Conclusions from the 15th day of Donald Trump’s criminal trial for hush money payments

(CNN) — One of Donald Trump’s closest White House advisers completed his testimony Friday in the former president’s hush money trial, clearing the way for the prosecution’s key witness to take the stand on Monday.

Trump’s former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen is expected to testify Monday, where he will discuss the secret money deal he helped negotiate with Stormy Daniels in 2016 and how Trump hired that person the following year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Paid, will discuss it.

Cohen’s testimony is the cornerstone of prosecutors’ allegations that Trump illegally falsified business records by withholding Cohen’s refunds to keep the payments hidden before the 2016 election.

However, in anticipation of calling out the former president’s one-time fixer, prosecutors, through several custodial witnesses, introduced a series of text messages and phone records as evidence for the jury.
Prosecutors say they will likely be able to wrap up their case by the end of next week.

These are the findings from day 15 of the Trump trial:

Cohen is about to testify

Cohen is expected to present his case on Monday and put him face to face with his former boss.

He is expected to testify about his role in negotiating hush money payments to Daniels on Trump’s behalf, as well as how he was paid through advance payments in 2017, which are at the center of the allegations against Trump. Are.

However, Cohen’s testimony implicating Trump reveals all the troubles that come with being the former president’s longtime fixer. Cohen himself was federally charged with campaign finance violations, tax crimes, and lying to Congress in previous testimony.

After being convicted on federal charges in 2018, he changed his story from a loyal supporter of Trump to his main opponent.

His testimony during Trump’s civil fraud trial may pose some challenges to prosecutors in putting him on the stand, as he appeared to change his story about direction he received from Trump regarding his financial disclosures during his testimony. .

Cohen’s credibility with the jury could make or break Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case, so the stakes will be huge for prosecutors when Cohen is sworn in next week.

Judge tells Cohen: “Please stop talking”

Ahead of Cohen’s expected testimony, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche urged Judge Juan Merchan to order Cohen to stop talking about the lawsuit and Trump.

Due to the sanctions order, Trump cannot speak about Cohen. But, Blanch said, Cohen is still allowed to attack him, pointing to Cohen posting a TikTok video this week wearing a T-shirt that shows Trump behind bars.

“We request that the court order the government to instruct the witness not to speak about President Trump or this case until the conclusion of the case,” Blanch said.

Deputy Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass responded that prosecutors have repeatedly instructed Cohen and all other witnesses in the case not to speak publicly about them. “The truth is we have no control over what they do,” he admitted.

Marchen has already said that he cannot silence the witnesses in this case. But he expressed sympathy for Blanche’s position and said he would “instruct prosecutors to inform Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any further statements about this case or Trump”.

Merchan asked prosecutors to convey the message, saying “It comes from the bench and they are communicating it from the bench.”

Cohen has posted attacks on Trump on social media since the trial began, although at one point he said he would stop doing so. In response, Trump has repeatedly found himself violating a judge’s restraining order for his comments about Cohen.

Trump smiles during his former White House adviser’s testimony

Trump exchanged smiles with his former White House adviser Madeleine Westerhout, who concluded her testimony Friday that began a day earlier. She raised her eyebrows and smiled at Trump, who also smiled and waved at her as he walked out of the room.

During cross-examination, Trump’s attorney Susan Nechels pressed Westerhout to reiterate that she knew the former president cared about his family.

Westerhout testified that she remembered Trump being upset after the Stormy Daniels story broke in 2018. Trump acknowledged that he did not specifically talk about his family in his conversations about the story, but: “My understanding was that he knew it would be damaging to his family.” “

Westerhout testified that Trump signed dozens of documents a day while multitasking on the phone or in meetings, and said she had seen him sign checks without reviewing them.

He also testified that personal mail such as Trump’s check used a back channel through the employee’s home address so that it could be processed, compared to being processed through the White House’s cumbersome system for processing personal mail. I can receive and handle them quickly.

After assuming office, Westerhout also distanced Trump from the then Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

“In fact, you don’t actually remember any call between him and Allen Weisselberg?” Nechels asked.

“No, he talked to a lot of people,” Westerhout said.

The former Trump adviser said he was “not even sure it’s true” that Trump talked to Weisselberg about the checks, something prosecutors have suggested was a reference to Cohen’s refund.

Prosecutors introduce key text and call records as evidence

After Westerhout left the stand, prosecutors spent the rest of the day calling a series of witnesses in custody to introduce cell phone records into evidence.

It was a dry day of testimony, but it also provided key evidence that prosecutors plan to use to convince jurors that Trump is guilty of falsifying business records.

Those records included summaries of 34 allegations against Trump: 11 invoices, 12 receipts and 11 checks. Through a paralegal from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors presented a summary explaining how the charges relate to documents in evidence.

Additionally, prosecutors presented a series of text messages in 2016 between Stormy Daniels’ then-manager Gina Rodriguez and National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.

In the messages, the two discuss whether American Media Inc. Daniels’ story on who would buy it – and for how much – before giving an overview of the status of negotiations and the payment Cohen ultimately made to Daniels’ lawyer in late October 2016.

The text messages are notable because neither Howard nor Rodriguez are expected to testify at trial. Some of the messages were introduced through David Pecker, who was Howard’s boss, but prosecutors used a paralegal to show more of them to the jury this week.

“We are not going to deal with Trump,” Rodriguez messaged Howard on October 17, 2016.
“Keith (Davidson) told me. What happened?” Howard replied.
Rodriguez responded, “When they said they would pay they didn’t pay and they kept trying to buy more time.”

The texts confirm what Daniels and Davidson have testified so far, that the deal fell apart sometime in mid-October, and are also likely to help Cohen’s credibility when he takes the stand next week.

Trump Organization’s former CFO is in trouble

Steinglass said prosecutors expect to call two more witnesses and then rest. “And I think it’s entirely possible that we’ll get it done by the end of next week,” he said.

When the prosecutor’s office ends, it will be Trump’s turn. It’s unclear when the defense will present its case, a question that will largely depend on whether Trump himself takes the stand.

The judge also threw a potential curveball his way on Friday when Trump’s lawyers objected to allowing Weisselberg’s settlement agreement into evidence.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the separation agreement was prejudicial to the jury, calling Weisselberg an “unwanted government witness” because he is currently in prison after pleading guilty to perjury charges earlier this year.

Prosecutors responded that the separation agreement itself would help explain why Weisselberg was not subpoenaed and also argued that they expected Weisselberg to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Merchan interjected by asking prosecutors whether they had actually forced Weisselberg to testify, which they had not.

“I feel like we want to explain why he’s not here without trying to explain why we tried to get him here,” Marchan said, suggesting they try to see Weisselberg without the jury present. He can say what will happen.

Prosecutors didn’t seem enthusiastic about the idea — Trump’s lawyers noted he was not on prosecutors’ original witness list — but it’s the kind of unexpected appearance that could prolong the trial.