new york– The second week of witness testimony in former President Donald Trump’s trial ended Friday without clear evidence of the crimes he is accused of committing.
Jurors have heard references to salacious stories about celebrities, been introduced to the world of tabloids, and gotten a peek into the inner workings of the Trump campaign, but witness testimony revealed that key parts of the prosecution’s case were Not yet proven. Prosecutors linked $130,000 paid to Michael Cohen to keep Stormy Daniels quiet about allegations of “sexual contact” ahead of the 2016 election, as alleged in the indictment. They are trying to prove that Trump falsified business records and that he did it for legal reasons. A widespread “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election, as they revealed in their opening statements.
One of the prosecution witnesses called Friday, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, undermined the argument that the effort to cover up the report was primarily related to the campaign and told the defense gave favorable testimony.
“President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion,” Hicks said, referring to former first lady Melania Trump. “And she doesn’t always weigh her, but when she weighs her, it really means something to him. He really, really respects her opinion. Masu.”
Mr. Hicks said he had been texting with Mr. Cohen after the Journal published an article about the payments to McDougal.
After the article, Trump was “concerned about how his wife would perceive him” and wanted to prevent the newspaper from being delivered to his home that morning, Hicks said.
— Katelyn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 3, 2024
Prosecutors questioned Hicks. Cried On stage, she described the Trump campaign’s reaction to the Washington Post article on the 2016 “Access Hollywood” tape and the ensuing media storm as “intense.” Although she is a judge, control Ahead of the trial, which said the video itself could not be introduced, prosecutors were allowed to question witnesses about the video in an effort to establish a motive to suppress other harmful reporting in the days after its release.
But in contrast to testimony last week from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker that Trump seemed more concerned about his campaign, Hicks said Trump seemed more concerned about his family and wife. He reiterated that his focus is on After the Wall Street Journal published the following article: article In November 2016, regarding a deal with the National Enquirer to buy and not publish Karen McDougal’s article about her alleged affair, Hicks said President Trump was “concerned about how his wife would view him” and that the newspaper He said he would like to avoid having it delivered to his home. That morning.
Trump’s own involvement in the payments is also not yet clear. Ms Hicks said Mr Cohen’s claim that he had made the payments to the Daniels out of kindness of heart was “out of character”, but in cross-examination he said Mr Cohen had become a “rogue” and was violent. I agree that there is a trend. This campaign, in which he was not officially involved, was frustrating and unhelpful.
“He liked to call himself ‘The Fixer,'” she says. “That’s just because he broke it first.” (Related article: Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump hits another setback as another witness denies his claims and those of the media)
Hicks noted that Cohen is not participating in the campaign.
Bovet: Did Cohen sometimes do unauthorized things? Did he commit fraud?
Hicks agrees.
She said Cohen liked to call himself “The Fixer,” but only because “he broke it first.”
— Katelyn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 3, 2024
Jurors on Thursday heard an audio recording Cohen made of a conversation with Trump about buying McDougal’s article, which was leaked to CNN in 2018, in which Trump said: “What kind of funding?” I heard him asking. And he later says he will “pay in cash.”
However, the tape cut out midway through the conversation, and it is unclear what decision was made. Mr. Trump’s defense attorneys sought to cast doubt on the integrity of the recordings Friday in cross-examination of Douglas Dauss, an analyst with the Manhattan district attorney’s high-tech analysis unit who analyzed two of Mr. Cohen’s cellphones. .
Daus said Friday that he found no evidence of tampering, but that his phone, which included a factory reset, a sync from Cohen’s laptop in 2017, a previous FBI investigation and another in 2020. Defense attorney Emil Bove agreed that there was no evidence of tampering with the phone records. Recording Integrity.
Bove then again linked the recordings to Cohen’s credibility, asking Dauss whether the integrity of the evidence on the device required him to “take Michael Cohen at his word.” Daus agreed. (Related: Witness says he thought Michael Cohen was ‘going to kill himself’ because he didn’t get a spot in Trump’s Cabinet)
In a separate recording of a phone call with Daniels and McDougal’s former attorney Keith Davidson that was played Thursday, Cohen said that Trump, referring to Daniels and McDougal’s contract, said, “If we I hate the fact that I did it,” he said.
Keith Davidson, a former lawyer for Mr. Daniels and Mr. McDougall, acknowledged Thursday that he had never seen a copy of Mr. Daniels’ contract, which was signed by Mr. Trump’s pseudonym “David Dennison.”
Also presented Friday was testimony from Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who is monitoring social media accounts related to the case. During her testimony, prosecutors highlighted President Trump’s tweets from October 2016, including a video statement he made after the “Access Hollywood” tape and recent posts from Trump’s Truth social account. Various posts from the account were displayed.
The defense used part of the cross-examination to single out Cohen again, asking whether Mr. Longstreet had also looked into the X and TikTok accounts.
Cohen discussed the case on TikTok during the trial. make According to ABC News, some comments included, “Trump 2024?…More like Trump 2020-2024.”
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