The Latest | Witness testimony resumes as Trump’s hush money trial enters 15th day
NEW YORK (AP) — Witness testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money case resumed on Friday, it will cap a feverish week that saw porn actor Stormy Daniels take the stand, two failed attempts by the defense to have a mistrial declared, gag order sanctions and more.
Daniels’ sometimes graphic testimony over two days riveted jurors and drew upset from defense attorneys who decried it on Thursday as prejudicial and overly gratuitous. The prosecution defended its questioning and Daniels’ details of the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump and ultimately, the judge denied the requests for a mistrial — chiding the defense for not objecting more during testimony.
Trump has denied the two ever had sex.
Madeleine Westerhout, a former Trump White House aide, returned to the stand after beginning her testimony Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors are ramping up for star witness Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 payment to Daniels and later went to prison for orchestrating the payments and other charges.
The trial is in its 15th day. Prosecutors say Trump and two of his associates orchestrated a scheme to influence the 2016 election by purchasing and then burying stories that might damage his campaign.
Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records to cover up the hush money payments by recording them as legal expenses. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.
Currently:
— Trump is limited in what he can say about his court case. His GOP allies are showing up to help
— Here’s what happened on Thursday: Stormy Daniels’ testimony, a denied mistrial and an Oxford comma
— Hush money, catch and kill and more: Terms to know in Trump trial
— Key players: Who’s who at Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial
— The hush money case is just one of Trump’s legal cases. See the others here
Here’s the latest:
VERIZON EMPLOYEE NEXT ON THE STAND
AT&T records witness Daniel Dixon finished his testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial mid-morning Friday. Continuing the phone-records theme among records, Verizon worker Jennie Tomalin was called next and was expected to also testify to authenticate various phone records.
TRUMP BUSIES HIMSELF WITH PAPERS AS AT&T WITNESS TESTIFIES
As the AT&T witness testified Friday morning, Donald Trump was leaning over and reading various documents at the defense table, taking notes and piling them up in front of him.
At one point he showed some of the documents to his lawyer Todd Blanche, who was sitting next to his left. They appeared to be a printout of a news article.
Before entering the courtroom earlier in the day, Trump had read aloud from printouts of opinion pieces criticizing the hush money trial, but noted he had to “edit” in real time due to the gag order restricting what he can say.
“I’ll be going over them with you later,” he told reporters. It wasn’t clear if the papers at the defense table were the same ones.
AT&T EMPLOYEE CALLED TO THE STAND
Daniel Dixon, an AT&T employee was called to the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial Friday morning following the conclusion of former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout’s testimony.
Dixon will be authenticating some records.
WESTERHOUT: TRUMP WAS UPSET BY 2018 WSJ STORY
Donald Trump was very upset by the Wall Street Journal’s 2018 story about his hush money deal with Stormy Daniels, according to former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout.
“My understanding was that he knew it would be hurtful to his family,” she testified on Friday, though she later acknowledged not recalling him saying so specifically.
The answer, elicited by Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, went to the defense’s argument that Daniels was paid to stay silent in order to protect Trump’s family, not his campaign.
TRUMP OFTEN SIGNED CHECKS WITHOUT LOOKING AT THEM, FORMER AIDE SAYS
Guided by Donald Trump’s defense attorney, Madeleine Westerhout on Friday painted the former president as a frequent multitasker who spent large chunks of his days signing documents, sometimes without even looking at them.
“Commissions, proclamations, executive orders, memos, letters,” Westerhout recalled. She said that she sometimes saw Trump put his signature to checks without reviewing them.
Still, Trump avoided using automated means of signing paperwork.
“He felt that if someone was getting his signature, they deserved his real signature, right?” Necheles asked, before a prosecution objection cut off Westerhout’s answer.
WESTERHOUT DETAILS PROCESS THROUGH WHICH TRUMP RECEIVED PERSONAL MAIL
A dry but important part of Madeleine Westerhout’s testimony concerned the process by which Donald Trump received personal mail — including checks to sign — while in the White House.
It’s relevant because that’s how he got and signed the checks that reimbursed Michael Cohen for his $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
Westerhout’s testimony and others have established that his company’s staff sent the materials to an aide — at first his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller — at their homes. Then the items would be brought to the White House, where Westerhout would bring them to Trump and send the checks them back.
Under questioning from Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, Westerhout testified Friday that the packages were sent to aides directly because it took items a long time to percolate through the White House mail system.
Under additional redirect questioning by prosecutor Becky Mangold, Westerhout denied that Trump’s roundabout mail arrangement was an “end run around the White House security protocols,” but rather a way to “get things to him fast.”
But, Westerhout acknowledged that such letters and packages wouldn’t have gone through the normal White House security screenings.
FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE APPEARS TO SHIFT STORY ABOUT TRUMP’S INTERACTIONS WITH WEISSELBERG
As defense lawyer Susan Necheles resumed her cross-examination of Madeleine Westerhout on Friday, the former White House secretary appeared to alter a claim she made Thursday that she remembered Trump calling Allen Weisselberg, then his company’s chief financial officer, with question about certain checks he had to sign for his personal expenses.
Questioned by Necheles, she acknowledged she had no specific recollection of Trump speaking with Weisselberg at all during his first year in office and only a vague recollection that they’d ever spoken about a check.
“But you’re not even sure if it’s true?” Necheles asked. Westerhout said it was hard to recall because Trump “spoke to so many people.”
DAY BEGINS WITH ANOTHER BENCH CONFERENCE
Friday’s court proceedings in Donald Trump’s hush money trial began with another bench conference — increasing a recent trend of private discussions between the attorneys for both sides and the judge at the start of each trial day.
As the rest of his lawyers chatted with prosecutors and the judge at the bench, Donald Trump sat with Todd Blanche at the defense table. Earlier in the trial, Trump sat alone at the defense table when lawyers and the judge converged for bench conferences.
Blanche was in Trump’s ear, whispering to him as he covers his mouth with his hand.
TRUMP ARRIVES AT COURT, WITNESS TESTIMONY RESUMES
Donald Trump has arrived at court in lower Manhattan for the 15th day of his hush money trial. Before heading into the courtroom Friday morning, the former president read from a printed opinion piece critical of the case and once again railed against the judge.
Madeleine Westerhout, a former Trump White House aide, is back on the witness stand.
JUDGE REJECTS S
UBPOENA REQUEST FROM TRUMP’S TEAM
The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial, Juan M. Merchan, on Friday quashed a Trump team subpoena seeking records from Mark Pomerantz, a former Manhattan prosecutor who authored a book last year detailing tensions with District Attorney Alvin Bragg over whether to seek Trump’s indictment.
Prosecutors in Bragg’s office asked Merchan to reject the subpoena of Pomerantz and the judge agreed, writing in an order that the defense requests are either overly broad and part of a “fishing expedition” or seek information that is irrelevant to the case.
TRUMP’S GOP ALLIES ARE SHOWING UP TO TALK ABOUT HIS COURT CASE
Former President Donald Trump is limited in what he can publicly say as he fights charges that he made payments to a porn actor to illegally influence the 2016 election. But he’s getting help from some GOP allies who are glad to show up and talk.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was the latest surrogate to accompany Trump, joining him Thursday for the 14th day of his hush money trial in New York. Last week, it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who joined the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
The Republicans’ courtroom presence can help Trump connect with constituents while he’s stuck in court and feeling the pressure of a gag order placed on him by the judge. Both Scott and Paxton have been through legal troubles of their own, and have railed against what they call politically motivated prosecutions — a message that echoes Trump’s own.
It’s also a chance for Trump’s friends to publicly demonstrate their loyalty.
TRUMP AND THE OXFORD COMMA
On Thursday, Donald Trump’s former personal secretary Madeleine Westerhout offered insight into the process of crafting Trump’s tweets while he was president.
“My recollection was that there were certain words that he liked to capitalize. Words like country, and he liked to use exclamation points … It’s my understanding that he liked to use the Oxford comma.”
Trump used Twitter as a primary form of communication throughout his White House years: pushing policies, announcing major developments and attacking foes. He was suspended from Twitter, now known as X, after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
THE CASE DOESN’T RISE OR FALL ON DANIELS’ ACCOUNT, IT HINGES ON BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS
Donald Trump’s defense attorney on Thursday accused Stormy Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, trying to persuade jurors that a key prosecution witness in the former president’s hush money trial cannot be believed.
Susan Necheles on Thursday accused Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, trying to persuade jurors that a key prosecution witness in the former president’s hush money trial cannot be believed.
As the jury looked on, the two women traded barbs over what Necheles said were inconsistencies in Daniels’ description of the encounter with Trump in a hotel room. He denies the whole story.
But despite all the talk over what may have happened in that hotel room, despite the discomfiting testimony by the adult film actor that she consented to sex in part because of a “power imbalance,” the case against Trump doesn’t rise or fall on whether her account is true or even believable. It’s a trial about money changing hands — business transactions — and whether those payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 election.
MCDOUGAL MAY NOT TAKE THE STAND
According to a defense attorney in Donald Trump’s hush money case, Karen McDougal is no longer expected to be called to the witness stand.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said late Thursday that the prosecution no longer intends to call McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleged that she had a yearlong, extramarital affair with Trump.
Trump has denied the affair took place.
GAG ORDER PROVES TO BE ONGOING THORN FOR TRUMP
The gag order that bars Donald Trump from speaking publicly about jurors, witnesses and some others connected to his hush money case continues to be a thorn for the former president.
On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers asked New York’s mid-level appeals court to expedite a decision on his gag order appeal.
While the court did not take immediate action, it did set deadlines for court filings in the next two weeks. If the court refuses to lift the gag order, his lawyers want permission to take their appeal to the state’s high court, called the Court of Appeals.
A day later, defense attorneys tried to get Judge Juan M. Merchan to alter the gag order to allow Trump to publicly respond to Stormy Daniels’ testimony.
“He needs an opportunity to respond to the American people and the reasons for the gag order as it relates to Ms. Daniels is over. She’s no longer a witness,” Todd Blanche said.
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy argued that the gag order shouldn’t be altered to allow comments about Daniels because those remarks could have a chilling effect on others.
Merchan rejected the request, saying his primary concern was not with Daniels or a witness who has already testified but “with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole.”
TRUMP TO RETURN TO COURT FRIDAY MORNING
Donald Trump is expected to return to court on Friday when witness testimony in his hush money trial resumes, but it’s unclear who will next take the stand.
Porn actor Stormy Daniels concluded her testimony on Thursday, having spent more than seven hours on the stand over two days. Daniels’ testimony was followed by that of a Trump Organization bookkeeper who was formerly an assistant to the company’s ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg, a HarperCollins publishing executive and Trump’s former personal secretary.
Prosecutors are building up to testimony from star witness Michael Cohen, whose reimbursement for hush money payments made to Daniels are at the center of the charges against the former president.