The director of a communications company admitted that he published articles in favor of Donald Trump.

David Pecker, former chief executive of American Media Inc. (AMI), the social network that publishes the tabloid National Enquirer, admitted Tuesday that it published articles supporting Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign.

The editorial director testified as a witness at the trial of the former North American president in New York.

Pecker, Trump and the tycoon’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen met in August 2015, during which they reached an agreement that the director would buy any story that might harm his image during the campaign, or publish articles in his favor against others . candidates such as Republican Ted Cruz or Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“Michael Cohen called me and said, ‘We’d like you to publish a negative article about Ted Cruz,’” Pecker said during a deposition, referring to the then-Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator.

As for Clinton, he said Trump was “satisfied” when he suggested publishing negative articles about the Democratic presidential candidate, adding that such articles “are a big seller” in the newspaper.

Pecker noted that the agreement he reached with Trump was not put into writing because it was “between friends.”

“I think it was mutually beneficial. It helped the campaign and it also helped me,” he admitted, according to CNN.

Pecker explained that the tabloid’s editor-in-chief Dylan Howard told him in June 2016 the story of Playboy model Karen McDougal, who allegedly had an extramarital affair with Trump and whom he paid about $150,000 for her silence.

Cohen’s reaction upon learning of this was to insist that the report was “absolutely false.”

A former AMI executive said that whenever Cohen called him to talk about McDougal (often calling twice a day), he seemed “more anxious,” as if he was under pressure.

He explained that the newspaper decided to buy the story of Dino Sadyudin, a former Trump Organization doorman who claimed that the tycoon had an illegitimate child, because “it would be very embarrassing” if it became known during the election campaign, despite the fact that that he knew the story was “a thousand percent false.”

A confidentiality agreement ensured that this story would not be filtered. “By paying $30,000, you received complete exclusivity and the opportunity to publish the article or not,” he noted.

Pecker further stated that, at Cohen’s request, he delayed publication of this story until after the 2016 presidential election.