Here's the First Witness to Testify in Ex-president Donald Trump's Ongoing Hush Money Trial

Ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, Donald Trump is facing criminal charges for allegedly paying 'hush money' to adult star Stormy Daniels. The trial began on April 15, 2024, with Judge Juan Merchan selecting a fair and unbiased juror for the ex-president to ensure a just judgment. Now, the name of the first witness to testify has been identified. 

According to The New York Times, David Pecker, a former National Enquirer publisher, will be testifying in the trial which will be resuming on Monday, April 22, 2024. Pecker was among the first ones to alert then-attorney Michael Cohen about Daniel threatening to leak information about her sexual encounter with Trump back in 2006. 

In 2016 Pecker gave the Republican front-runner a heads-up about Daniels when he was busy with election campaigns. Subsequently, Cohen bought the porn star's silence for $130,000 and the former attorney later admitted he reportedly paid the sum "out of his own pocket," testifying Trump directed him to do so. 

The Manhattan court will call Pecker after the completion of opening statements and the prosecutors are expected to grill him over his "friendship" with Trump and his alleged involvement in many "catch and kill" schemes orchestrated by the 77-year-old to steer clear of any negative stories before the 2016 elections. 

Aside from the alleged affair story, Pecker is likely to detail how he conspired in other crimes alongside Trump's former attorney Cohen, including he once directed his company to pay a Trump Tower doorman for reportedly buying a story that stated that the GOP front-runner fathered a "love child." 

Meanwhile, Pecker had also made payments to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to quash her claims of an extended affair with Trump. The Hush Money trial is expected to unearth the former real-estate mogul's alleged affairs to the public's attention before the 2024 presidential elections. 

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide the hush payment he made to Daniels, originally, Stephanie Gregory Clifford. This state trial is among the other criminal cases against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee- Classified Documents Case, 2020 Election Interference Case, and other civil charges. 

Cohen, who's been a long-term aid to Trump and a fixer for more than a decade, testified against his ex-boss at the New York civil fraud trial in 2023 after he pleaded guilty in August 2018 to a campaign finance law violation. Consequently, he was sentenced to a three-year imprisonment. 

However, the ex-real-estate mogul persistently denied these claims and called his aides-turned-witnesses "liars." In a post on his preferred platform Truth Social, he blasted, "Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country." 

Cohen, who is a potential witness in the trial, previously revealed on MSNBC's The Weekend, "The attacks are relentless because that's what he does. He attacks the judge, he attacks the judge's daughter, he attacks witnesses, he attacks anyone and everyone again thinking that this is a positive strategy," adding, "So yeah, I'm concerned. And a little, you know, a little apprehensive."