and he told the jury, michael cohen, a key prosecution witness, has "an obsession with getting trump, he cannot be trusted." but prosecutors insist the alleged criminal conspiracy to protect trump involved others including their first witness, david pecker, the former "national enquirer" publisher who once called trump a personal friend. as pecker took the stand, trump leaned forward, arms crossed, an angry look on his face. pecker has acknowledged buying negative stories about the candidate only to bury them, a practice known as catch-and-kill. on the stand, pecker was blunt, "we used checkbook journalism. we paid for stories." he is testifying under a subpoena, having cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges himself. he was only on the stand for a few minutes today, but he'll be back tomorrow. leaving court, trump, who denies the affair with daniels, tried to downplay the case against him. >> it's a case as to bookkeeping, which is a very minor thing in terms of the law. >> reporter: so, david, pecker is back tomorrow, david, but there will be arguments whether trump violated th