Yes the headline is sophomoric, juvenile even. Deal with it. Consider even Rachel Maddow has “gone there” with the absurd humor of it. Maddow freely admits to being prudish. She hates even referring to profanity, even edited when reporting. Same about sex stuff. But going back to when we all learned the name David Pecker she’s admitted having to behaver herself. Earlier this week she could no longer do so and openly chuckled over his name during a panel discussion. So like I said, if Maddow’s willing to go there with the wordplay then I think I’m covered.
Getting serious however a couple of weeks ago I posted here on Politizoom that David Pecker was a witness that could be really bad for Trump. I said he could wind up being the most damaging witness of all for Trump. Well, Pecker put the screws to Trump and big time. In the contest of who throws who under the bus Pecker won. Bigly. Trump’s decades long pal screwed him by looking out for his own interests instead of covering (as in lying) for Trump. “Peckered” him. Until Pecker sat up there on the stand calmly and without any dissembling laid out the entirety of what he does (or did) with AMI/The Enquirer.
You can read a basic write-up from The Guardian but I’m going to go beyond their coverage. I did my best to keep up each day with the reports coming fast and furious from the courtroom as well as a fair amount of evening punditry. Let’s start with the big picture. Pecker described what the tabloid has always done, even using the term checkbook journalism. He made a point of how important the covers of his his tabloid trash were, as well as the headlines. I hadn’t known until this week that AMI owns so much of the “rack space” where you see there own and other tabloids in grocery stores, convenience stores, and public places like bus/train stations and even airports. That means they can position the Enquirer in the best spot to get noticed.
It’s amazed me all my life how many people actually BUY that stuff but people do. Lots more glance at the headlines/cover pictures and then when say some MAGA hears Fox talking about what they saw on that sales rack, or some right-wing radio type talking the same thing it sinks in. This was going on long before Pecker and Trump became pals. And if not more targeted politically the sensationalism made for a successful business model for decades before Reagan came along. So that’s the overview.
Jump forward to August 2015 when Pecker attended a meeting at Trump Tower with Michael Cohen and a couple of others. And Trump himself joined. Right there an agreement was reached. Pecker described it. He’d be Trump’s “eyes and ears” and look for stories that might be damaging to Trump. Where Trump once loved to boast of his exploits with women he was media savvy enough to know that while male MAGAs would nudge each other and wink others wouldn’t care for that type of think to become a theme. Pecker also knew as did Trump (and Cohen) there were women out there who might decided to speak out.
So the whole “catch and kill” scheme was born. Again, Pecker didn’t try to weasel out of confirming any of this in his direct testimony. However that wasn’t all. The agreement also included Pecker publishing bullshit about Trump’s rivals. Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton (who it seemed even then was inevitable as the Democratic nominee) in particular. We also learned from Pecker that when Trump came up with an idea to trash an opponent he’d get in touch (or have Cohen do so) and Pecker would flesh it out into a cover story.
I again want to make the point that Pecker didn’t shy away from admitting any of this. Then again, one must keep in mind he avoided serious federal charges by confessing all to the feds and cutting a deal. They had him cold, and as we’d learn later this week Pecker had experience in this type of political favor work out in California when Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for Governor. In other words, Pecker found himself on the legal hot seat due to THAT and did some checking with an election law expert and also his own corporate counsel. He admitted to knowledge and from experts about election law on this kind of thing! That is very bad news indeed for Team Trump, especially regarding the actual Stormy Daniels part of this case.
We also got some news on how the whole Daniels payoff mess turned into the, well Daniels payoff mess. Pecker shelled out $150k to former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal and another $30k to a doorman at Trump Tower to do “catch and kill.” Initially he intended to get paid back but for reasons regarding campaign finance law let it go. However that’s a lot of money. So, when Cohen called with an urgent request for Pecker to cough up $130k to silence Daniels he balked. Told Cohen he’d already shelled out a bundle for Trump and never got paid back. Pay her yourself he said. It’s worth noting that in that conversation Pecker admitted to Cohen saying the boss (Trump) wasn’t going to be happy with him.
Add up everything Pecker testified to and he admitted to over $200k illegal (and he knew it) cash contributions to Trump, as well as a fortune in “In-Kind” contribution with all those pro-Trump cover stories and all those negative stories trashing Trump’s rivals. I’ve commented that publicity/advertising is worth many tens of millions, perhaps north of a hundred million.
I’ll bet somewhere at AMI there’s an accounting file that details how much sales went up when those stories were on newsstands during the 2016 campaign. And ALL of those illegal contributions went UNREPORTED by both Pecker and the Trump campaign! That’s one big whopping felony at both the state and federal level so for those who said Bragg had a weak case. Pecker calmly admitted it all. Reports were he came across as low key and credible.
After almost two days of direct testimony Pecker had really buried Trump. On cross Team Trump tried but might have done as much harm as good to his case. Much of it was another tour of tabloid journalism and how celebrities routinely trade access (an exclusive interview) to keep an article that would be embarrassing out of print. As the names rolled out I’m sure a LOT of people started getting nervous! I think what Blanche and his team were doing was painting a ‘So Trump did what everyone else does, only maybe on a bigger scale. BFD. Not a crime type’ picture. However one pundit explained how all that can easily be turned back on Trump. Because money changed hands AND Trump falsified records which makes what HE did stand out!
Yes, initially Team Trump got Pecker to semi-obfuscate some of his direct testimony. However, I’m betting that during a break in the action before re-direct Pecker’s lawyer read him the riot act. Told him he was playing with fire trying to play games to help Trump and his deal with the feds would disappear faster than Trump got his rocks off with Daniels! When re-direct came around Pecker affirmed all the damaging stuff and now the prosecution has moved on.
Make no mistake. In their opening the prosecution said they’d lay out not only how Trump falsified business records, but that he did so as part of a conspiracy (with other) to commit election fraud. I was thinking about a relatively piddling amount of taxes dodged and will admit the violations, massive ones of campaign finance law never occurred to me. I wonder it it ever dawned on Trump and his lawyers that Bragg could turn Pecker into such a damaging witness for Trump.
Team Trump has been gearing up for Michael Cohen to be the prosecution’s “star” witness. Between Pecker and other witnesses Cohen will likely be at best a supporting cast member with a medium sized role. Maybe less than that. Hell, wouldn’t it be funny if the prosecution doesn’t even need to call him? I figure they will have to but the way Pecker has set the stage, other witnesses will along with documents provide Cohen with all he needs to withstand everything Trump throws at him.
One final thought I want to return to. Pecker has told a lot, and talk is that while a bunch of stuff he had gathered up over time “is no more” I can’t help but think he’s got at least some dirt on Trump and others stashed safely away somewhere. And if he hasn’t already he’ll let Trump know it. Trump is way the hell out of his league if he wants to trade blows with David Pecker. He knows it. And he will explode. At who? That remains to be seen but watch for mushroom clouds from Mar A Lago.
I don’t remember the writer’s name (bright red hair) but she was on Maddow when the tea party first popped up and started using the term tea bagging. she and Rachel spent about 15 minutes cracking each other up with that before moving on to the actual discussion. if she’s prudish it’s selective.
She is, but sometimes something is just too much. Even my sweet old Granny sometimes couldn’t contain herself. I recall the whole “tea bagging” thing well. It was freaking hilarious how, for a while they (including Palin which was a real howler) bragging about being “Tea Bagger” before someone clued them in on what the term means. Too bad it didn’t keep going on for a good long while but it was fun as hell while it lasted.
I don’t know Denis, I still call them tea baggers. Everyone knows what I am referring to-the people and the act. Still funny as all get out to this day. More importantly it still can piss off cons like little else can. As if being a con xtian isn’t own goaling yourself enough, they chose this name for themselves during their movement’s beginning and I think it is very appropriate for them.
Trump has been peckering us since Nov 2016.
And without consent or paying us off.
“I think what Blanche and his team were doing was painting a ‘So Trump did what everyone else does, only maybe on a bigger scale. BFD. Not a crime type’ picture.”
Okay, for starters, let’s get this point out of the way: I despise Trump. I POSSIBLY could’ve managed to set aside my personal feelings (and political feelings) about him and given him a fair and open mind if I had been selected for jury duty and ended up on the jury.
That said, if I were sitting on the jury and the above-quoted material had, in fact, been Trump’s defense team’s thinking, he would’ve just sealed the case against his own client in my mind. As a juror, I would start thinking, “Yeah, but a Hollywood celeb isn’t running for political office. Maybe they’re trying to get ahead of some bad press about some possible crime they committed–like Winona Ryder’s shoplifting or Johnny Depp’s domestic abuse charges or Alec Baldwin’s on-set shooting–but, ultimately, they’re NOT going to completely getting it covered up or avoid charges should they come up. Whatever scandal they may be trying to bury will only be WORSE for them if the scandal does break–and people will be looking at that scandal when their later projects appear.”
I mean, I’ve read the stories of how Hollywood’s bigwigs used the press–especially the “gossip columnists” like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons–to keep their top stars’ secrets from the American public and, conversely, how they’d use the press to keep their top stars at bay. And how the press was used to kill careers (e.g., Fatty Arbuckle). So, to make the argument “well, everybody does it” would, at least to my mind, be the proverbial nail to seal Trump’s coffin shut.
trump’s “lawyers” are trying to make this case about only the hush money and not at all about the election crime. When you take away the election crime aspect of this case, it doesn’t even belong in a court room. I hope this pecker made the case to the jury this case is NOT about the hush money and IS about the 2016 election crime.
Of course I also with the press would call this what it is and not call it the hush money case. I also wish I was emperor of my own universe and that I could fart pixie dust and flowers.
Nailed it!
Great article BUT you and everybody else have missed a beautiful point about all of this stems from Trump being true to himself. He has to grift. In this case there would not have been a whisper of he had paid his debts when he could and should. A very slow burning fuse lit by himself!
As always, he is the author of his own misfortune.
Yup. It’s sleazy but he could have just paid off Daniels and that would be that. Same with McDougal, but with her he engaged in a large illegal campaign finance scheme. Of course, he could have simply moved on from Trophy Wife #3 aka Melania since he was tired of her and found himself Trophy Wife #4 instead of having her pump out a kid so he could nudge people and point to Barron and make cracks to the guys that were basically – “See? I’m banging her! AND I’m still a stud cause I can father a kid even at 60 years old!” He no longer by then had to deal with a disapproving father and could go around banging whomever he wanted as his alter egos fed stories to the tabloids linking him to this or that woman who was willing to put up with the noteriety for a while in exchange for some lavish living. But like so many rich assholes he wanted the veneer of the trophy wife and since apparently at least one child is necessary to “prove” the relationship is “real” that’s how it went down. The children of such people are nothing more than props to them. I keep going back to Marla Maples and how much effort she put into shielding Tiffany from Trump and it seemed to have worked. Part of me feels sorry for her anguish over having in the end failed as Tiffany chose to instead of actually putting in real effort at being a real lawyer in DC sold out for a cushy “make work” job at the Trump Org. Then again, given the scandal Marla played a role in when Trump dumped Trophy Wife #1 (Ivana) I find it hard to give her a break. She let herself be installed at Trump Tower as Trump’s very public mistress while Ivana and the three oldest kids were living in the main Trump. apt. there and put up with the tabloid stories (she was said to have been particularly embarrassed by the “Best Sex I Ever Had!” headline and cover page one that Trump planted. Yet she didn’t RUN from him. Nope, she entered into her own Trophy Wife arraingement – for the fucking (literally) money. Historians will marvel for hundreds of years (if the human race makes it that long – not a sure thing) over how the self-professed Party of “family values” wound up with Trump leading them around by the nose.
I couldn’t help thinking that Trump is having Pecker problems because he originally had pecker problems with Stormy Daniels
Sorreeeee – I couldn’t resist that
Pecker wasn’t willing to go to jail over what passes for friendship in their down and dirty, fraudulent league. Smarter than Donald.