New York  –  Donald Trump’s defense team vied to probe holes in a key witness’s recollection during the former president’s criminal trial Thursday, after jurors heard days of testimony regarding a plot to kill salacious stories that could have thwarted the Republican’s 2016 White House bid. Former tabloid publisher David Pecker has been on the stand for three days in the trial of Trump, whom prosecutors accuse of falsifying business records to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter that could have derailed his 2016 campaign.

He is the first former US head of state to face criminal charges. The high-stakes trial demands Trump report to the drafty Manhattan courtroom multiple times a week, less than seven months before his likely election rematch with President Joe Biden. Prosecutors say Trump engaged in “election fraud” by having his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen make a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.

The latest testimony from 72-year-old Pecker — whose outlets included the National Enquirer — points to a hush money payment to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, that was a precursor to the Daniels saga.

“I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself and I wanted also to protect Donald Trump,” Pecker nonchalantly told jurors, providing a clear statement that his efforts with the candidate and Cohen were geared at influencing the presidential election — which eventually saw the real estate mogul take the White House over Hillary Clinton.

As he began the defense’s cross-examination, Emil Bove sought to ruffle Pecker by noting timeline inconsistencies, while also casting the “catch and kill” tactics described by prosecutors as “business as usual.”

Cross-examination will continue Friday.