National Enquirers David Pecker testifies in Trump trial: 5 takeaways [Video]

Former President Trump’s trial was dominated on Tuesday by the testimony of former magazine executive David Pecker.

Pecker was previously the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid. In that role, he engaged in the unusual practice of “catch and kill” — in essence securing the rights to publish a story in order to quash it.

Pecker testified he did this to assist Trump.

His testimony was part of the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The underlying events relate to a payment of $130,000 to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The money was intended to stop Daniels from going public with her allegation that she had a sexual encounter with Trump roughly a decade previously.

The payment to Daniels was made by Trump’s then-attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Later, legal retainer payments totaling $420,000 were made from Trump’s business …