NEW YORK — Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified Monday before the grand jury examining Donald Trump’s alleged role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to a news report and related photograph.
A POLITICO reporter viewed a photograph of Pecker and his attorney exiting the courthouse Monday afternoon after The New York Times wrote about the testimony.
A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Pecker’s attorney, Elkan Abramowitz, also didn’t immediately comment.
Monday was the first time in a week that the grand jury heard evidence in the Trump case. The panel was called off Wednesday and then examined an unrelated matter Thursday. The delay prompted a fiery response from Trump, leading some Democrats to rally around Bragg on Monday morning.
Bragg’s investigation is centered on a $130,000 payment facilitated by Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, and made to the porn star, Stormy Daniels. The adult entertainer alleged she had an affair with Trump and considered selling her story to the National Enquirer, at a time when Pecker was the tabloid’s publisher, according to federal prosecutors. Instead, Cohen paid Daniels directly, a step he told a court he took “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump.
Trump has denied the affair and any wrongdoing with the payment.
Pecker previously testified before the Manhattan grand jury examining the Trump investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter. It wasn’t clear why he was called back to provide further testimony. Before the publisher, the grand jury heard from Robert Costello, a former legal adviser to an ex-fixer for Trump, Michael Cohen, who is the prosecution’s central witness in the case.
Costello said at a press conference after his testimony that he sought to discredit Cohen while speaking to the grand jury.
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