‘Catch and kill’ to be described to jurors in Trump’s hush money trial

The case is the first criminal trial of a former American president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump walks in Manhattan state court in New York, Monday, April 23, 2024. (Brendan McDermid/Pool Photo via AP)

A longtime tabloid publisher was expected to tell jurors about his efforts to help Donald Trump stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 election campaign as testimony resumes in the historic hush money trial of the former president.

David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher who prosecutors say worked with Trump and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen on a strategy called “catch and kill” to buy up and then spike negative stories, testified briefly on Monday and will be back on the stand on Tuesday in the Manhattan trial.