a job in the administration. Didnt get it. And has a wellknown, lets understate it, estrangement from donald trump. You know about the relationship between donald trump and david pecker. Thats the opposite. They have not been estranged. Is that right . Right. I dont know the last time that they spoke. I think it might have been a couple of years, david pecker said, but Michael Cohen, and what was laid out that was interesting, was this relationship that developed after donald trump announced he was running for president where Michael Cohen was sort of the go between. Where if there was a story that either that the campaign wanted killed or a story they wanted planted, Michael Cohen would call david pecker and he would have the germ of a story, say its on ben carson, then it would be handed off to david pecker who would massage it and get it into the paper. But at one point, david pecker was asked did donald trump know about this. He obviously was at that crucial meeting in august 2015, but did he know about the ongoing relationship. And david pecker said he just didnt remember if he was told by Michael Cohen if he knew. But it ties michaels cohen, saying the boss is going to love this, that communicated there was an awareness but donald trump. But its really crucial they connect donald trump to this. Were you able to see donald trump and his reaction to any of this . I was. I was in the Overflow Room so i had a good view of him. A lot of the morning, he looked very frustrated. Sort of a grimace and scowl on his face. He did not look happy but a lot of it, not a lot of facial expressions at times. Very steady, but not happy. Always so interesting to talk to you. Thank you so much. Coming up, david pecker on the stand. More about him sharing how he used his media might to help donald trump. Well speak to a former executive who worked with him at ami, the publisher of the National Enquirer. What he can tell us about the relationship between trump and david pecker. The relationship between trump and david pecker smelling ew. Gotta get rid of this. Tell me why because it stinks. Have you tried downy rinse and refresh it helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. It worked guys Yeahhhh Downy rinse and refresh. They need their lawn back fast and you need Scotts Turf Builder Rapid Grass. It grows grass 2 times faster than just seed alone. Giving you a stronger lawn. Smell that freedom, eh . Get Scotts Turf Builder Rapid Grass today, its guaranteed. Feed your lawn. Feed it. 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