Donald Trump returned to a Manhattan courthouse Friday for his 15th appearance in his historic hush money criminal trial.
The court on Friday followed days of testimony about adult film star Stormy Daniels, who testified in lurid detail about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump, and several others provided more technical supplements to her testimony and evidence. Detained witnesses were present.
The key points are:
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1. Defense portrays Trump as distracted and multitasking
When Trump’s former aide Madeleine Westerhout took the stand again on Friday, Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheres used her testimony to expose the former president to a “massive trove of documents.” He tried to portray himself as a busy man who had to sign a contract. Hours of his day. ”
Westerhout, who previously served as Oval Office Operations Director during the Trump administration, testified that Trump signed numerous documents, including proclamations, executive orders and checks.
“He liked the printed format…he felt that.” [that] If anyone had received his signature, they would have received his authentic signature,” Westerhout said. Mr. Necheres asked Mr. Westerhout whether he had ever seen President Trump sign documents without reviewing them, and whether he had seen him make phone calls or meet with people. Mr. Westerhout answered in the affirmative.
“Was he a multitasker?” Necheres asked. “Yes,” Westerhout answered.
Mr. Necheres’ cross-examination of Mr. Westerhout tried to frame Mr. Trump as a busy and distracted man who signed many documents without paying attention, including a letter to Mr. Daniels. It may also have included a redemption check signed by Michael Cohen as part of the hush money. .
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2. Former President Trump aide involved in hush money allegations from defense officials
Mr. Westerhout appeared to weigh in on the defense’s argument that Mr. Trump was worried about the Stormy Daniels incident because of his family. Westerhout, who said she had discussed the matter with Trump, said the president was “very upset about this,” adding, “My understanding is that President Trump didn’t want it to be harmful to his family.” I knew that,” he added.
Asked by Necheles if this information was based on what President Trump said, Westerhout said: “Well, I don’t think he specifically said that, but the whole situation was very unpleasant. All I can say is that.”
Strategically speaking, this wasn’t exactly a coup for prosecutors, but Westerhout testified that she didn’t remember President Trump specifically saying anything, so her testimony could still influence the prosecutor’s narrative. seemed to be giving.
Prosecutors have argued that Trump paid hush money to influence the 2016 presidential election, but defense attorneys say the payments may have been made out of concern for his family, including the reaction of first lady Melania Trump. Suggests.
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3. Texts between Daniels’ former publicist and former National Enquirer editor-in-chief
Another witness called to the stand today was Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office whose role was to find and preserve social media posts related to criminal cases. .
In addition to asking Mr. Longstreet about various tweets by Mr. Trump (including one from August 2018), To tell, “If anyone is looking for an excellent lawyer, I highly recommend that you do not retain the services of Michael Cohen.” – Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold, Daniels’ former publicist Gina Rodriguez and Longstreet pulled out text messages between him and former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and had them read aloud. Some of the text messages have already been shown to jurors for review.
In text messages, Rodriguez and Howard discuss how Daniels wanted to go public with her sexual relationship with Trump because she had not yet been paid. The documents read by Longstreet include exchanges between Rodriguez and Howard negotiating the price for the National Enquirer to buy the rights to Daniels’ story. On October 9, 2016, they negotiated between $250,000 and $125,000 and finally settled on $120,000. To this, Rodriguez replied, “I’ve sold it.”
Prosecutors are focusing on the text messages because they allege that Cohen paid hush money through a shell company on October 27, 2016, just before the presidential election. This is an attempt to clarify.
