Media mogul David Pecker is the first witness in the trial against Donald Trump. It’s about smear campaigns against political opponents of the ex-president. Shortly afterwards, during the trial, the judge lost patience with the defense.
What David Pecker told the twelve members of the jury, the judge, the public prosecutor and the journalists should never have been known to anyone – at least if Donald Trump had his way. It’s a story about men, power and money.
Pecker, now 72, became one of the country’s most important publishers at the end of the 1990s. He becomes CEO and publisher of “American Media Inc.”, or AMI for short, a media company that will make a lot of money with tabloid magazines. Pecker also takes on publishing responsibility for titles such as the Star, Sun and the National Enquirer. The front pages of the newspapers contain stories that the whole country is talking about, or rather, gossiping about.