Teens use day off from school to attend Trump trial
A few teens opted to spend their day in Trump’s trial.
Ted Cruz uninterested in talking about Pecker testimony
Asked to respond to Pecker’s testimony on the stories about him, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said: “Not interested in revisiting ancient history.”
Pro-Trump protesters gather outside the courthouse
A few pro-Trump protesters have gathered outside of the courthouse as Trump prepares to depart for the day.
The group is holding a “Trump 2024” banner, a handwritten poster that reads “Kangaroo Court” and another banner that reads “Make America Great Again” under Trump’s name.
Trump calls gag order ‘unconstitutional’ as he leaves courtroom
Trump complained again about his gag order, calling it “unconstitutional” as he left the courthouse for the day.
“I’m not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me. It’s very, very unfair,” Trump told reporters outside of the courtroom.
Trump went on to again call Merchan a “highly conflicted judge” who should recuse himself from the case.
The court is done for the day
The trial went into recess at 2 p.m. ET — an early wrap because of Passover.
They’ll be back on Thursday.
Pecker recounts conversation with Trump about McDougal
Pecker said that Trump called him about McDougal and asked what the publishing executive thought. Pecker told Trump that McDougal had an offer from ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
Pecker suggested to Trump that he buy McDougal’s story. Trump demurred and said: “Anytime you do something like this, it always comes out.”
Pecker persisted. Trump said he wanted to talk to Cohen and that he would call back in a couple of days.
Cohen told Pecker to stop talking on a landline and use Signal instead
Pecker said at this point he went from talking to Cohen a couple times a week to speaking with him everyday, sometimes twice a day, when the story of McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump emerged.
Pecker recalled Cohen instructed him to not talk over a landline, but use the messaging app Signal instead because it’s encrypted and messages would be destroyed.
“I still to this day don’t know whether that’s true or not,” Pecker said.
We have less than 10 minutes left today
The court is expected to recess early for the day, at 2 p.m. ET, because of Passover.
Pecker starts testifying about Karen McDougal
Pecker just started testifying about another central figure in this case: Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 — a claim the former president has denied.
Pecker is likely to provide details about how the National Enquirer paid to “catch and kill” McDougal’s story about her sexual relationship with Trump to prevent his 2016 presidential campaign from getting bad press.
McDougal is expected to take the witness stand during this trial.
Pecker waited to release doorman story until after the election after Cohen’s request
Pecker has now testified that he held off publishing the doorman’s story until after the 2016 election because Cohen had asked him to.
Pecker went on to say that he had wanted to release Dino Sajudin from the exclusivity agreement, but Cohen had requested that he not do so until after the election, to ensure that the story didn’t break on other outlets.
According to a December 9, 2016 email from then-AMI general counsel Cameron Stracher to Dino Sajudin, the Enquirer confirmed that doorman was released from the exclusivity agreement.
Source: Trump hush money trial day 6 highlights: David Pecker testifies, judge hears gag order
