Monday morning isn’t here yet and when it comes to Trump, well sometimes I think Nazi Doctor Joseph Mengele created an embryo of Houdini that got mixed in with Fred Trump’s junk. So many times it seems like Trump is finally screwed yet he slips out of the straightjacket and locked trunk. But time’s running out and this time, this time he might actually be sitting in court as a criminal defendant. As a result we are getting a peek at the witnesses expected to testify. I couldn’t find an article that listed all of them but this overview by POLITICUSUSA includes some of them.
There are names like Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels of course. I don’t need to go into all they might have to say on the witness stand. Hope Hicks is another familiar name and that might be interesting. It depends on whether she’s been away from Trump long enough for some deprogramming to take hold, and/or whether she believes he’ll be re-elected and pardon her. (You know what that will cost her. I know – Eeeeewwww!) I didn’t catch her name but I saw a bit of discussion earlier of Trump’s gatekeeper, a young lady who sent and received his emails, places his calls etc even after he moved into the WH. And a lawyer named Keith Davidson who at one point represented both Daniels and Playboy Model Karen McDougal, another name you might recall.
However, the witness I think might be making Trump’s blood run cold is former head of the National Enquirer David Pecker. Given the context of this case and admittedly never completely shed myself of enjoying sophomoric humor the name alone cracks me up. However this is serious business. Pecker didn’t just suddenly turn up. He and Trump have been good, very good in fact pals since at least back to 1998. Let’s face it, Trump was tabloid fodder years before then, sometimes via his own doing using his alter ego David Dennison. You know the old saying about any news being good news and Trump loves attention. Especially the kind that makes him out to be a studmuffin.
I’d urge you to read Pecker’s Wikipedia profile, if only the part about his life after he hooked up with Trump. It’s illuminating and while we know a little, who knows what Pecker admitted to under immunity when he sat down with the feds years ago? Or what he might have said to Bragg’s people during the building of the case for the trial set to start Monday. I recall a segment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show years ago talking about a special safe Pecker had of material that contained stuff lots of rich and/or powerful people including Trump never wanted to see the light of day.
There were at the times questions (with Pecker coming under intense legal scrutiny) about whether much, if not most or all of the stuff in that safe still existed. Perhaps we are about to find out. Given what happened to Jeffrey Epstein if Pecker didn’t squirrel away at least a few items as “insurance” he’s regretting not having done so. However, he was granted immunity in exchange for testimony (again I ask, did he have “receipts”?) and enough other people are involved he had good reason to be forthcoming with the truth. Perjury would of course invalidate his immunity.
Here’s what we know. Pecker tried to help Trump become President starting all the back in 2000. Back then as candidate for the Reform Party. That fizzled out. However, when Trump began toying with the idea of doing it again Pecker wouldn’t have been surprised. Given how he could milk a Trump candidacy for sales of his tabloid rag he likely encouraged Trump enthusiastically. More importantly we know there was a meeting in Trump Tower in 2014 where Pecker agreed to engage in “catch and kill” of stories that might be bad for Trump. We also know, particularly in the case of McDougal he did exactly that. And was involved in killing the Story Daniels story too although Cohen and Davidson worked out the details outside of direct involvement/payment from the Enquirer. Pecker initially had refused to get involved but when the Access Hollywood story broke he suddenly was willing to “facilitate” burying the Daniels revelations.
This is why I think Pecker could turn out to be the most damaging witness of all for Trump. It’s not illegal for a rich/powerful person to say pay off a woman he had sex or an affair with to keep it quiet. Unless for example he lies in a divorce proceeding about it and evidence is produced he’s just committed perjury. The point is that had Trump just written a check (or made a bank transfer after getting Daniels’ signature on an NDA) that would have been that. Except he was a PRESIDENTIAL candidate, locked in an unexpectedly close race and had just had a salacious bombshell story go viral. With calls mounting for him to step aside and turn things over to Pence mounting had the Daniels story gotten out that would have been it.
So Trump needed to hide it. To withhold that information from the public/voters. To defraud the electorate. And even then if he’d just transferred the money via a shell corporation it’s likely he’d have gotten away with it had someone someday figured out what had happened. But no, Trump committed actual crimes including tax fraud and involved other people in them. THAT makes it part of a larger conspiracy, and again it seems the thrust of Bragg’s case will be to show it was all in an attempt to defraud voters as well as to dodge some taxes and illegal campaign contributions.
Pecker can provide years worth of history of aiding Trump, including covering up McDougal and who knows how many others for years to create the image of Trump the former playboy turned devoted husband. The kind of guy conservatives, especially “Christian” ones want. Cleaning up his image was crucial to “Christian” leader telling their respective flocks Trump should be forgiven for his past sins. Of course it was all a lie and Pecker was instrumental in creating that particular “big lie.”
HE is the one who can independently provide evidence of Trump’s actions and motives. And debunk any claims from Trump about trying to keep Melania from finding out about his dalliances. Nope. It was all about creating, and at the last minute saving his chance to be President. Sure, Cohen can walk them through particulars of the payoffs, as can Daniels, McDougal and the lawyer Davidson. But it’s Pecker who I think it the one who can truly connect the dots because he’s the one who put so many up on the canvass in the first place!
I’m hesitant to speculate but I’ve heard word this week Bragg has something up his sleeve that so far hasn’t become known even with some pretty good journalists digging into this trial. There might actually be something to that. There’s indirect evidence there’s a bombshell coming. Team Trump will know about it due to disclosure rules. Even if it’s not completely spelled out even Trump caliber lawyers can probably figure it out and that as much as anything might explain the increasingly freaked out demeanor of Trump in recent days. If he can’t stop this trial something we don’t know about will come out and it terrifies him.
That’s the theory at least. It remains to be seen if Bragg has a legal anvil to drop on Trump’s head. Something that will actually mean “game over” for Trump. But I have to admit I’m really thinking there might be that kind of “there” there. And that David Pecker might be the one who provides it because he did keep some “insurance” even if he did destroy most of what was in that infamous safe.
Stay tuned folks. And to Trump? Tik-Tok motherf**ker.
*smirk*
So, is the pecker-head going to live up to his name? He’s going to be a dick to someone.
The definite proof that Trump.is an imbecile is that if he hadn’t run for president, none of this would have mattered. Leticia James would probably
never have looked into his shady business dealings and taken him to court for tax fraud and E.Jean Carroll’s defamation case would not have been filed.
I think he originally ran just for the publicity, never expecting to.get the nomination. Once he did, though, he became determined to get elected,because he hates the idea of losing. He brought the umpteen court cases,including the criminal ones on himself.