Pecker says arrangement supporting Trump wasn't unusual
Trump attorney Emil Bove, continuing his cross-examination of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, returned to a theme he emphasized yesterday: that the National Enquirer's supportive arrangement with Trump was not unique, but rather "standard operating procedure."
Bove is seeking to establish that negative stories about Donald Trump's political opponents in the National Enquirer largely involved "information that was already in the public domain" -- recycled narratives and reporting found in other outlets.
"There wasn't much new content in those stories, was there?" Bove asked Pecker.
"Yes," Pecker said.
"It was a business decision that it was good for the National Enquirer to run those stories," Bove said, adding that, as a business model, it was "quick, efficient, and cost-effective" -- to which Pecker agreed.
Bove cited stories about Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson as examples.