In Trump probe, key witness returns, no indictment vote yet

NEW YORK — A pivotal figure in the hush money payment investigation of Donald Trump returned on Monday to the building where a grand jury has been meeting for months, a repeat appearance suggesting his testimony could be key as prosecutors push toward potential criminal charges.

There was still no word on when the panel might vote on a possible indictment of the former president.

David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend and the former chief executive of the parent company of The National Enquirer, was back as the grand jury heard testimony in the probe for the first time since last Monday, when a witness favorable to the ex-president appeared.

The grand jury is now back on the Trump matter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss secretive proceedings. The ex-president is being investigated over payments during his 2016 campaign to two women who alleged affairs or sexual encounters with him.

Trump denies being involved with either of the women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, and claims he’s the victim of “extortion.”

Among the witnesses the grand jury has already heard from is Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer who has said he orchestrated the payoffs. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges arising from the payments and has become a potentially major witness for state prosecutors.

Pecker is seen as relevant to the investigation because his company, American Media Inc., secretly assisted Trump’s campaign by paying $150,000 to McDougal in August 2016 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump. The company then suppressed McDougal’s story until after the election, a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

Cohen made recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump spoke about the arrangement to pay McDougal through the tabloid publisher.

At one point in the recording, Cohen told Trump, “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David,” a reference to Pecker.

Cohen told Trump that he had already spoken with the Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, on “how to set the whole thing up.”

Trump then said: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”