Takeaways from Day 8 of the Donald Trump hush money trial
CNN
By Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell, CNN
(CNN) — Jurors will now have a three-day weekend to think about what they heard during the first full week of testimony in the historic Donald Trump hush money trial.
David Pecker finally stepped down from the witness stand after more than 10 hours of testimony across four days, where the former American Media Inc. chief described in detail how he helped Donald Trump suppress negative stories and pummel Trump’s rivals in the National Enquirer during the 2016 campaign.
The back-and-forth over Pecker’s story set the stage for the further brawls ahead when witnesses such as adult film star Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, take the stand.
On Friday afternoon, prosecutors called Rhona Graff, who was Trump’s assistant at the Trump Organization, where she worked for more than 30 years.
She was quickly off the stand, and a banker for Cohen came next – signaling a move in the trial toward the documents at the heart of the charges against Trump.
Here are the key takeaways from Friday:
Jury sees paper trail
The hush money case against Trump weaves a colorful narrative with a tabloid publisher suppressing torrid affairs for a businessman-turned-politician and a hush money scheme orchestrated by a now-disbarred lawyer to a porn star.
But Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records – so prosecutors have warned this will in many ways be a routine, document-heavy trial.
Friday afternoon prosecutors called a banker from First Republic Bank as their third witness.
Jurors saw the paper trail for a shell company and corresponding bank account Michael Cohen created in Delaware that was meant to be used to pay AMI for the rights to Karen McDougal’s story – a transaction that never transpired. That account was ultimately never funded, according to the banker’s testimony.
Banker Gary Farro testified to records that show Cohen changed course about two weeks later in October 2016 to instead open an account for another company – Essential Consultants – an entity ultimately used to pay Daniels in the hush money scheme to suppress her story about an alleged affair with Trump. (Trump has denied both alleged affairs.)
Court is dark on Monday. Farro is expected to continue testifying next Tuesday when the trial resumes. He’s expected to walk the jury through the paperwork tied to a home equity line of credit Cohen pulled on his personal property to front the payment to Daniels.
Trump lawyer tries to puncture Pecker’s credibility
Pecker’s four days of testimony offered two competing narratives for the jury: Prosecutors elicited testimony from the AMI chief about how Pecker’s 2015 deal with Trump was unique, helping him be the “eyes and ears” of the campaign and buying up negative stories about Trump for unusually high sums.
In Pecker’s final day on the stand, Trump’s attorneys sought to undercut his testimony with a series of alleged inconsistences, poking holes in discrepancies from prior interviews with federal and state prosecutors and disputing his testimony that AMI admitted it violated campaign finance law.
At several points during cross-examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove asked Pecker whether the testimony he had given was a “mistake.”
Each time, Bove was trying to highlight inconsistencies between what Pecker had testified to prosecutors earlier in the week and what he had told investigators in interviews years earlier about AMI’s $150,000 payment to McDougal for her story alleging an affair with Trump.
In one instance, Bove pointed to FBI notes from a 2018 interview, where agents had written that Pecker testified Trump did not thank him or AMI during a January 6, 2017, meeting at Trump Tower. Pecker had testified earlier in the week that Trump had thanked him for taking care of the McDougal and doorman stories during the campaign.
Pecker disputed the FBI notes but did acknowledge there was inconstancy between his current testimony and the FBI notes.
Prosecutors try to re-establish Pecker’s credibility
Prosecutors responded during redirect to reestablish Pecker’s credibility in his answers, showing how his story was consistent and that AMI did admit to campaign finance violations.
During redirect from assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor pointed to another FBI interview from 2018, a week after the one Bove cited. In that interview, Pecker testified that Trump had in fact thanked him during that 2017 Trump Tower meeting. Pecker said that this was consistent with his testimony.
Bove had argued that Pecker’s testimony was mistaken when he said that AMI admitted to campaign finance violations, pushing Pecker to confirm that AMI did not admit to any campaign finance violation. But Steinglass later responded by having Pecker confirm that AMI did acknowledge in the agreement that “the conduct it had admitted in connection with the Karen McDougal payment” had violated federal campaign election law.
The point was a small one in the grand scheme of Pecker’s testimony related to the case, but the fight was really about Pecker’s credibility as a witness.
That’s key to the prosecution’s case because he helps tie together the larger hush money scheme – and will be a corroborator of Cohen’s testimony.
Trump cracks a smile for his longtime assistant
Trump’s longtime assistant Rhona Graff testified for less than an hour.
Graff managed Trump’s contacts and calendar for much of her 34 years as his assistant at Trump Tower. The jury saw contact entries in the Trump Org. system for Daniels and McDougal. Graff said she input them for Trump.
Daniels’ contact was saved as “Stormy” in the Trump Org contact file – listed only with a cell phone number. A contact entry for McDougal included a phone number, email address and two addresses.
Graff also testified on direct examination that she saw Daniels at Trump Tower once. On cross examination, Trump attorney Susan Necheles clarified with Graff that Daniels might have been at Trump’s office to discuss “Celebrity Apprentice.”
“I vaguely recall hearing him say that she was one of the people that may be an interesting contestant on the show,” Graff said.
Graff’s testimony about her former boss prompted a smile from an otherwise subdued Trump on Friday.
“I never had the same day twice in all that time,” she said. “It was a very stimulating, exciting, fascinating place to be.”
Defense tries to humanize Trump
Pecker was a longtime friend with Trump dating back to the 1980s, the former AMI chief said on the stand. Pecker spoke warmly of Trump earlier in the week, describing Trump as a “mentor” and saying he had no ill will, even though it had been several years since they had spoken.
As his ending question, Bove asked Pecker if he believed Trump cares about his family. He replied, “Of course I do.”
Graff no longer works for Trump, but she spoke positively about her experience at the Trump Organization and having Trump as a boss. Asked if Trump respected her intelligence, Graff said: “I don’t think I would have been there 34 years if he didn’t.” Trump laughed and smiled at the comment.
The first two witnesses called by the prosecution served as a reminder for Trump that this case will offer a parade of witnesses from his former life before he was elected president in 2016, including former employees at the Trump Organization and former aides in the White House, such as Hope Hicks.
Some, like Graff and Pecker, still have plenty of good things to say about Trump.
Other coming witnesses, like Cohen and Daniels, will have a far more hostile view of the defendant in this case – particularly Cohen, who has been lobbing attacks on social media toward Trump in the weeks leading up to the trial and even after it began.
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