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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Martin Pengelly in Washington

Who is David Pecker, a key witness in Trump’s criminal hush-money trial?

Donald Trump David Pecker the National Enquirer United States Enquirer Stormy Daniels Michael Cohen AMI
a man speaks into a microphone
David Pecker in New York on 31 January 2014. Photograph: Marion Curtis/AP

It is, alas, an urban myth that MSNBC once used an on-screen chyron to say “Trump worried about Pecker leaking”. But like other famous doctored images, it continues to flourish on the internet, such is the bizarre (and more than slightly mucky) story of David Pecker, Trump and the tabloidization of US politics.

As the longtime chief executive of American Media Inc, Pecker developed a symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and the National Enquirer, an AMI tabloid specialising in salacious scandal.

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