In the wake of salacious testimony from porn actor Stormy Daniels, prosecutors in Donald Trump's New York criminal trial narrowed their focus to checks and phone records Friday as they laid the groundwork for jurors to hear from their star witness: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney.
With the third week of testimony drawing to a close, the case that ultimately hinges on record-keeping returned to deeply technical testimony — a sharp contrast from Daniels' dramatic, if not downright seamy, account Thursday of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Trump denies they ever had sex.
Daniels' story was a crucial building block for prosecutors, who are seeking to show that the Republican and his allies buried unflattering stories in the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to influence the race.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in company records. Prosecutors say those payments largely were reimbursements to Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Daniels for her silence about the alleged encounter.
Trump told reporters, “I’m innocent,” as he left court Thursday. His attorneys pushed for a mistrial over the level of tawdry details Daniels went into on the witness stand, but Judge Juan Merchan denied the request.
Prosecutors have been building up their case before jurors hear from Cohen, Trump’s onetime fixer-turned-foe who arranged the payout to Daniels — he says at Trump’s direction. Cohen is expected to take the witness stand next week.
He's likely to be on the stand for several days as defense lawyers seize on the disbarred lawyer’s criminal history to try to convince jurors he can’t be trusted. Cohen served prison time for crimes including tax evasion and campaign-finance violations related to the hush money scheme.
Witnesses in the case have seesawed between bookkeepers and bankers with often dry testimony to Daniels and others with unflattering stories about Trump and the tabloid world machinations meant to keep them secret. Despite all the drama, in the end, the trial is about money changing hands — business transactions — and whether those payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Back on the witness stand Friday morning was Madeleine Westerhout, a former Trump White House aide. Prosecutors used Westerhout's testimony to detail the process by which Trump got personal mail — including checks to sign — while in the White House. It’s relevant because that’s how he received and signed the checks that reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, prosecutors say.
Westerhout testified that Trump was “very upset” when The Wall Street Journal published a 2018 story about the deal with Daniels.
“My understanding was that he knew it would be hurtful to his family,” Westerhout said, though she acknowledged she didn’t recall him saying so specifically. The answer, elicited by Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, goes to the defense’s argument that Daniels was paid to stay silent in order to protect Trump’s family, not his campaign.
Jurors also heard from AT&T and Verizon workers, who authenticated phone records. The dry testimony appeared to test jurors’ patience at times. One juror stifled a yawn while another stretched out his arms. Others shifted their gaze around the room or stared up at the ceiling.
Trump on Friday also lost a bid to get 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 they seek information that is irrelevant to the case.
This report contains material from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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