Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Co-Conspirator SCREWS HIM to HIS FACE at Trial

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

David Pecker the lead road map witness for the Manhattan DA is absolutely killing Trump with his testimony today, as he “cashes all the checks” that the prosecution wrote to the jury in their opening statement yesterday. Michael Popok explains the impact of Pecker’s testimony on the jury of him confessing that he entered into a criminal conspiracy with Trump and Michael Cohen to help the 2016 Trump campaign by buying negative “women stories” against Trump. Get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to https://shopbeam.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF at checkout! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Popak with a Trump on trial update. There's no other way to put this. David Pecker is killing Donald Trump on the stand today. His testimony that's fitting like a glove with the prosecutor's promises to the jury in their opening statement. Those were checks the prosecutors wrote that now David Pecker is cashing all against Donald Trump. Let me explain it for you right now in this hot take and breakdown. David Pecker, the lead witness, the first witness chosen by the prosecution being led through his testimony by Josh Steinglass of the Manhattan DA's office. They chose Pecker for a reason. And it wasn't just to get under Donald Trump's skin, although it's obvious that that's happening by courtroom watchers in the

room. David Pecker is the closest thing we have to a roadmap witness. As a trial lawyer, I'll tell you, giving the jury as witness number one, a roadmap witness to explain the prosecution's theory of the case, to explain the themes, to knit and bind together all of the evidence is oh so important. Not every case has one. Sometimes you have to kind of knit one together from various witnesses. But David Pecker, who was there at the heart of the original agreement between friends, as David Pecker testified, the 25-minute now-faithful meeting in Trump Tower back in 2015 in which they created the Catch and Kill program or as David Pecker said, much to the I would think to the chagrin of the jury, especially the women on the jury, this was the women's selling

stories plan that benefited not the National Enquirer for which David Pecker was the publisher. They didn't do it because they were making money off selling their tabloid down at the supermarket. They did it to help the Trump campaign. David Pecker made that point of nothing. There's no other takeaway from the jury of what David Pecker says today in his testimony, in his roadmap, matching point by point the milestones

in the prosecutor's case as presented in the opening statement, which of course gives newfound credibility and wind at the sail of the prosecution against Donald Trump. If nothing else is taken away from it, it's that there is a direct link between the campaign, the benefiting the campaign by trying to catch and kill stories of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump and making sure it never sees the light of day. And because that's a campaign benefit, there you've got the second crime necessary to ratchet up the felony, the misdemeanor in New York for business record fraud into a felony. It

converts it by a feat of alchemy from misdemeanor to felony when you have another crime, the second crime being benefiting the campaign, election interference, slash improper campaign contributions. And the heart of that, the linchpin of that testimony for David Pecker is Michael Cohen, smart again by the prosecutors. They already told the jury that Michael Cohen is going to be a witness, that he's got some challenges as a witness because of his past, because of some crimes that he committed related to the Stormy Daniels affair, but they're now working to rehabilitate and bolster Michael Cohen's testimony on these particular points by having somebody like David Pecker up there

corroborating point for point the things that Michael Cohen is about to tell them. Michael Cohen's probably weeks away from taking the stand, I would estimate. Before he even takes the stand, there'll be lots of this roadwork being done, this spade work being done by the prosecutor to prepare for the moment when Michael Cohen takes the stand. He'll already be having been corroborated by David Pecker. Pecker said Cohen, although not officially with the campaign for Donald Trump and always said he wasn't officially with the campaign, was obviously doing the campaign's bidding. He told David Pecker, remember, sworn under oath today, telling the jury in a very conversational style and tone. Credit and hats off to Josh Steinglass from

the Manhattan DA's office. He's having a cup of coffee with Pecker today, which I love when I'm cross-examining or examining a witness. They're just going out in the woods for a cup of coffee here in front of the jury. It's very conversational, and he's getting a lot out of David Pecker, who is not on guard, who is not having his teeth pulled and giving his testimony. He's giving it willingly. I mean, it helps the fact that he was very close to getting prosecuted, and his company entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the Manhattan DA in the past, but leave that for another day. Pecker said Cohen would call after events in the campaign like the debate in 2016, or the Republican nomination process, where they were trying to pick a candidate in 2016 and instruct David Pecker as a friend of Donald Trump, just close friends, as Pecker said,

to put bad stories, plant bad stories about Donald Trump, just close friends, as Becker said, to put bad stories, plant bad stories about Donald Trump's political opponents. That's the exact same thing we've seen him do against Joe Biden, but he was doing it then against Ted Cruz trying to plant a story in the National Enquirer that Ted Cruz's father was involved with the assassination of JFK. And then Donald Trump, who's got a history of planting stories first and then reacting to them in his campaign as if he had just heard it for the first time, even though he's the one that planted the story, he'd have Michael Cohen plant the story against Ted

Cruz. Then the National Enquirer would report the story. It's not really reporting. They would make up and publish the story. And then Donald Trump would react to the story as if he'd never heard it before. Right? We've seen that before. Look, Cindy Adams, who runs page six, the gossip column on the New York Post, forever,

has already let it be known that Donald Trump, back when he was a 30, 40-year-old bachelor running around New York, would frequently call her, disguise his voice as if he was somebody else in order to plant a positive story about Donald Trump. So this is his MO. He was doing this in his 30s and 40s. And now Pecker says he ties Michael Cohen directly to the campaign. Now he says, well, maybe Michael Cohen was doing it as a freelancer. Really? Michael Cohen just decided one day he was going to help Donald Trump out in the campaign? No.

He had Trump wanted Cohen to call, this is obvious, obvious that the jury will conclude that Trump had Cohen call Pecker to plant a negative story about somebody and then use that as part to benefit the campaign. And Pecker already testified that none of these stories helped the National Enquirer and their circulation and their sales. It was all done. He had to concede for the campaign. Proper sleep can increase focus, boost energy, and improve your mood. Introducing Beam's Dream Powder, a science-backed healthy hot cocoa for sleep. If you know me, you know that dream has been a game changer for my sleep. And boy do I need

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and use code legal AF for up to 40% off. Now the moment that was interesting here, and I have to wonder how it landed on the jury's ears, especially the five women in that jury box, is when he blithfully called it the whole program of catch and kill women selling stories as almost, you know, as you can see a misogynistic old fashioned way of talking about it as if women were lying about Donald Trump, about sexual misconduct. I think we're beyond that with the Access Hollywood

release of the hot mic moment of Donald Trump admitting that he would sexually assault women and then get away with it as a celebrity. The fact that Donald Trump has been a judge to be a technically a rapist in New York in the E. Jean Carroll case. We're beyond women selling quote unquote stories, but you see the vocabulary that was used there. The other benefit so far of David Pecker's,

you know, three quarters of a day on the stand is that he's confirmed everything that the prosecutors have said in their opening. He's cashing the checks that the prosecutors have written time and time again. The Trump Tower conspiracy, the TTC, as the prosecutors called it, the Trump Tower conspiracy. There's only three parts of it. Two, we're going to testify in front of the jury, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, and you know they're going to line up fact for fact.

And Pecker said this was just good friends getting together and entering into an informal agreement, not reduced to writing. Except he did admit that he went back to the owners of the National Enquirer and other people and told them this is a top secret agreement and it was an agreement, an agreement it was, an agreement to help the campaign at every turn through the Catch and Kill program. And then Pecker, of course, is going to testify about the operation of the Catch and

Kill program. We already know his testimony. There was basically three targets of the Catch and Kill program, three that got paid through Michael Cohen and Donald Trump and some by David Becker. A doorman who will not be testifying according to the prosecutors, they don't need him, who got paid $30,000. He was the test case because he had a story he was going to go to the papers with about a love child, no that's a bad term, about a child out of wedlock that Donald Trump fathered with somebody that worked at one of the Trump Tower buildings, one of the Trump buildings for which the doorman worked.

Paid him $30,000, entered into a non-disclosure agreement. That story never saw the light of day until years later. Second test run that Pecker is going to testify about, Karen McDougal, playboy playmate. That was an affair that Donald Trump had while Melania was pregnant with one of the children, I think Barron, in which she was paid $150,000 directly by the National Enquirer through David Pecker. Not because, again, not because it benefited the National Enquirer, because they were trying to benefit Donald Trump and he was supposed to get reimbursed. And they paid her, she entered a non-disclosure agreement about her affair and her sexual

relations with Donald Trump, and that story never saw the light of day. Sure, she got a fitness column in the National Enquirer. You know, when I think National Enquirer, I think fitness columns, right? Playboy playmates. That's why she was in there. And then she got her $150,000 because Donald Trump didn't reimburse Pecker. He got stiffed. Sorry. How to say it.

Then the third story was about 20 days before the election. Talk about an October surprise. This was almost a November surprise at 2016 with Stormy Daniels. And that's when Trump told Michael Cohen, pay her off, pay her in cash. Michael Cohen said, no, we can't do it in cash. We got to do it by checks. There's audio recordings of this that Michael Cohen secretly made. And they had to pay it because Pecker wouldn't pay.

He wouldn't lay out the money for Donald Trump. He got screwed already. So they had to do it through Michael Cohen and pay and make it look like a legal service, a legal fee, a bonus to Michael Cohen when it was really just a payoff to Stormy Daniels. That's the books and records fraud to benefit the campaign. That's the second crime for the felony. Look how David Pecker is killing Donald Trump slowly Now I've seen reporting including the by the one of the court sketch artists that Donald Trump is doing something

She's never seen in the courtroom to show that he's bored. I guess Oh ho hum or he's really falling asleep He puts his head back Closes his eyes and ignores bad testimony eyes and ignores bad testimony. Well then if that's the case, then his head must have been straight up and eyes fully shut for David Pecker because this guy is killing him. The lawyers know that for Donald Trump. Even if Donald Trump wants to act like, you know, false bravado whistling past the graveyard, nothing to see here.

There's something to see here and the juries that wrapped attention as we predicted. They are taking notes. They know that David Pecker is an important witness. They know he's the roadmap witness that binds it all together like glue the prosecution's case and they are listening and they are listening and taking notes. And as I've said before as a trial lawyer, I'll tell you one thing about the American jury system. They can smell a fraud a mile away, they can smell inauthenticity a mile away, they don't like to be patronized, they got a job to do, and they are making decisions right now about

the case. I've said this before, jury science tells us that juries after the opening and likely the first witness make their decision about who they're going to vote for in the case, whether to acquit or to convict. If you polled them now, which we're not allowed to do, and then you compared it to their final verdict and jury, despite four or five more weeks of testimony and evidence, it would match up.

They are making their decision now. Donald Trump acts like they're not. He only wakes up when there's cross-examination or something his lawyers do. He thinks he's signaling to the jury that none of this bothers him. All he's doing is insulting the jury, insulting their intelligence, insulting the system for which they are now the compelled most important part, the jury. And they've got David Pecker leading them like a spirit guide through all of it. And you know who's racking up points with the jury in terms of credibility? The lawyers for the prosecution, Josh Steinglass, right? Matt Colangelo.

Alvin Bragg's not trying the case, but he's in the courtroom. Those lawyers get tremendous credibility with the jury. They get a reservoir of goodwill. They'll be able to use it throughout the trial. The signal to the jury is we can trust these lawyers. They're not misleading us. They're telling us the truth. They're giving us the facts that we need in order to make our decision.

That's a good thing. That's why when Todd Blanch is excoriated by Judge Murchon earlier today in the contempt hearing, and he said, you are losing credibility fast with this court, Mr. Blanch. And for Judge Judge Mashon to also tell Todd Blanchett another time earlier this morning when he asked him a question, he said, I'm gonna look at the timing of when your client violated the gag order with his social media and reposting. And Blanchett said, why does the timing matter? And he said, I asked the questions here, I'm the judge. This same blowing of credibility that the advocates are

enjoying in front of Judge Murchon is happening in front of the jury. And every time the prosecutors make good on a promise they made in the opening statement, like David Pecker, matching verbatim the promises made, that is a win for the prosecution, and they will be able to cash in those checks from the jury as this case proceeds.

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So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Hear ye, hear ye. Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a This is Michael Popak reporting.