Donald Trump offered to take a DNA test to disprove a salacious rumor that he impregnated a Trump Tower employee, a witness told the jury in Trump's Stormy Daniels trial Tuesday.
The testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, the first witness for prosecutor Alvin Bragg, blew a large hole in the state's narrative about a sinister "catch and kill" scheme to influence the 2016 election.
Pecker said he paid a doorman $30,000 for the rights to the story about Trump fathering a baby out of wedlock - and that the story was found to be false.
Pecker said he informed Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen about the rumor, who called it "impossible" and volunteered that Trump was willing to take a DNA test.
"He’s German-Irish and this woman is Hispanic and it’s absolutely impossible," Cohen told Pecker.
Pecker told Cohen a DNA test would not be necessary, and further vetting found the story was false. That admission did not deter prosecutors from pushing their narrative about a sinister scheme to sway the 2016 election.
"Why are you paying $30,000 for an untrue story?" prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.
"Because if the story got out to another publication, it would have been embarrassing for the campaign," Pecker said.
"So this was a way to lock it up?" Steinglass asked.
"That's correct," Pecker responded.
The trial centers on a $130,000 payment that Cohen made out to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has long denied having an affair with Daniels, and his lawyers say he was perfectly within his rights to want her story out of the press to protect his family and reputation.
Pecker's testimony shows that Trump had good reason to be proactive about guarding his reputation from people with ulterior motives - like the doorman who pocketed $30,000 to keep quiet about something that never happened.
In short, Bragg's whole narrative about a nefarious scheme to interfere in the election is off to a bumpy start. The state's own witness admits that Trump wanted to "catch and kill" a story that was false, and Trump was so confident of this that he was willing to submit DNA evidence.
Even if it were true, it isn't a crime for Trump, or anybody, to want to suppress bad publicity. Bragg is quickly showing the world what a sham this case really is.
