National Enquirer boss David Pecker reveals Trump offered to take DNA test to debunk false love child claims and Michael Cohen’s ‘agitated’ response when Karen McDougal made affair accusations

Donald Trump offered to take a DNA test to refute a false story that he had fathered a “love child” with a Trump Tower maid, his successful hush money trial heard.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who caught wind of the fake story, said it would have been the magazine’s biggest story “since Elvis Presley’s death” if it had been true.

Pecker, the first witness in the case, told how his magazine bought the story from a Trump Tower doorman for $30,000 as part of a scheme to prevent damaging allegations about Trump from being published.

Trump repeatedly shook his head and laughed as details of the story, which Pecker said turned out to be “1,000 percent false,” were revealed in court.

The court also heard how the tabloid warned Trump about allegations of an affair by Playboy model Karen McDougal.

In extensive testimony, Pecker explained how he had promised to “catch and kill” bad stories about Trump during the 2016 election campaign.

The tabloid chief told the court he had been Trump’s “eyes and ears” in seeking out claims from women who could harm his friend, who he called the “most eligible bachelor.”

After striking a deal with Trump, he also published negative stories about his rivals and opponents, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton.

Pecker is the first witness in Trump’s historic trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying company records.

That data relates to payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about claims of an alleged affair.

Trump, the first former president to face a criminal trial, shuffled papers and looked intently at Pecker as he testified just a few feet away.

Pecker described to the jury of five women and seven men an important meeting in August 2015 at Trump Tower.

It also included Trump’s “fixer” Michael Cohen and another aide, Hope Hicks, who was “in an out” of the meeting.

The publisher, who had been friends with Trump for decades, said he was asked what he could do for the campaign.

Pecker said he volunteered to publish positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his opponents.

He then told Trump, “I will be your eyes and ears” and detect anything I hear in the marketplace, anything negative about yourself, or about women selling stories.”

It was agreed that he would notify Cohen so that the rights to stories could be purchased and “they would not be published.”

Pecker said, “We used checkbook journalism and paid for stories.

“When someone runs for public office like this, it’s very common for these women to call a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

Prosecutor Josh Steinglass asked Pecker about the deal with former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sadujin.

In late 2015, Pecker said Howard received a tip about a story.

He said: ‘Dino was in the market selling a story that Donald Trump had fathered an illegitimate girl with a maid at Trump Tor and that the maid worked in his penthouse.’

At this, Trump shook his head repeatedly.

Pecker said he immediately called Cohen and gave him the names of the doorman and housekeeper.

Cohen told him the story was “absolutely untrue.”

Sajudin then signed an agreement giving them exclusive rights to the story.

Pecker said Cohen thanked him and said, “The boss will be very pleased.” The boss would be Donald Trump.”

According to Pecker, Cohen said that “Mr. Trump would take a DNA test, he is German-Irish and this woman is Spanish and that is absolutely impossible.”

Pecker said, “I told Michael Cohen that won’t be necessary, we will look into the story.”

The National Enquirer hired a private investigator and determined it was “absolutely 1,000% false.”

But Pecker said they paid for it because it would have been “very embarrassing to the campaign if it ended up in another publication or media outlet.”

He said, “I bought the story. If the story were true and I published it, it would probably be the biggest National Enquirer sale since Elvis Presley’s death.”

Trump laughed after the mention of Elvis.

Pecker said if the story had been true, he would have waited until after the 2016 election to publish it.

Pecker also described the case of Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, who he learned had offers from media organizations to buy her story about an affair with Trump.

The National Enquirer interviewed McDougal and Pecker kept Cohen informed.

Cohen suggested they speak through the encrypted Signal app instead of a landline.

Pecker also received a call from Trump and told the presidential candidate to buy the story, but Trump said, “I don’t buy stories.”

The tabloid publisher said Cohen began to become “very agitated,” as if he was “getting a lot of pressure” to obtain details about the Enquirer interview with McDougal.

Pecker said, “He kept calling and each time he seemed more worried. I assumed he had a conversation with Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump asked Michael Cohen, ‘Have we heard anything?’

Pecker said he told Cohen to “relax.”

He also said he told National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard that the agreement, which was not written down, was “highly confidential.”

“I’ve told every story there is about Donald Trump, his family, the election, whatever it is. I want you to go through the stories,” Pecker said. “I want you to bring them to me. We need to speak to Michael Cohen. You call him, or I, and we tell him what the stories are.’

Pecker said Cohen would call him and say “we would like you to publish a negative article” about a rival.

He told the court, “Let’s say it’s about Ted Cruz. He sent me information about Ted Cruz, or Ben Carson, or Marco Rubio, and that was the basis of our story. From there we would embellish it.”

Pecker was asked by the prosecutor who he thought Cohen meant by “we.”

He said, “I just assumed he was talking to Mr. Trump.”

The court was shown headlines from National Enquirer, including “Clumsy surgeon Ben Carson left a sponge in patient’s brain” and “Ted Cruz shamed by porn star” and “Perv Ted Cruz caught cheating.”

Another headline read: ‘Donald Trump insults Ted Cruz’s father for photo with JFK Assassin’

Pecker confirmed that Carson and Cruz had risen in the polls when the stories were published.

He said, “After the Republican debates, and based on some of the success that some of the candidates had, I got a call from Michael Cohen and he told me which candidate and which direction we should go. That’s the process.

“We also sent him the PDFs of the story before it was published so he could see where we were going.

“He would comment on it. We would add content based on the information Michael Cohen had.

Pecker, 72, told the jury that he has known Trump since the 1980s and once worked with him on a magazine called “Trump Style.”

He said Trump was a fixture on the front pages of the National Enquirer, and a survey found that 80 percent of the magazine’s readers said they would support him if he ran for president.

He described Trump’s approach to money as “very prudent and very frugal” and called him a “micromanager” in business.

Prosecutors showed an email from Cohen inviting Pecker to the launch of Trump’s 2015 campaign.

“No one deserves to be there more than you,” Cohen wrote.