Publisher tells Donald Trump hush-money trial he used tabloid to suppress unfavourable stories about ex-president

David Pecker says he told Trump in 2015 he would keep an eye out for people selling stories that might hurt him

Courtroom sketch shows Donald Trump watching as David Pecker is questioned. Photo: Reuters

Luc Cohen and Jack Queen

The first witness in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, testified yesterday that he used his supermarket tabloid to suppress stories that might have hurt Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.

Mr Pecker (72) testified in a New York court that the Enquirer paid two people who were peddling stories of Mr Trump’s sexual misbehaviour but never published them – a practice known as “catch and kill”.