Trump tri­al: Wit­ness David Peck­er recounts fran­tic efforts to kill ’embar­rass­ing’ sto­ries

NEW YORK — A cru­cial wit­ness in the hush mon­ey tri­al against Don­ald Trump tes­ti­fied on Tues­day dur­ing ques­tion­ing by pros­e­cu­tors about the fran­tic efforts Michael Cohen alleged­ly made to shut down sto­ries that would be “embar­rass­ing” to Trump’s 2016 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign.
The wit­ness, David Peck­er, was a long­time pub­lish­er of the Nation­al Enquir­er, and on the wit­ness stand Tues­day he described a 2015 meet­ing with Trump and Trump’s then-attor­ney Cohen. Pros­e­cu­tors with Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney Alvin Bragg’s office described it as the “Trump Tow­er con­spir­a­cy.”

Wit­ness David Peck­er, far right, talks on the wit­ness stand while Don­ald Trump, far left, looks on as assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney Joshua Ste­in­g­less asks ques­tions with Judge Juan Mer­chan pre­sid­ing in Man­hat­tan crim­i­nal court Mon­day, April 22, 2024, in New York. (Eliz­a­beth Williams via AP)

That meet­ing is where pros­e­cu­tors say the trio laid the ground­work for a scheme to ben­e­fit Trump’s even­tu­al 2016 cam­paign. The pros­e­cu­tors said that alleged scheme became even more cru­cial after sev­er­al sex scan­dals threat­ened to emerge the …