The trial in Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s falsified business records case against Donald Trump began on Tuesday with witness David Pecker, former chairman of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, taking the stand for a second day. Pecker began his testimony on Monday afternoon, speaking for less than 30 minutes before the court broke for the day.
During his testimony, Pecker said that he paid a doorman for a story about an alleged out-of-wedlock child Trump had to prevent it from being published. "We discovered that it was absolutely, 1000% untrue," Pecker said, according to Reuters.
Pecker was also questioned on the origins of a photo and story allegedly showing Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, with Lee Harvey Oswald. The two were allegedly in New Orleans in 1963 handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets, not long before Oswald would go on to assassinate President John F Kennedy, according to NBC News. Cruz at the time was a 2016 Republican primary candidate.
"We mashed the photos and the different pictures with Lee Harvey Oswald. And mashed the two together. And that’s how that story was prepared — created I would say," Pecker testified. He also testified that Michael Cohen would send him a piece about Cruz, for example, and the National Enquirer "would embellish it from there."
