Thursday, April 25, 2024

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1/ Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker returned to the stand on the seventh day of Trump’s election interference trial involving falsified business records. Pecker testified that he spoke with Trump and Michael Cohen about paying Karen McDougal $150,000 to keep her story of an affair with Trump quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign,” Pecker said. Cohen told Pecker should pay the fee to kill the story, which prompted him to ask who would reimburse him. Cohen allegedly told Pecker: “Don’t worry. The boss will take care of you” which Pecker said he took to mean either Trump or the Trump Organization would pay him back. Pecker also testified that he knew that Cohen didn’t have the authorization “to buy, to acquire or spend any money” without Trump’s prior approval. The payment to McDougal was disguised as a deal for her to write a health and fitness column and appear on magazine covers, which Pecker acknowledged was unlawful. Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made by Michael Cohen. (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / NBC News / CNN / ABC News / USA Today)

2/ The Supreme Court appeared likely to reject Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution for trying to subvert the 2020 election, but appeared open to granting some level of immunity to former presidents for crimes committed while in office. Trump’s lawyers argued that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election were “official acts” taken in office, but did concede that some of the alleged conduct supporting the criminal charges against Trump were private. Chief Justice John Roberts raised the prospect of returning the case to the appeals court to distinguish between Trump’s official acts as president and his private ones, a result that could jeopardize the ability to hold a trial before the November election. “I’m not focused on the here and now of this case,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. “I’m very concerned about the future.” Justice Neil Gorsuch added: “I’m not as concerned about this case so much as a future one. We’re writing a rule for the ages.” Justice Samuel Alito also said he didn’t want to talk about the “particular facts,” but rather to talk “in the abstract.” Instead, Alito suggested an alternate reality in which granting immunity “is required for the functioning of a stable democratic society” because it gives an incumbent president to “leave office peacefully” after losing an election. Alito explained: “If an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the president is going to be able to go off into a peaceful retirement but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, meanwhile, said: “The most powerful person in the world could go into office knowing that there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes. What disincentive is ther...

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