Ex-National Enquirer boss David Pecker reveals how much he spent buying and killing stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods at Donald Trump hush money trial
David Pecker described his “catch and kill” operations for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods and Mark Wahlberg at Donald Trump’s hush money trial Thursday. The former National Enquirer honcho said shortly after Schwarzenegger announced his run for California governor in 2003 more than 30 women came forward to the magazine claiming affairs or sexual harassment against the actor, who was then-married to Maria Shriver.Silver-haired Pecker, 72, testified he spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” buying up the negative stories for the bodybuilder-turned movie star, who he was working on a magazine deal with for his company, American Media Inc.
[AMI], at the time.“The agreement I had with Arnold was, I would call him and advise him of any stories that were out there.And I ended up acquiring and buying them for a period of time,” he said.Schwarzenegger, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, went on to be elected and served as governor from 2003 to 2011.After Schwarzenegger took office, one of women who Pecker had purchased a story from ended up approaching to the Los Angeles Times, which published it.
When Schwarzenegger was questioned by reporters about the story, he told them to “ask my friend David Pecker.”The episode was “very embarrassing to me and the company,” Pecker testified.Pecker has been giving evidence about how he bought up stories on Trump in the run up to the 2016 presidential election.Prosecutors charge Trump tried to influence the outcome of the election by working with Pecker and his lawyer Michael Cohen to buy up negative stories about him and that he then falsified business records to conceal those payments.During cross examination by Trump’s lawyers, Pecker said he’d been engaged in the practice of buying up people’s stories but not publishing them for decades.He said he purchased photos of golf icon Woods meeting a woman in a Florida parking lot in 2007 — then used the photo as leverage to get him to appea...