Pecker at hush money trial says Trump feared trysts would hurt image, but didn't mention Melania

Earlier this week, Pecker told jurors earlier that the scheme to bury unflattering stories about presidential candidate Trump and elevate hit jobs about his opponents was devised at an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower attended by him, Trump, and Cohen. Pecker agreed to publish pro-Trump stories while working to hide unsavory ones, taking them “off the market” by purchasing the exclusive rights to ensure they never got published in a scheme known as “catch and kill.”

On Thursday, Pecker said that as the election grew near and women came out of the woodwork, he began to worry about his legal liability.

Steinglass displayed for the jury an invoice dated Aug. 6, 2016, that listed Pecker’s AMI as the subsidiary and McDougal’s lawyer, Keith Davidson, as the vendor. AMI, the following month, assigned the rights to McDougal’s story to Cohen’s shell company for $125,000, which Pecker worried about.

“Why worry? I’m your friend. The boss will take care of it,” the witness quoted Cohen telling him.

Pecker said though the payback deal was signed, it was never executed. After speaking with AMI’s general counsel, the publisher decided it was legally too risky and he would, instead, eat the debt.

“He was very angry … Screaming basically,” Pecker recalled Cohen’s reaction in October 2016, quoting the fixer telling him, “The boss is going to be very angry at you.”

But Pecker said he didn’t budge, nor would he comply with Cohen’s wishes to pay off a second woman who came forward after McDougal — porn star Stormy Daniels — as he was afraid the association with her would hurt his media brand.

“I am not a bank, and we are not paying out any more disbursements of monies,” Pecker recalled telling Cohen, who said Trump would be furious.”

Cohen ultimately paid Daniels $130,000, and when he hadn’t been reimbursed by his boss months later, Pecker put in a good word.

Prosecutor says Trump violated gag order again

Earlier in the day, Trump and his defense team walked into the courtroom at 9:30 a.m. He appeared chipper, smiling as he spoke to his lawyers Emil Bove and Todd Blanche and said something that made them laugh.

Amid news of Harvey Weinstein’s conviction being overturned, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was notably not in the courtroom Thursday morning, nor was his chief of appeals, Steven Wu.

Before jurors took their seats, prosecutor Chris Conroy told Merchan Trump had violated his gag order another four times by commenting on jurors and witnesses Michael Cohen and David Pecker in recent media interviews. He renewed his request to the judge to find Trump in contempt.

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