charges are falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments in lead up to 2016 election to #influence electorate
just one Trump supporter at the courthouse draped in a Trump flag.
#StormyDaniels's lawyer, #KeithDavidson, to return to stand. He negotiated the hush-money payment at the center of the case, & is expected to lay out details of the deal.
Before the jury is called back in, Justice #Merchan plans to hold a hearing on whether #Trump has again violated the #GagOrder in the case.
Trump went to his social media platform this morning to again saying:
"We cannot let this radical left, corrupt & highly conflicted New York Democrat judge interfere w/the presidential election of 2024 — the most important election in the history of our country. The USA is truly a nation in decline! Remove the unconstitutional gag order."
#Trump also attacked Justice #Merchan at a rally in Wisconsin last night & said that the #jury in this trial was drawn from a county —Manhattan — which is “a 95% or so Democrat area.”
Trump continued the same line of attack in the courthouse hallway. According to a pool report, he referred to Justice Merchan as conflicted & bragged about yesterday's rallies.
Moments into the prosecutors' argument, #Trump slapped the arm of his lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, and gestured with his hands. They spoke briefly and then Trump sat back and immediately shut his eyes.
Regarding #Trump’s comments about David #Pecker being nice, prosecutor Conroy argued it was a threat to other witnesses “be nice or else face attacks” not sure that will work. Conroy called Trump’s statements as “air of menace” I agree, but if we’re supposed to infer for a #GagOrder that gets a little tricky.
Conroy re #MichaelCohen,:
The judge, in ruling against #Trump after the first hearing, warned that #witnesses could not use the #GagOrder as a “sword,” attacking Trump while knowing that he would be fined for attacking them back. Conroy acknowledges that: “We understand the court's concern about Michael Cohen.” But he wants the violation recognized, as he says Trump is trying to “disrupt” the process & that his statements are “corrosive to this proceeding”
#Trump atty #Blanche argues the purpose of the #GagOrder is to “protect the integrity of these proceedings” & that none of the 4 statements at issue were disruptive to the trial, & continues to say Trump’s statements are responses to political attacks.
Blanche mentions a comment from President #Biden at the WH Correspondents' Dinner in which the president made an oblique reference to #StormyDaniels, saying that Trump had been experiencing “stormy weather.”
#Blanche complains about media coverage in the argument, but #Trump seeks out the media, he gives multiple stmnts outside the courtroom & constantly discusses the trial. He’s running on his #criminal charges.
Justice #Merchan says he doesn’t understand Blanche’s argument comparing Trump’s inability to speak out freely w/journalists' ability to report freely on him everyday. “They’re not defendants in this case," Merchan says forcefully. "They’re not subject to the #GagOrder.”
Justice #Merchan replies, “It was your client who went down to that holding area & stood in front of the press & started to speak. It wasn’t the press that went to him. He went to the press. He didn’t need to go in that direction.” He adds, “Nobody forced your client” to go talk to reporters in the courthouse hallway when he attacked #MichaelCohen.
After Justice #Merchan pointed out that no one is forcing #Trump to talk to the #press, #Blanche’s response, “I agree with that.”
Merchan continues to express concern about Trump’s rights to free speech, particularly as a political candidate. He says that a whole press area has been set aside for Trump in the hallway so that “your client, as candidate for the presidency, has the opportunity to speak about absolutely anything he wants.”
#Blanche discusses #MichaelCohen’s Tik-Tok videos, saying, “This is not a man that needs protection from the gag order.”
This is a serious concern for prosecutors. Their #witness, who had said that he would be silent after having attacked #Trump, has not. + Justice #Merchan has already written that he is somewhat sympathetic to the defense’s argument here.
Side note, while Todd #Blanche was arguing against penalizing #Trump for violating the #GagOrder inside the courtroom, Trump was literally fundraising off it. In a message sent to supporters, Trump wrote that he’s “been FULLY GAGGED” & “stuck in court all day.”
The message included a link to a survey asking whether “you support President Trump more or less after every single witch hunt, raid, indictment, & arrest.“
Davidson confirmed that Daniels' contract had a $1M liquidated damages provision, meaning that Daniels would be obligated to pay $1M if she breached the contract.
Davidson added that Cohen was the person who insisted the provision contain an amount so high.
Davidson describes his text as “gallows humor,” but explains that “there was an understanding” that their “activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”
As results came in on election night, #DylanHoward called #MichaelCohen, who invited him to celebrate at the Hilton in Times Square. He went w/one of his #NationalEnquirer reporters.
Davidson on Cohen:
"He said something to the effect of, Jesus Christ, can you f---ing believe I'm not going to Washington... I've saved that guy's a-- so many times you don't even know."
Prosecutor #Steinglass: Did you send a denial to Stormy to sign?
Davidson: "I don't recall."
Prosecution presents a Jan 2018 statement from #StormyDaniels, in which she denied reports of a relationship w/ Trump, a denial she would later rescind. Later, she would say that while she did not have an affair w/ #Trump, she did have sex w/him.
Davidson testifies about many phone calls & texts from #MichaelCohen after WSJ’s article came out.
Rothfeld its author says:
“The statement of denial from #StormyDaniels just shown in court seemed like an obvious non-denial denial when I was reporting on this story at the time for The WSJ. 1st of all, it came from Michael Cohen. How would he have had access to her? Second, she said she didn’t receive #HushMoney from ‘Donald Trump’—we knew it was Cohen who had paid.”
#Steinglass asked why Cohen was pushing for her to appear on the program. Davidson answered that Cohen believed Daniels would further deny the sexual encounter w/ #Trump.
Cohen had a relationship w/ Sean Hannity, a Trump supporter. In 2018 before Cohen’s guilty plea, it was revealed that Hannity was a #legal client of Cohen’s.
#KeithDavidson was asked about texts w/ #MichaelCohen referencing the State of the Union address that #Trump was going to deliver - so this was happening as Trump was running the country.
The statement said that she was denying an affair w/ #Trump. Asked how truthful that was, Davidson testified that it's technically true because no one had alleged a #relationship between the 2 of them. He said a relationship is an ongoing interaction.
[#situationship?]
#MichaelCohen texted #Keith Davidson that #StormyDaniels "just denied the letter...claiming it's not her signature...she said she did it in front of you."
Davidson said, "She did. Impossible — she posted it on her own Twitter page."
"They showed her signature & she claimed it was not hers on Kimmel," Cohen said.
In Feb 2018, the #StormyDaniels story was getting attention in the news.
Davidson testified that Cohen asked him to provide a statement stating that Cohen was the source of the funds.
#Steinglass asks why he drafted it despite knowing that #Trump was or would be the ultimate source of the funds.
Davidson says that at the time of the transaction, Cohen had put up the money.
#Steinglass finished questioning #KeithDavidson in an abrupt conclusion. Before he finished, Steinglass asked Davidson if he had any stake in the outcome of the trial. Davidson said that he did not.
Prosecution tried to atttibute the deals to Trump, the boss overseeing #MichaelCohen.
Defense is trying to tweak the whole story to frame everything as something orchestrated by #KeithDavidson, Cohen, #StormyDaniels & Daniels’ manager Gina Rodriguez.
#Bove returns to the topic of how #MichaelCohen wanted a job in #Trump's WH & acted despondent, on a call w/ #KeithDavidson, when he did not receive it.
Davidson, asked about that call, says:
“I thought he was going to kill himself."
Bove then introduces the idea that Cohen had hoped for a high-ranking position, even as high as U.S. attorney general.
Defense wants to portray #MichaelCohen as having a vendetta against #Trump grounded in personal disappointment w/nothing to do any alleged illegal conduct by Trump.
#Bove recalls to #KeithDavidson he said Cohen could be “aggressive,” then said, “And you can be aggressive too, can’t you?”
Davidson: “I suppose”
Bove: “What does the word ‘extortion’ mean to you?”
Defense wants to make Davidson look like a scumbag who extorted the Trump campaign. Davidson is pissed.
#Bove is trying to paint #KeithDavidson as a serial extorter, asking for money in various situations & being mindful not to cross the line into actual extortion.
Bove is digging up unsavory episodes from Davidson's past to cast him as shady — for example, Bove says, a fmr of client of his leaked information that the Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan was in rehab.
#Bove’s cross-examination so far hasn't even been about #Trump, but it is an effort by his legal team to discredit #KeithDavidson & persuade the jury that his previous testimony shouldn't be trusted.
2 more celebs have been named - Tila Tequila, a reality TV star, & Charlie Sheen.
Bove is accusing Davidson of essentially extorting Sheen.
Lots of "I don't recalls" from #KeithDavidson during this cross-examination. #Bove is trying to make him appear dishonest & unethical.
Presumably, Bove is going to suggest that the money to #StormyDaniels may not have been paid to cover up an affair, but because #Trump was being shaken down.
#KeithDavidson responded specifically to #Bove’s "lawyer games" comment. He said if Bove didn't want to play such games then he should not use the word "extract" to describe the way Davidson & his clients would get monetary settlements from celebrities.
Bove then asked about the Hulk Hogan sex tape & media outlet Gawker. Bove said Davidson used connections at the website TheDirty, to get stills of the video.
Gawker was sued out of existence by Hogan, in a lawsuit financed by the billionaire #PeterThiel.
#Bove insinuated that an article #NationalEnquirer editor #DylanHoward co-wrote about the Hulk Hogan sex tapes in 2015 was a product of Davidson’s providing that info.
Davidson denied that he gave Howard the tapes.
Bove then revealed that the #FBI had set up a sting related to Davidson’s discussion w/Hogan’s reps.
Payments from…Charlie Sheen to keep women silent. Rumors…Lindsay Lohan was in rehab. A lawsuit by Hulk Hogan…against the gossip website Gawker for publishing a tape of him having sex.
Testimony…at the #TrumpTrial…dove deeply into the #celebrity-obsessed #media environment…that helped fuel #Trump’s rise to political prominence.
Basically yes, all these characters are sleazy scumbag criminals, but that’s who sleazy scumbag criminals typically conduct their sleazy scummy crimes with.
Susan#Necheles, one of #Trump's lawyers, begins by asking for a clarification on the #GagOrder, giving a copy of some news articles to the judge. The articles are by what she calls “legal commentators" including #Trump supporter #JonathanTurley, saying, "These articles are all articles which President Trump would like to post on Truth." She says they involve some witnesses & aspects of the case, but Trump has “concerns" about posting because they reference witnesses.
#KeithDavidson said he thought #MichaelCohen was recording him because they were “structured conversations” & seemed “self-serving." + Cohen spoke on those calls differently than usual.
After that, defense played a taped, private conversation between #StormyDaniels' lawyer & Cohen in which Davidson talked about people having “settler’s remorse,” a reference to Daniels.
#Bove noted #KeithDavidson's use the word “leverage” on the tape, suggesting that he was seeking leverage over #Trump. Davidson denied that & said that Bove is “grossly mistaken about the dates” of when this conversation took place.
The recording was not introduced as evidence in the case so the jury & the observers aren’t hearing it. Davidson is listening on a headset, defense is using it to refresh his recollection about the conversation so Bove can question him about it.
Prosecutors play a portion of a conversation w/ #KeithDavidson that #MichaelCohen secretly taped.
“Nobody’s thinking about Michael,” Cohen says, referring to himself in the 3rd person.
In the recording Cohen said #Trump hated “the fact that we did it.” Davidson clarifies this in response to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels — a key piece of evidence, that would seem to corroborate Trump’s knowledge of & involvement in the deal.
On the call, #MichaelCohen said, "What about me? And I can’t — I can't even tell you how many times he said to me, you know, 'I hate the fact that we did it'...& my comment to him was 'but every person you spoke to said it was the right thing to do.'"
After hearing that portion, the prosecutor asked Davidson who was the "he" referred to in the phone call.
"Mr. Trump," Davidson said, “I attributed that to be a quote from Mr. #Trump."
#Bove briefly questioned #KeithDavidson again in a recross-examination. He ended it by emphasizing that Davidson had never been in a room w/ #Trump until this week.
"You never spoke to or never were in same room until Tuesday?," Bove asks Davidson.
Davidson said that was correct.
Douglas Daus a senior forensic analyst & audio visual specialist is called as a fact witness.
Per NBC: Daus was in Iraq 2009-2011 doing forensic data analysis; & is now a supervising computer forensic analyst in the DA’s office.
Daus, is expected to assist in verifying records.
DA #AlvinBragg is watching his employee explain the path between a device coming into the office, either through a search warrant or consent, & the actual extraction & preservation of data.
Reminder custodial witnesses like Daus — are tasked w/ verifying & entering records into evidence — because the defense refused to accept anything as basic fact.
In most trials, lawyers agree that certain exhibits should be understood to be true & factual; #Trump’s lawyers consistently refuse to do that, AT ALL, they won’t accept things like this is a table, this is a phone, thus requiring this boring fact verification process.
👀 On the recording, #MichaelCohen is talking to #Trump, it sounds like #HopeHicks in the background. Cohen is explaining they had just gotten served by The NYT to unseal records from Trump’s first divorce, from Ivana Trump.
At the end of the tape, Cohen tells Trump,
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David.”
The [#NationalEnquirer’s David #Pecker]
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I'm going to do that right away," #MichaelCohen said. "And I've spoken to #AllenWeisselberg about how to set the whole thing up."
"So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?" #Trump asked.
"...funding. Yes. Um, & it's all the stuff," Cohen said.
The prosecution has finished, & #Bove, the #Trump defense lawyer, is now cross-examining the forensic analyst custodial witness, Douglas Daus.
Bove asked about his credentials then about the chain of custody of #MichaelCohen’s phones. He is implying that perhaps the data on the phones — including the recording of Trump the jury just heard — might be compromised.
#Bove is implying that the DA’s office was sloppy in their data extraction & the devices could have been manipulated, asking questions about chain of custody & if the intake process was secure.
Daus was excused, but will be back to testify more tomorrow.
Court adjourned for the day.
Funny from NYT’s Maggie Haberman:
#Trump left the courtroom, squinting strangely at Lawrence O’Donnell, the MSNBC host, as he did.
Today’s #TrumpTrial testimony 🧵
Friday, 3 May, 2024
Custodial witness, Doug Daus, a forensic analyst in the Manhattan DA’s office will continue to testify about obtaining audio from the phones of #MichaelCohen, #Trump’s former fixer.
Justice #Merchan is on the bench &addressing something that #Trump said outside court yesterday, when he claimed that he could not testify because of the #GagOrder.
The comment left many people confused, & it wasn’t clear if Trump was simply making an excuse for not testifying, or if he misspoke. But Justice Merchan is informing him that the statement was incorrect. The gag order “does not prohibit you from taking the stand” or limit what he can say, the judge says.
After Justice #Merchan explained #Trump’s freedom to speak as a #witness, he concluded, “please let your attorney know” if you have any more questions. Note that Todd #Blanche, the lead defense #lawyer, nodded along when Trump made the comments in question outside the courtroom yesterday.
He says he expects a witness to testify today about how the #AccessHollywood tape affected his 2016 campaign.
That appears to be a reference to #HopeHicks, who is expected to begin her testimony today.
Blanche is describing a Truth Social post made by Trump as an “alleged” post, a reminder that the defense has refused to stipulate basic facts in the case repeatedly.
The lawyers are arguing about the #AccessHollywood tape & how it can be introduced.
It’s hard to imagine anyone who isn’t familiar with what #Trump says on the tape, even the jurors.
Justice #Merchan, who has allowed evidence related to the tape, will not let it be heard or watched in court, because he thinks it would be too #prejudicial.
Merchan is displaying his judicial fairness here, despite what Trump, #RightWingMedia & #MAGA claim.
#Bove, #Trump defense lawyer, is asking Daus questions about disappearing message apps on #MichaelCohen’s phone.
Daus explains how law enforcement extracts info from a person’s phone. It’s straightforward w/things like text messages, but w/ apps, like Signal, have “self-destruct” functions that delete messages in seconds.
Bove also asks Daus basic tech stuff, which may just be delay tactic by way of stretching out the trial & an attempt to distract from other testimonies.
#Bove is trying to attach tech issues to the argument that #MichaelCohen can’t be trusted, “We would have to take Michael Cohen’s word for whatever happened in October 2020 with respect to this phone, right?”
Reportedly Daus gave an expression of surprise to this question. I mean he does forensic tech analysis, he’s like: no, I say what’s there, I don’t say stuff’s there that I can’t confirm.
@Nonilex Trump is not sleeping in court. When be closes his eyes, slouches his head, breathes heavily and farts, he is really just in a different plain of existence.
It's the same plain where us mere mortals only see the logic and emotional maturity of a 2nd grader, while his supporters are smart enough to see he is really planning his next 4D chess moves.
Redirect is over & #Trump atty #Bove returns to question Daus again to clarify his cross-examination arguments, saying he was asking about “unknowns” — “gaps in the handling of this data that created risks” for tampering.
Prosecutor #Conroy returns to ask Daus another question in a 2nd re-redirect.
This is a lot of questioning & requestioning for a custodial witness.
Justice #Merchan calls a sidebar hopefully to get these folks to tighten up their questioning.
Georgia Longstreet, the next witness, is a paralegal who monitors social media postings at the Manhattan DA’s office. She will be questioned by prosecutor Rebecca #Mangold.
This is another #CustodialWitness — again only necessary because #Trump’s legal team refused to agree on basic #facts prior to trial.
“Can you briefly describe how #Twitter works?” is a question 🙄.
Longstreet’s testimony, including a description of the #WaybackMachine, which archives old online postings, is a good primer on #socialmedia basics, for folks who need it, may be necessary for some #jurors, I think during voir dire one said they used a flip phone & had never “seen a podcast”
Longstreet testified that as part of her work, she has reviewed 5k - 10k #socialmedia posts (poor thing) about the case & saved 1,500 of them.
She added that she checks online sources multiple times a day, including news articles & posts on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook & Truth Social.
She said she takes screenshots of the posts, adds them to a folder & saves them w/a few words to identify each one.
#Trump defense finally agreed to stipulate to a piece of #evidence — a WaPo article about the #AccessHollywood tape — w/o questioning a witness about it.
The agreement, called a stipulation, was read aloud to the jury & Justice Merchan explains the concept to the jury (for the 1st time bc Trump team hasn’t yet agreed on fact evidence hence the custodial witnesses).
Merchan tells the jury that a #stipulation is info the parties have agreed to w/o the need to call a witness.
Prosecutors play a video #Trump put out right after the #AccessHollywood tape was made public. He acknowledged in the video that he made the comments on the tape. The video statement was recorded after he had earlier refused to apologize, though his aides told him to.
“I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words & actions of other people,” Trump says in the video, then he attacks Hillary & Bill Clinton.
The evidence appears designed to lay out #Trump’s tendency to lie, his vulnerability among female voters, & motives for the cover up.
Trump lawyer #Blanche is now cross-examining Georgia Longstreet, asking her about #MichaelCohen & whether she tracked his #socialmedia as part of her job. She says she followed his tweets & his podcast. Asked if she listened to every episode of the podcast, Longstreet responds “absolutely not,” getting a big laugh in the courtroom.
Blanche implies that someone else is writing Trump’s social media posts, the ones Trump posts under his handle on a website that he routinely tells people is the “true voice of America.” lol 😂
She is visibly uncomfortable. She is testifying under subpoena. She says she's "nervous.”
Hope Hicks refers to #Trump as “Mr. Trump.” Notably, she says she’s paying for her own lawyer. She says the last time she spoke to Trump was summer or fall of 2022.
That was around the time when text messages she exchanged w/a colleague criticizing the #Jan6 attack were made public.
#HopeHicks continues flattering her old boss, saying that the #TrumpOrganization was big & successful, but run “like a small family business.” Because of that, she says, “Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump.”
This is good for prosecutors showing #Trump personally ran his affairs; Hicks can come off as praising him while simultaneously harming him.
Colangelo keeps asking #HopeHicks to acknowledge that #Trump oversaw every aspect of her job: “I reported to Mr. Trump” & “Mr. Trump was responsible” are two things she’s just said. Again, this is key for prosecutors, showing that Trump is a hands-on manager — & hoping to convince the jury he would have taken the same hands-on approach as #MichaelCohen brought him news of negative stories to quash.
#HopeHicks is testifying in detail how #Trump praised David #Pecker, then the publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, after the tabloid ran a story saying one of his #GOP presidential rivals, Dr. Ben Carson, had left a sponge in a young girl’s brain. “Mr. Trump was congratulating him on the great reporting,” she recalls. “This is Pulitzer-worthy,” Hicks says she recalls him saying.
Asked to describe the #NationalEnquirer article attack on #TedCruz’s father, #HopeHicks looks like she is going to laugh: “His father may have been involved with Lee Harvey Oswald” — the man who shot John F. Kennedy — “or something like that.”
Hope Hicks is now being questioned about the “#AccessHollywood” tape & her expression is no longer jovial. She swallows hard & says that yes, she was familiar.
#HopeHicks is shown an email that reporter David Fahrenthold sent her on 7 Oct, 2016, seeking comment on the #AccessHollywood tape. The email contained a transcript of what was said on it.
“I was concerned. Very concerned.…I was concerned about the contents of the email, I was concerned about the lack of time to respond, I was concerned that we had a transcript but not a tape. There was a lot at play.”
#HopeHicks is then shown a copy of her email forwarding the message to to “campaign leadership.” The email went to, among other people, Kellyanne Conway & Steve Bannon.
In it, she says: “Need to hear the tape to be sure,” & “Deny, deny, deny.” She describes it to prosecutor Colangelo as a “reflex.”
#HopeHicks says that when she shared the email from The Washington Post w/ #Trump, one of his initial reactions was to say that his comments about assaulting women “didn’t sound like something he would say.” [he later admits it was him, so = liar]
Hicks says she went to conference room to discuss #AccessHollywood tape & Trump came to see what was happening:
The prosecution played the video #Trump recorded on 7 Oct, 2016, when he acknowledged that he’d said the words on the #AccessHollywood tape & apologized.
Months after being elected, Trump was telling people the tape was a fake.
If a tape came out today, there’s no doubt that Trump would claim it was AI & his voters would believe him. It’s impossible to imagine him apologizing now.
#HopeHicks testified that the media response to the #AccessHollywood tape was “intense” & that it “dominated coverage.” She recalled that a Category 4 hurricane was anticipated to make landfall at that time but she doesn’t think anyone remembers where or when the hurricane landed. “It was all #Trump all the time for the next 36 hours,” she said.
#HopeHicks testified that she thought that the #AccessHollywood tape was going to be a massive story that would dominate the news cycle for at least the next several days.
She said it was a “damaging development” for the campaign, w/lots of layers that “complicated where we were trying to go in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”
“There was consensus among us all that the tape was damaging & that this was going to be a crisis," she said.
She says she asked Cohen to “chase down a rumor,” she says, about another tape he had heard about that could be problematic for the campaign. This could be the beginning of hearing what Hicks has to say about the. #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels, which was made by Cohen & where the charges against #Trump stem from.
#HopeHicks re the email to #JaredKushner:
she said, bc of Kushner’s good relationship w/ #RupertMurdoch — who owned the WSJ— maybe he could “buy a little extra time to deal with this.” Kushner responded that “he wasn’t going to be able to reach Rupert & we should just work on responding & dealing with it.”
The first question asked in the email: “Did Mr. #Trump have an extramarital affair w/ #KarenMcDougal?”
#StormyDaniels was also going to be mentioned in the WSJ artice, #HopeHicks testifies, & says that she spoke not only to #MichaelCohen about Daniels's claims, but to #Trump too.
This fits w/ the banker’s testimony & Daniels’s lawyer’s testimony about Cohen becoming increasingly frantic in seeking to quiet Daniels once they knew a reporter was on the trail of the story.
Hicks wrote things like,“We deny each & every accusation”
Cohen’s version:
"These accusations are completely untrue & just the latest despicable attempt by the liberal media & the Clinton machine to distract the public from the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation into Secretary Clinton & her closest associates” acc/to a court exhibit of the email
#HopeHicks is expected to return to the stand soon to resume her testimony. She likely won’t be up there much longer today.
Friday’s #TrumpTrial will adjourn around 3:45PM ET US due to a juror having an appointment.
So it is likely Hicks will be back on the stand Monday not only for cross, but possibly for further direct.
Prosecution asks if she witnessed conversations between Trump & #MichaelCohen
“I believe I heard Mr. Trump speaking to Mr. Cohen shortly after the story was published,” she says.
If prosecutors can show the Cohen-Trump relationship, it’ll be easier to convince jurors that Cohen was doing Trump’s bidding & not acting on his own as defense is arguing.
Hicks says that she was told by #Trump that he had not had an affair w/ McDougal, but that she did not remember him “verbatim” saying that he had no knowledge of that hush-money deal.
This is testimony of a lie shared w/the media & public.
Cohen says he’s got a denial from #StormyDaniels, whom he calls “Storm,” but is holding it in reserve.
Hicks says Trump was very concerned about the WSJ story about his affairs & the #HushMoney payments. He was worried about his wife’s reaction & asked Hicks to make sure newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence.
Prosecutor Colangelo asked further about Trump’s reaction to the WSJ article, specifically if #Trump was concerned about the campaign.
#HopeHicks acknowledged that Trump was concerned about that & asked her how the story “was playing” — given this was only a few days before the election.
The testimony about Melania is what the Trump defense will seize on. It provides an alternative motive for the cover up.
#HopeHicks describes reaction to the WSJ article on the $130k paid to #StormyDaniels & says she can’t recall certain facts about this period.
Hicks said she believes she overheard #MichaelCohen, #Trump & #ReincePriebus talking as they were in a car at the airport on their way to a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hicks said she heard Trump but doesn’t remember what was said.
Priebus is on the list of witnesses, expect him to be questioned about the conversation.
#HopeHicks was Trump's WH communications director when #KarenMcDougal sued to be released from her #AMI contract that barred her from speaking about her relationship w/ #Trump.
Hicks testifies Westerhout, Trump's exec asst, texted her, "Hey - the president wants to know if you called David #Pecker again?"
She adds that when she spoke to Trump after McDougal was interviewed on CNN by Anderson Cooper, she didn’t “recall him mentioning Mr. Pecker in those conversations."
#HopeHicks testifies that the morning after #MichaelCohen told The NYT that he had paid #StormyDaniels w/o Trump’s knowledge, #Trump told her Cohen made the payment to protect Trump from false allegations & did it “out of the kindness of his heart”.
Hicks is asked what she made of what Trump said.
Hicks says, “I’d say that would be out of character for Michael. I did not know Michael to be an especially charitable or selfless person; he is a kind of person who seeks credit.”
2X defense tried to object to the prosecutor asking #HopeHicks whether it would have been in character for #MichaelCohen to have paid the #HushMoney w/o telling #Trump. The judge overruled the objections.
The testimony goes directly to Trump being behind the payment to #StormyDaniels, not Cohen.
Then, Hicks bolsters another part of the state's case, saying that it would have been bad if the scandal came out before the election.
Bove, the defense lawyer asks about her relationships w/the #Trump family & employees of the #TrumpOrganization.
The questions may be designed to remind Hicks of her fondness for the family or that she owes them somehow.
Bove asks about #MichaelCohen not having an ofcl role w/Trump's 2016 campaign.
“He would try to insert himself at certain moments," she says, feeding into the defense's argument that Cohen was freelancing.
#Bove builds on the #MichaelCohen was freelancing angle, he gets #HopeHicks to agree that Cohen "went rogue" & did things that were “unauthorized."
Hicks helps the defense out by saying, "He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix-it, & it was only because he first broke it."
Bove, moves on to when Hicks worked on #Trump's 1st campaign saying the work she did for Trump, & the work done by #Pecker, ( #NationalEnquirer) was all standard operating procedure for a candidate.
Hicks says, “President Trump really values Mrs. Trump's opinion, & she doesn't weigh in all the time, but when she does, it's really meaningful to him. He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was just concerned of what her perception of this would be."
This goes w/defense's laughable "family man" argument.
"While you were focused on your job at the White House, you didn't have anything to do w/the business records of the #TrumpOrganization 200+ miles away in NYC, did you?"
Hicks said she didn't.
This brings attention to the fact that the actual charges of falsifying business records have yet to be discussed.
Hicks is excused & leaves the courtroom.
#Trump doesn't look at her as she leaves.
Neither does she look at him.
Testimony & jurors are done but court isn’t. Prosecutors have asked whether they can question #Trump, if he testifies, about his 9 violations of his #GagOrder.
Todd #Blanche, defense, asks Justice Merchan to bar such questioning.
🤣Blanche slips & calls Trump "Mr. Trump," before correcting himself & using Trump's preferred label: "President Trump."
#Colangelo, the prosecutor, responds, saying the judge’s findings that Trump violated his #GagOrder are directly relevant to Trump's #credibility if he takes the stand & points out there is case #law supporting his argument.
Justice Merchan has responded well to #CaseLaw - #precedent - in the past & has expressed frustration w/the defense when they don't cite any.
But Merchan agrees w/defense, saying it would be too prejudicial for a jury to hear that he held Trump in #contempt.
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