The crimes come out....

The genesis of the ‘catch and kill’ scheme: Pecker describes key Trump Tower meeting

Pecker testified he told Trump: “If I hear about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen.”

ERICA ORDEN

David Pecker detailed a key moment in what prosecutors have described as the beginning of Trump’s “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election: an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower in which Pecker, Trump and Michael Cohen allegedly hatched a "catch and kill" scheme to help Trump's presidential campaign.

At that meeting, Pecker said, he met with Trump and Cohen, while Trump aide Hope Hicks was “in and out” of the room. For 20 to 25 minutes, according to Pecker, the three men discussed how Pecker could help Trump become president.

“They asked me what can I do and what my magazines can do to help the campaign,” Pecker said.

“I said what I would do is, I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents,” Pecker said.

“And then I said ... I would be your eyes and ears,” Pecker said, explaining that he conveyed to Trump that “anything that I hear in the marketplace, if I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen ... and then he would be able to get them killed in another magazine ... or somebody would have to purchase them.”

Asked how the possibility of women selling stories came up, Pecker suggested he broached the subject.

“I was the person that thought that there would be a lot of women that would come out to try to sell their stories, because Mr. Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women,” Pecker said. “And it was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone is running for public office like this, that it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”