Extract from ABC News
There's something deeply meta about a bunch of journalists sitting in court bashing out detailed notes on the behind-the-scenes workings of chequebook journalism.
Most of us not in that world know money changes hands – but $US10,000 ($15,306) without any questions being asked?
David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media (AMI), said that's how much leeway he gave the editors of his publications when he was boss.
If any "source" was asking for more for some salacious piece of celebrity news, it had to be okayed by him.
The revelation is certainly going to make me feel less bad next time I have to tell my editors I didn't manage to secure an interview with a key player in some huge story.
And it's just one of the many lessons given to jurors about the dark arts of tabloid journalism during Donald Trump's criminal trial.
Dubious headlines
The first week of evidence has centred on what was going on at Pecker's National Enquirer – a gossip rag which was sold at supermarket check-outs, specialising in celebrity scuttlebutt, true crime drama and chequebook scoops.
Before the 2016 election, it added another specialty: pumping up Trump, and tearing down anyone who threatened his path to the presidency.
Some of this was traditional tabloid campaigning — promoting Trump through headlines like how he'd be the "Healthiest Individual Ever Elected", and smearing rivals like "Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson" (accused of leaving a sponge in a patient's brain) and "Pervy Ted Cruz" (who was supposedly caught cheating with five mistresses).
Those dubious headlines were displayed in the courtroom this week – evidence, prosecutors argued, of the unusual relationship between Trump and the tabloid.
At the time — after Cruz suggested Trump was behind the five-mistresses story — Trump issued a statement that said: "I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer." And AMI told CNN "no-one influences" its reporting other than its reporters and editors.
But during his week in the witness stand, Pecker laid out a secret deal he made in 2015 with Trump and Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, that ceded extraordinary control over what went to print.
Bearing witness
It's fascinating to have a front-row seat in the first criminal trial of a US president, and a surreal insight into what it's like being in the proximity of a very, very important person.
There's a long wait and several security checks before you get into the courtroom, and once you're there, it's frequently locked down.
That means no-one is able to go in or out because the former president is on the move nearby.
Eating and drinking anything but water is strictly forbidden, and toilet breaks are infrequent and tightly controlled.
People desperately raise their hands like kids in a classroom to ask if they may use the toilet. Reporters scoff food in the line for the bathroom during breaks, because there's no time to both eat and relieve yourself.
"A bunch of us have been eating PB&Js [peanut butter and jam sandwiches] in the restroom because they won't let us eat in the hallways," I hear a male reporter confide to a colleague in the line to get into the court.
It's in that line I run into Lachlan Cartwright, an Australian reporter for whom the word "meta" probably doesn't go far enough.
He worked for Pecker as executive editor at the National Enquirer at the time. He now characterises the paper as a "criminal enterprise".
He's gone public about its inner workings — the front-page headlines Pecker would come up with that reporters would have to write stories to match, the photos of Hillary Clinton doctored to make her look terminally ill, and the now infamous "catch and kill" scheme that protected Trump from bad press.
Under the deal Pecker said he made with Trump and Cohen, Pecker would "catch" negative stories by buying the exclusive rights, and "kill" them by making sure they never got to print.
A key player in the scheme, according to Pecker's testimony and other evidence (as well as Cartwright's whistleblower accounts), was another Australian editor — Dylan Howard.
The former Channel Seven reporter was no stranger to controversy — he parted ways with Seven in 2008, shortly after reporting on unnamed AFL players' stolen private medical records.
The records, which revealed drug use, were said to have been found in a gutter by a member of the public, who sold them to Seven.
Victoria Police investigated, and two people pleaded guilty to "theft by finding". Howard was not charged.
Secret payments
Many of the "catch-and-kill" practices at the National Enquirer have been public knowledge for years, and they were most extensively detailed in journalist Ronan Farrow's 2019 book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators.
Howard criticised the book — which also detailed his work helping filmmaker Harvey Weinstein cover up stories — as "false and defamatory", and threatened Farrow and the book's publisher with legal action.
"I don't know what Ronan Farrow's smoking," Howard told a podcast after the book's release.
"I am not aware of any story about the president that has not been published," he added.
But Pecker, who was Howard's boss at the Enquirer, said Howard played a key role in buying former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal's story about an alleged months-long affair with Trump.
Howard spoke to McDougal and assessed her claims to be true before Pecker agreed to pay her $US150,000 for the story, and bury it. (Trump says the story is false.)
Pecker also said it was Howard who called him on a Saturday night in October 2016 and told him porn star Stormy Daniels was shopping her story about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which he denies).
"Woman wants 120k. Has offers from Mail and GMA [Good Morning America]," Howard said in a message to Pecker the next day. "I know the denials were made in the past – but this story is true."
This time, Pecker was reluctant to pay.
"I said we already paid $30,000 to the doorman, we already paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal," Pecker told the court. "I am not a bank."
Pecker instead advised Cohen to pay Daniels for the story and "take it off the market", which he ultimately did.
Howard later said in a text message, according to prosecutors: "At least if he wins, I'll be pardoned for electoral fraud."
Howard has returned to Australia and is unlikely to give evidence in the trial. The court has been told he has a spinal condition and cannot travel overseas. His lawyer, John Harris, said New York court rules meant witnesses in the case could not give evidence remotely.
Mr Harris told the ABC: "Dylan Howard has always fully cooperated with government inquiries regarding his former employer's relationship with Donald Trump, and the actions he was directed to do. But for Mr Howard’s inability to travel, he would have again, voluntarily, answered questions."
'We would embellish a little'
This week's evidence included more stunning claims about the control Trump's lawyer had over the Enquirer's content.
Pecker told the court Cohen would call him and request a negative article on a political rival. "He would send me information about Ted Cruz or about Ben Carson or Marco Rubio, and that was the basis of our story, and then we would embellish it a little," Pecker said.
He often provided Cohen with drafts of stories, so he could provide feedback.
The defence argues any dealings between Trump, Cohen and Pecker were nothing sinister. Questioned by Trump's lawyer Emil Bove on Friday, Pecker agreed the term "catch and kill" was not used during their 2015 meeting, nor was any "financial dimension" discussed.
Beyond the stories it "killed", there's no way of measuring how helpful the Enquirer ultimately was to Trump's campaign. Pecker told the court the relationship — which saw Trump give him inside information about The Apprentice and tip him off about events and parties he should attend — was "mutually beneficial".
Put simply, Trump stories boosted sales of the Enquirer, and Trump benefited from the publicity.
These days, the tabloid's readership is a small fraction of the millions it once was.
But Todd Belt, an expert in mass media and public opinion at George Washington University, says that's not necessarily the measure of its influence.
"As the National Enquirer has become less important as a publication, it still plays an important role in terms of what we call 'pack journalism' here in the United States," he said.
"It sets an agenda – it puts certain people front and centre in the public discourse, and then other publications will run after the same story."
Much of this evidence is secondary to the central felony allegations. The prosecution is trying to make the case that Trump not only paid hush money, but covered it up in a way that effectively amounts to election fraud.
Crucial to their case is the payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels after the Enquirer refused to, and Trump's knowledge and intentions relating to that payment. Trump's lawyers have argued it was personal and unrelated to his election campaign, but prosecutors argue it was campaign expenditure that shouldn't have been covered up.
Trial continues
Unless something unexpected happens, Trump will spend another month or more attending court.
All heads turn when he enters and exits the courtroom.
For a man of his age, he appears in the flesh imposing and strong, almost menacing, as he slowly makes his way to and from the defence bench.
Pecker's testimony takes us back to a time when he ruled in this town – a reality TV star, a tycoon who lived in a Midtown high-rise named after him.
The former publisher said he discussed with Trump the idea of him running for president.
A National Enquirer poll found 80 per cent of readers backed the idea of a Trump run.
Trump, he said, cited the poll when asked soon after about his intentions.
Was the tabloid king egging on the reality TV star in the hope of further boosting ratings?
Interest in his then-friend, he said, "skyrocketed" after he announced his campaign.
Trump has long been estranged from the city where he made his name and built his fortune.
As he sits day after day in a bleak Manhattan courtroom, I wonder if he ever wishes the results of that tabloid poll had come back differently.
Additional reporting: Brad Ryan
