Day 2 Of The Trump Trial: A Contempt Hearing And Pecker Describes Catching And Killing

Update from Day 2 of the Trump criminal trial.

-The day started with a hearing on whether to hold Trump in contempt for his comments about the jury and witnesses.

-The contempt hearing for Trump did not go well. Trump’s attorney tried to argue that Trump was not violating the gag order because it was “political speech” responding to things Cohen publicly was saying about him. When the judge asked what those things were that Cohen said, Trump’s attorney had no answer. It went downhill from there.

-Trump’s attorney argued that Trump reposting something someone else said could not violate the gag order. The judge was incredulous, and asked if Trump has to actually do something to repost something. Trump’s attorney admitted he did. The judge asked if Trump’s attorney had any case law to support his claim that a repost was not the legal equivalent of a post. Trump’s attorney admitted he had no such case law.

-When Trump’s attorney asserted that Trump was going through great pains to comply with the gag order the judge made clear he’d had enough: “You’re losing all credibility, I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility with the court.”

-The prosecutors emphasized they were not seeking to jail Trump. They wanted Trump fined $1,000 (the max permitted by statute) for each of the ten alleged gag order violations, ordered to removed the offending Truth Social posts, and strongly warned that future violations could result in incarceration.

-The judge did not immediately rule on the prosecution’s motion to hold Trump in contempt, taking the matter under advisement.

-Trump walked out of the contempt hearing and attacked the judge on Truth Social. Trump called the judge “highly conflicted,” claimed the judge had taken away his free speech rights, declared “this is a kangaroo court” and again argued that the judge should recuse himself. Notably, this attack on the judge does not violate the gag order. The gag order applies to jurors, witnesses, and family members of the prosecution and court. It does not apply to the judge or to the prosecutors themselves.

-From there the court quickly moved to the continued testimony of National Enquirer owner David Pecker.

-Pecker testified that in August 2015 he Trump, Hope Hicks and Cohen met on what the National Enquirer could do to help Trump get elected. Pecker pledged to run good stories for Trump and bad stories on Trump’s opponents.

-Pecker testified that he had the National Enquirer publish numerous false stories that they got from the Trump Campaign. These included headlines like, “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge In Patient’s Brain!” and “Ted Cruz shamed by porn star.” Positive for Trump false stories included, “John F. Kennedy’s Secret Son Endorses Donald Trump” and “Obama’s Half-Brother — Cheering On Donald At Debate.” These stories were plants by the Trump Campaign in the National Enquirer.

-The meeting also set up the catch and kill scheme. Pecker told Trump: “I would be your eyes and ears . . . anything that I hear in the marketplace, if I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen . . . and then he would be able to get them killed . . . or somebody would have to purchase them.”

-Pecker testified that the first “catch and kill” was for Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin who claimed Trump fathered a child with a Trump Tower housekeeper. Pecker testified he believed Sajudin’s story was false, but that he paid Sajudin $30,000 for exclusive rights to the story to kill it. Pecker said, if the story turned out true, he’d have run it, but only after the election.

-The next catch and kill story was for Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who claimed to have a nearly year long affair with Trump. Pecker described Cohen as extremely anxious about this story, he presumed because Trump was concerned. The Enquirer would go on to pay McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story, that it never published.

The court adjourned early again today and the normal schedule is to skip trial on Wednesday. Trial will start Thursday morning with Pecker continuing to testify. The judge will likely take Wednesday to write his decision on the contempt motion.