David Pecker Recalls a 'Furious' Donald Trump Called Him After Karen McDougal Deal Became Public
David Pecker, the ex-National Enquirer's publisher and the first witness in Donald Trump's Hush Money trial revealed many secrets in his explosive testimony. During his appearance on Thursday, April 25, 2024, he told the juror that the Republican front-runner called him in "fury" after his deal with former Playboy model Karen McDougal became known in the media before the 2016 elections.
Trump, who was infamous for his Access Hollywood Tape, was accused of a 10-month affair with McDougal. Consequently, he sealed a deal with the former model so it wouldn't malign his reputation before the votes were cast in 2016. However, somehow the information got leaked, and the former president blamed Pecker's company for disclosing it to Wall Street Journal.
As Pecker recalled the now-77-year-old was enraged on a phone call, "How could this happen? I thought you had this under control," he testified. Trump accused, "Either you or one of your people have leaked this story."
In an exclusive interview with CNN in March 2018, McDougal spoke about her affair with Trump and everything that was hidden from the world. When host Anderson Cooper asked if she was attracted to him, she responded, "I was attracted to him, yeah." Then he quizzed her about if the sex was consensual, she affirmed.
She detailed a 10-month sexual relationship with the ex-commander-in-chief in 2006, the time when his wife Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron Trump. McDougal expressed her remorse to the former First Lady and in 2018 she filed a lawsuit against the AMI (American Media Inc.) which owns National Enquirer alleging they bought her silence so she wouldn't hurt Trump's 2016 campaign.
Meanwhile, the former CEO of American Media is among the key witnesses in Trump's ongoing Hush Money trial by porn star Stormy Daniels who alleged a sexual affair with the presidential hopeful in 2006. He closely worked with the Trump campaign and was allegedly involved in multiple "catch and kill" schemes.
The ex-publisher, along with Trump's former attorney and fixer for over a decade Michael Cohen, amplified positive stories and buried the negative ones including his affairs with Daniels and McDougal and some more stories by women which could malign his image in the eyes of voters.
In his testimony, Cohen admitted that he paid $130,000 to Daniels from his "own" pocket, however, Pecker told the court the former attorney initially asked him to bear the cost, "I said, 'Michael, why should I pay? I just paid $30,000 for the doorman story,'" referring to another news bit where they silenced a doorman who claimed Trump had fathered an illegitimate child.
He continued, "Now you're asking me to pay $150,000 for the Karen story, plus all of these other additional items that she wants to do," to which Cohen told him, "Don't worry about it. I'm your friend. The boss will take care of it."
