News.
Now we have the full transcript.
Transcript from the trial today.
And even though
virtually nothing happens in court
without a team of reporters
posting it online
almost in real time,
even the fastest reporter
can capture the scope and the sweep
in the full context
of the complete record does.
Senior
John Berman has been going through it,
including more of David Pecker
testimony in the caption
Kill Scheme in the heart of the case.
Some of it deals with former
Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The story of her alleged
relationship with Trump was caught
and killed by David Pecker.
Before we bring
you details of the transcript,
I just want to play for you
what Karen McDougal told me
in her only television interview
about why she decided to tell her story.
I feel like the contract is illegal.
I feel like I wasn't presented correctly.
I was lied to.
And everybody involved in this deal,
I want the rights back
and I want to share my truth
because everyone else
is talking about my truth, which there
I need to share my story.
Do you have any regrets
about the relationship
that you say you had with him back then?
Yeah.
The only regret I have
about the relationship
that I had with Donald
was the fact that he was married
and John Berman joined me.
John, you've been digging
deeper in the transcript.
What what stands out?
First of all,
this is the transcript of just today.
So you can see how much paper
comes out here
and the part
where they talk about Karen
McDougal was at the very end of today's
hearing, the prosecution
save the Karen McDougal part in in here.
David Pecker recounts
being pulled out of a meeting
from a phone call by Donald Trump to
ask about the various
whispers have been going on
about Karen McDougal.
We don't have graphics in this,
but let me read this to you.
Pecker says in the testimony
he mentioned to me, he said,
I spoke to Michael Michael Cohen.
He said he told me about that time.
He told me about that.
He said he told me about Karen.
He said to me, what do you think this is,
Pecker saying that Trump asked him,
What do you think about Karen McDougal?
Pecker goes on to say,
I believe you should buy it.
I believe you.
Trump should buy the Karen
McDougal story.
Trump said to me, Look,
everything he says, I don't buy stories.
And he said that any time you do
anything like this,
it always gets out, Pecker says.
I still
believe we should take the story off
the market.
Trump says,
Let me think about it,
and I'll have
Michael Cohen call you in a few days.
And this we do have a graphic of later
in the testimony Pecker talks
about how he was
speaking to Michael Cohen.
This is Josh Stein Glass, the prosecutor.
How would you describe
Michael Cohen's tone during those calls
about Karen McDougal?
Pecker says Michael was very agitated.
It looked like
he was getting a lot of pressure
to get the answer, like right away.
Stan Glass asks, What makes you say that?
Pecker says he kept on calling in.
Each time he called,
he seemed more anxious.
Sunglasses. Did you understand?
Did you understand?
As to wear that pressure to find out
more was coming from, Pecker says.
Well, you know,
I assumed he had a conversation with Mr.
Trump, and Mr.
Trump was asking Michael Cohen,
Did we hear anything yet?
You would have objection.
You can't assume so.
As you hear the word assume
objection, Well,
he was jumping up
before I was a witness testify.
I assume this or I assume that that's not
those aren't facts or objection. Right.
I apologize for just
that's my instinct on what I do.
Find the transcript fascinating.
I'm dying to read it.
And actually,
a friend of mine, Jim Walden,
who was a brilliant attorney, he's
the one who filed the motion
asking for the daily transcript
to be released.
The people who aren't too happy about it,
the court reporters who get paid
daily copy to do this.
But you know, again,
these aren't crimes
like nothing that you just spoke about
is a crime.
Michael Cohen, being anxious
is not a crime.
It just means it's something
that they're interested in.
And that'll be when, you know,
you talk about the relationship
changing in 2015.
We now know that
when you declare yourself
for public office,
whether it's city council person
or prison United States,
they come out
they're coming to get you,
which is now why
we don't get good people
running for office anymore
because they go back to high school
and see what you did back then.
So I'm not surprised
that once Trump goes
from being a TV star
and a real estate magnate
to being president, United States,
all these people come out
and yeah, it's
a mutually beneficial society
and they're there to help each other.
To me, the the anxiety of Michael Cohen
was spoke to the pressure
from Trump assumed from Trump.
So I mean, that's
the only reason that that matters.
But the other thing I would just note,
I mean, the Karen
McDougal story is not over.
This is just the beginning
of what we will learn about
this Karen McDougal story.
And when you look
at the charging documents here for Trump,
there are some hints
about where this goes next.
David Pecker ends up paying her,
but at some point
he decides to not get reimbursed
from Trump world.
And I'm curious as to why that happened.
So this is the opening salvo,
but there's more to come.
So again,
you're not going to find the crime A to Z
found in any one paragraph of testimony.
Prosecutors have to build a case here.
And I think two things jump out at me
from that transcript.
One this is a full nine alarm
fire in Trump world
and in the National Enquirer
in Pekar's environment.
They are
I mean, they're pulling each other
out of meetings.
Borderline panicking.
The other thing is it
establishes a really important chain
of communication
because this is one
of the rare instances.
There's a few
where David Pecker has direct contact
with Donald Trump.
Most of it's with Michael Cohen.
And the weakness
that Arthur just pointed out is, well,
how do you know that Michael Cohen
was truly acting
on Donald Trump's behalf?
You can't assume you're right
and you're
maybe Michael
Cohen was just a free agent.
I mean, Michael
Cohen is not super reliable,
but the chain here is David Pecker
makes contact with Donald Trump,
who essentially hands him off
to Michael Cohen says
Cohen's going to handle
is you to go and do your thing.
I'll have Michael Cohen call you
back in a few days.
One of the things, though,
that David Pecker said today
and correct me
if I'm wrong on the stand, was that
according to him,
Trump was very detail oriented
and actually paid attention
to a lot of the mundane details
of this transaction.
He's not saying that
he was aware
that the line item was a legal fee, but
he's indicating
Trump was very much involved in this.
And what you just read,
John, also backs that up.
Then,
according to Cohen and Bill
Cohen will probably testify,
is that Donald
Trump is breathing down his neck
very closely
following the Karen McDougal.
He talked about how he would sit
with Trump in Trump Tower
on the 26th floor
and Trump's
assistant at the time
would come in and bring him
invoices and checks,
which I thought was
a really notable moment
I have that I could read
and Donald Trump would sign it.
I can read that.
This is from page 1002 of the transcript
signing checks. Stein Glass.
Joshua Stein Glass.
The prosecutor asks,
Did you have occasion over the years
to observe Mr.
Trump's business practices?
Pecker responds Yes.
Josh Stein Glass asks, In what context?
Pecker responds, I was
I had a meeting with Mr.
Trump in his office,
and when I was there,
his assistant, Rona,
brought in a batch of invoices
and checks to sign.
And I observed Mr.
Trump and I notice that he reviewed
the invoice and looked at the check,
and then he would
he was signing them
that tells you a couple of things.
First of all, it's very important that
the prosecution
establish that Donald Trump
signed, knew
what knew
what the corporate records were.
That's what this whole case is about.
The other thing that tells you
is that
David Pecker is not on Team Trump.
He didn't have to give
that kind of testimony.
That was
he was burying Donald Trump with that,
you know, when I interviewed Jeffrey.
Well,
I agree with you, but I'll tell you why.
I'll tell you one good reason,
because jaws in 2000
shark moves on the
Remora fish is all alone.
Well, okay.
I agree with.
But you could also be anything
you could have figured out
a way to charge him
But but wait a
you know,
did David pick horse before the cart?
I mean, this is witness number one.
He has even been cross-examined, yet
there is still a lot of road
love to go here.
And I think what they're
establishing, though,
is that Trump paid
very close attention to all.
We all know his finances.
He doesn't part easily with his money.
I was looking Karen
McDougal wrote a lot down
about her
relationship with Trump
when they were having
this alleged affair, which Trump denies.
But she wrote down
that Trump was so careful with his money,
he was so worried about
creating a paper trail
of their relationship
that she would book her travel
when they would meet
places and Trump would reimburse.
I mean, let's just
step back for a second.
If a guy, a married guy
is having an affair and and having sex
allegedly with a porn star
and it's starting to unravel,
he's going to pay very close attention,
I would imagine,
to every detail
of how this is being hushed up.
I mean, is this not just
this is not something you would do?
I don't care
if he's the top
executive of whatever you would think.
This is actually something
I would actually want to
know all the details.
And that's I guess this
he wanted to know.
He wanted he he says at one point
to Michael Cohen,
this has to be paid in cash, doesn't he?
I mean, at one point he's
talking about this
needing to be done in cash.
That's not a tape
that Michael Cohen
that we're going to hear
soon in this trial,
Michael Cohen
secretly recorded Donald Trump
a shady move. By the way.
I asked
I four
defense lawyers
in the green room with me today.
I said,
have you ever
even thought about
this is absolutely something
that threatens your marriage?
Are you going to leave it up to
Michael Cohen?
Well,
the guy can go every detail
without checking, like being an overlord.
That's what a commonsense,
rational person would do.
But the tape
that we're talking about here
that Michael Cohen makes up,
Donald Trump
actually suggests Donald Trump is like
just get it done.
He's not in the weeds
In fact, at one point,
Michael Cohen says, no, no, no, no, no,
I got it.
Alan and I are going to handle you.
Don't worry about it.
We're going to pay him.
You don't worry about the how and the
how is the crime.
So when that tape comes up, that's going
be a problem. For the prosecution.
I also think that,
you know, part of the thing
about Trump
paying attention to details is more to
what Caitlin was saying,
which is the amount of money,
even for a very rich person
like Donald Trump,
he didn't really want to part ways
with $150,000
for Karen McDougal, 130 for Stormy.
He did not want to part ways
with that money.
He has
to pay his attorney
he tried to get out of it
once the election was over.
So it's really about
the dollars here
that was concerning to him.