David Pecker, former publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, has admitted his role in making sure Donald Trump emerged president of the United States in 2016, asserting he launched a “catch and kill” scheme to bury articles that cast Mr Trump in bad light as a way of retaining voters’ confidence in his candidacy.

Testifying before 12 jurors in Manhattan on Tuesday, Mr Pecker said he made himself valuable to Mr Trump by suppressing articles that could have otherwise dealt a blow to his presidential ambition, if left published.

Citing an instance, the ex-tabloid publisher said he doled out $30,000 to Dino Sajudin, who worked as a doorman for Mr Trump, to hush claims that the then-candidate had a love child with his housekeeper, a claim that investigations determined to be false.

Had the claims not turned out false, Mr Pecker said he would have published the story after Mr Trump got into office and that it would have been a big boost for the tabloid.

“If the story came back true, I would’ve published the story shortly after it was verified … after the election,” VOA cited Mr Pecker as saying in his testimony.

Still, Mr Pecker explained that his relationship with Mr Trump was mutually beneficial in that as he helped Mr Trump bury incriminating articles in the “catch and kill” scheme, he shielded Mr Trump from public scrutiny, endearing him to voters and his tabloid in turn made money by publishing damning articles about Mr Trump’s opponents, selling out so many copies.

He said Mr Trump’s then fixer, David Cohen, told him that “the boss would be very pleased” if he stopped the love child story from getting out.

“I would be your eyes and ears,” Politico cited Mr Pecker as saying to Mr Trump years ago. “Anything that I hear in the marketplace, if I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen.”

Mr Trump is being criminally tried for allegedly paying hush money to Mr Sajudin and two other women, including Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, to keep secret details of their intimate affair.