The first witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial has already established a key component of the case that's necessary to convict the former president, according to a legal expert.
David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, told the jury that he sought out damaging stories about his friend ahead of the 2016 election and paid to keep them from publication, and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin told "Morning Joe" that he had helped prosecutors demonstrate that Trump knew about the scheme and intended for it to help his campaign.
"Pecker had a lot of information that we didn't quite know that he would have," Rubin said. "Namely, he put himself at multiple conversations either with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen or with Donald Trump alone that help establish that Trump was a participant in the conspiracy and that he knew and intended the results of that conspiracy, which was to promote his own election by subverting the Karen McDougal story."
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"So nobody was expecting that David Pecker would come in and say, for example, 'I met with Trump alone in his Trump Tower office in January of 2017, he asked me how Karen McDougal was doing,' which was less about care of her welfare and more about, was she going to be quiet and compliant," Rubin added. "'Once I assured him he was fine, he said, I want to thank you for handling the McDougal situation, handling the doorman situation.' Donald Trump was so grateful, he let David Pecker essentially throw himself a White House dinner that summer, after which, as they're walking in the Rose Garden, Donald Trump resumes the same conversation. 'How is Karen? How is she doing?'"
More witnesses will testify against the ex-president, including his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, but Rubin said that Pecker had already established some of the elements that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt to secure a conviction of Trump for falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to commit another crime – in this case, to commit election fraud.
"All Donald Trump cared about was that David Pecker had an arrangement with Karen McDougal that allowed her to feel satisfied that she was getting something out of the deal," Rubin said. "It became clear through David Pecker's testimony that Donald Trump had the knowledge and intent that prosecutors not only want to establish but have to establish as part of their case."
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