Trump tri­al: Four take­aways from Pecker’s time on the wit­ness stand

The for­mer CEO of a tabloid com­pa­ny tes­ti­fied for three days in for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump‘s hush mon­ey case in New York, telling jurors about his work to bury or pro­mote sto­ries about Trump ahead of the 2016 elec­tion.
David Peck­er, who head­ed the Nation­al Enquirer’s par­ent com­pa­ny, Amer­i­can Media, Inc., was a key com­po­nent of Man­hat­tan Dis­trict Attor­ney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump.
Pros­e­cu­tors told jurors at the out­set of the tri­al that Peck­er in 2016 was part of a three-man “catch-and-kill” scheme, along with Trump and Trump’s for­mer attor­ney Michael Cohen. The scheme, pros­e­cu­tors said, involved Peck­er pay­ing sources through nondis­clo­sure agree­ments not to go to oth­er out­let …