Five things to remember from Day 2 of Trump’s testimony in the New York hush money trial

The prosecution’s grilling of former tabloid publisher David Pecker dominated most of the proceedings on the second day of arguments in former US President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial.

Regarding payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, Trump faces 34 felony charges of falsifying corporate papers.

The Republican nominee for president in 2024 is charged with falsifying the amount of money he reimbursed his attorney, Michael Cohen, for paying Daniels $130,000 in return for her silence on a rumored romance. Trump has denied the existence of the affair.

Prosecutors must convince a jury that the falsifications were done with the purpose of committing another crime in order for the felony charges to stand. Thus far, they have concentrated on alleged collusion to sway the 2016 presidential contest, which Trump ultimately won. Trump’s defense team has insisted that he done nothing improper.

The “catch and kill” arrangement between Pecker and Trump—whereby the publisher would purchase unfavorable items about the president but refrain from publishing them in the National Enquirer—was the focus of prosecutors’ attention on Tuesday.

These are the trial’s five key lessons learned:

Pecker claims he consented to serve as the Trump campaign’s “eyes and ears.”
Pecker told prosecutors that at a meeting in August 2015, about 15 months before the 2016 presidential election, he was urged by Trump and Cohen to “help the campaign,” despite having a history with the president that dates back to the 1980s.

Pecker said he had given his word to serve as the campaign’s “eyes and ears” and to alert Cohen to any attempts to sell negative articles about Trump to the National Enquirer.