Friday Follies: The Trump Trial in Manhattan Marches On

We've now made it through four weeks of trial in the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records. There have been multiple witnesses, 10 contempt citations, and two failed motions for mistrial so far. And the prosecution is hinting they'll take until the end of next week to finish presenting their case.

Friday picked up where Thursday left off — with Trump's former personal assistant Madeline Westerhout on the stand. Trump attorney Susan Necheles continued with her cross-examination of Westerhout. In 2016, Westerhout was with the Republican National Committee. She confirmed the RNC worked very closely with the Trump campaign. Westerhout testified that Trump frequently sent newspaper clippings to his contacts, including once (of a photo of him aboard Air Force One for the first time) to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. She doesn't recall any other specific instances where he sent clippings to Weisselberg or any specific conversations between the two during Trump's first year in office.

Upon Trump's arrival at the White House, a post office box was set up for him to receive personal items, but that was often slow, and he didn't always receive personal items directed to him. Due to the delay, Keith Schiller, Trump's former bodyguard, began receiving mail for him. Per Westerhout, Trump believed in returning phone calls promptly. This (per the defense) explains why some of Trump's personal mail might be sent to an employee rather than directly to him.

Westerhout testified that Trump sometimes signed hundreds of items a day and, at times, without reviewing them. He might sign them while talking on the phone, for instance.

"He was a person who would multitask?" Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks about the former president.
"Definitely," Madeleine Westerhout says.

According to Westerhout, Trump was upset when the Stormy Daniels story came out.

Madeleine Westerhout says she spoke with Donald Trump after the article about the Stormy Daniels story was published.
"He was very upset by it," Westerhout says. "My understanding was he knew it would be hurtful to his family."
Westerhout then clarifies that was her understanding but not that Trump specifically said that to her. "He didn't specifically speak about his family in that conversation," she says.

On re-direct, Westerhout confirmed that she had spoken with Trump's attorneys once — for about an hour — prior to her testimony this week. She met with prosecutors three times for hours. (Neither occurrence is unusual for witnesses and attorneys ahead of trial.)

Asked if the FedEx process was an effort at an "end run" around security protocols, Westerhout testified it was simply a way to get things to Trump faster.

Currently, Westerhout works as the chief of staff for Robert O'Brien (Trump's former national security adviser) at American Global Strategies.

Following Westerhout, Daniel Dixon of AT&T was called as a custodian of records. Through him, prosecutors are admitting AT&T records into evidence, including records for Michael Cohen's cell phone. On cross-examination, Dixon acknowledged that these records don't include the content of calls.

After Dixon, Jennie Tomalin of Verizon was called for similar purposes. Through Tomlin, prosecutors introduced 12 subscriber phone records, including one related to Weisselberg. One also pertains to Keith Davidson, former attorney for Stormy Daniels.

Following a short break, Judge Juan Merchan granted the defense's motion to exclude evidence of a 1999 interview Trump had with Larry King in which campaign finance laws were discussed.

Judge Juan Merchan sides with the defense and says he will not allow Trump's interview in 1999 about campaign finance into evidence.
He says trying to draw an inference to what he knew in 2015 or 2017 is a step too far.

The prosecution called paralegal Georgia Longstreet back to the stand to testify regarding the DA's office procedures for reviewing and logging evidence such as social media posts and phone records. Over defense objection, Longstreet read several of Trump's tweets into the record.

The first set is a thread related to Michael Cohen, dated April 21, 2018.
It also attacks New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who is in the courtroom today as well.
To note: This tweet is days after Cohen's home, apartment and hotel room were raided by the FBI.
Georgia Longstreet reads another tweet from Trump on August 22, 2018: "If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!"
There are audible laughs to this from the public section in the overflow room.

Additionally, Longstreet read Trump's tweet regarding the NDA and payments to Cohen into the record.

"Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA."

Through Longstreet, the prosecution also introduced messages exchanged between Stormy Daniels' publicist, Gina Rodriguez, and former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard in 2016.

Prosecutor: Read these please, from July 31, 2016
Longstreet: Gina R to Dylan H: Whatever happened with the Stormy Daniels interview? Then on August 8, 2016, Call me
Prosecutor: And these?
Longstreet: Dylan H to Gina R: He likely will pay. How much? Gina R: 250K
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

Prosecutor: And this?
Longstreet: Gina H. to Dylan H. She's doing a press conference this morning, she hired another lawyer.
Prosecutor: No further questions.
Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche: I'm not going to re-ask you my questions from late Friday - 1000s of Tweets?
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

On cross-examination, Longstreet testified that she has not reviewed Cohen's TikTok account recently. She acknowledged she has no personal knowledge regarding the texts to which she testified and cannot offer context to them. Although tasked with reviewing Daniels' social media posts over the past few years, Longstreet had not reviewed a tweet posted by Daniels Thursday night.

Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh...wait. Nevermind.
— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) May 9, 2024

Next, the prosecution called Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, another paralegal from the DA's office.

Jaden Jarmel-Schneider prepared a report to show which phone numbers were associated with which people and where the phone numbers show up in evidence.

Jarmel-Schneider identified exhibits showing calls between Cohen and others, like Howard, Pecker, Weisselberg, and Schiller. Prosecutors attempted to show an incoming call at the time Cohen was on another recorded call.

Paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider said he identified an incoming call to Michael Cohen's phone at the same time that his recording ended.
For context: Prosecutors have said that Cohen's recording of his conversation with Doanld Trump about the Karen McDougal payment was cut off by an incoming call. Trump attorney Emil Bove on cross-examination of the computer forensics expert from the district attorney's office suggested that there was no incoming call.

The jury was shown a chart summarizing the 34 records at issue in the charges against Trump

The jury is now seeing a summary chart of the 34 business records that prosecutors allege have been falsified.
This includes 11 invoices, 12 vouchers and 11 checks.
Each respective invoice, voucher or check in the demonstrative exhibit has a corresponding count number to spell out the indictment for the jury.

On cross-examination, Jarmel-Schneider acknowledged that some call records have been deleted.

Trump's lawyer Bove: And here, 344 - you deleted several pages?
Paralegal: Yes.
Bove: With Michael Cohen, remember CP1 and CP2? PX 247, that recording file off the physical device CP1, Sept 6, 2016. In PX 400, go to Bates 2726
Paralegal: Can I explain?
Bove: Qs
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

Jarmel-Schneider testified he does not believe there are any records of a call between Hope Hicks and David Pecker.

On re-direct, Jarmel-Schneider explained that the calls cut from the summary chart are still in evidence. They were excluded from the summary chart because they weren't part of the evidence that has come in at trial.

After the jury was excused for the weekend, the attorneys took up several matters with Judge Merchan. Prosecutors want to introduce Allen Weisselberg's severance agreement ostensibly to explain why he's not testifying, but Trump's team objects to its relevance and points out that Weisselberg is currently in prison and likely would plead the Fifth Amendment if called to testify. Merchan wants them to bring Weisselberg in to testify (out of the presence of the jury) to confirm whether or not he would actually plead the Fifth.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche requested the court issue a gag order as to Michael Cohen, who's expected to testify Monday. Just this week, Cohen posted a TikTok video sporting a t-shirt with Trump behind bars. Prosecutor Josh Steinglass insists though they've requested witnesses not to talk about the case, they have no control over them. Merchan instructed the prosecution to inform Cohen that the judge is "asking him to refrain from making any more statements."

Additionally, Judge Merchan quashed the Trump team's subpoena aimed at obtaining additional records from former Manhattan District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, describing it as overly broad.

Merchan called Trump’s request for “all Documents" for a 13-month period from several individuals covering a range of topics including "Cohen's recollection of interactions with President Trump" and "any form of bias or animosity toward President Trump” an "improper fishing expedition."
Trump’s lawyers also asked for all documents relating to a February 2021 internal memo on “whether Stephanie Clifford a/k/a 'Stormy Daniels,' committed ‘extortion and or 'larceny,' and (b) whether President Trump was a 'victim of blackmail."

The prosecution has informed the court they anticipate wrapping up their case next week.

Stay tuned — there's sure to be more drama to follow.

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