The third week of testimony in former President Trump’s hush money trial has concluded, but not before a flurry of activity by his lawyers directed at the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors traded blockbuster testimony this week for the more mundane Friday before breaking early for the weekend.
Just before the court wrapped up for the day, Trump’s attorneys attempted to gag Cohen to prevent him from talking about the case ahead of his expected testimony on Monday. The judge in turn granted them a win when he directed the prosecution to tell Cohen to zip it before court resumes next week.
Follow below for a recap from New York.
Court resumes Monday
With court adjourned early for the day, expect witness testimony to ramp back up again Monday, when Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand.
Next week’s trial days are expected on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
It’s possible the prosecution could rest their case by the end of the week.
Trump team tries to stiffle Cohen
Trump’s defense team mounted an attempt to gag star witness Michael Cohen from speaking about Trump ahead of his expected testimony.
They were granted a win in the form of the judge directing the prosecution to tell Cohen to stop talking about the case, which Trump praised upon leaving court for the day.
Trump: ‘I’d be very proud to go to jail’ over gag order
Trump said after court broke for the day that he would be “very proud” to go to jail over violating his gag order.
“If anything is mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people, anything’s even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail,” Trump said of the judge. “And that could happen one day. And I’d be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution. Because what he’s doing is so unconstitutional.”
— Brett Samuels
Prosecutors could rest by end of next week
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Friday after the jury was dismissed that the district attorney’s office has two more witnesses to call before resting its case in chief.
“I think it’s entirely possible that we will rest by the end of next week,” he said.
One of those two witnesses is expected to be Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-fixer who is expected to be a star state witness.
— Ella Lee
Testimony ends for the day
Trial proceedings concluded Friday with testimony from a paralegal in the district attorney’s office who examined phone records relating to Cohen.
Jarmel-Schneider, the paralegal, described his role in creating “digestible” phone logs for jurors from the records provided by AT&T and Verizon.
On cross-examination, Trump’s attorneys questioned Jarmel-Schneider over his method for condensing the calls on the logs, noting that not every call Cohen received or made was listed.
The jury was dismissed shortly before 1 p.m., which is the court’s usual lunch time.
— Ella Lee
Witness says DA’s office tasked him with analyzing Cohen’s phone records
Jarmel-Schnieder told prosecutor Chris Conroy that he was assigned to Trump’s hush money case to analyze Michael Cohen’s phone records.
Jurors have already heard a technical walk-through of Cohen’s phones from a forensic analyst in the district attorney’s office. Prosecutors have also already shown the New Yorkers a series of texts and recordings from their expected star witness.
Throughout the morning, the testimony has become mundane and document-heavy. The latest set of witnesses are seemingly setting up Cohen’s testimony, which is expected to begin Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
— Zach Schonfeld
Blanche briefly questions paralegal; another paralegal is next up
Trump attorney Todd Blanche briefly questioned Longstreet, having her again confirm she hasn’t been reviewing Michael Cohen’s TikTok account and that she doesn’t have personal knowledge of the accuracy or motives behind any of the posts and texts she read.
The former president and his lawyers have expressed frustration with Cohen’s livestreams on the platform and his comments elsewhere discussing the hush money trial, given that Trump’s gag order limits how the former president can respond to the witness.
Longstreet has been excused from the stand. Next up is Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, another paralegal in the district attorney’s office.
— Zach Schonfeld
Prosecutors conclude with showing texts discussing Stormy Daniels
Prosecutor Becky Mangold had Longstreet identify various texts about porn actor Stormy Daniels connected to her hush money deal. Afterward, Mangold concluded her questioning.
The texts were sent between Daniels’s manager, Gina Rodriguez, and the then-editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard. Neither have testified, though the jury has seen some of these texts before.
The jury looks tired. Some are rubbing their eyes, while others have yawned. But most are still paying attention to the texts shown on the monitors in front of them, and some are taking notes.
— Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee
Flashback: Trump attempted to keep out posts on immunity grounds
Prior to trial, Trump had attempted to keep the jury from seeing some of these social media posts by arguing they were inadmissible under his claims of presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court is actively weighing the bounds of such an immunity doctrine as they consider an appeal in one of Trump’s other criminal cases.
As opposed to that indictment, however, the former president never argued he is immune from his hush money charges. Instead, in a last-minute bid to delay the trial, Trump contended his immunity claims would preclude his social media posts during his presidency from being introduced to jurors.
The judge rejected the motion as untimely, noting that Trump had waited until nearly the eve of trial to file the request.
For a deeper dive, read more here.
— Zach Schonfeld
Paralegal returns to introduce more Trump social media posts
Georgia Longstreet, who works as a paralegal in the district attorney’s office, has retaken the stand.
Longstreet was hired to review social media posts by Trump and others involved in the case, and she previously took the stand last week to introduce a series of the former president’s posts.
Now, she has returned and has confirmed the authenticity of multiple additional posts in which Trump attacks Michael Cohen, his ex-fixer who is expected to testify next week as prosecutors’ star witness.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump wrote in an August 2018 tweet just shown to the jury.
— Zach Schonfeld
Judge denies entering 1999 Larry King-Trump interview into evidence
Judge Juan Merchan will not allow a 1999 interview between Trump and Larry King, in which Trump brags about his knowledge of campaign finance laws, to be entered into evidence.
“I think nobody knows more about campaign finance that I do, because I’m the biggest contributor,” Trump said at the time.
Trump’s attorneys argued that the interview, which occurred more than two decades ago, could not speak to his state of mind in 2016, while prosecutors suggested that the laws in question had not changed since the early 1900s.
The judge flatly denied entering the interview into evidence, agreeing with defense attorneys’ logic.
— Ella Lee
AT&T, Verizon employees questioned over phone records
Employees for the telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon were questioned over basic phone records for key people in Trump’s orbit in 2016.
Daniel Dixon, a lead compliance analyst at AT&T, served as a vehicle to introduce phone records showing logs of Cohen’s calls. The records appeared to indicate when calls were made and to which numbers.
Prosecutors introduced similar records involving ex-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and Keith Davidson, a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, through Verizon employee Jenny Tomalin.
Emil Bove, Trump’s attorney who conducted both cross-examinations, asked for further clarification on what the records described and whether SIM cards could be removed from those phones.
— Ella Lee
Judge denies Trump’s request to subpoena former prosecutor
In a written ruling issued Friday, Judge Juan Merchan quashed Trump’s request to subpoena Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the district attorney’s office.
Pomerantz was a senior member of the team that criminally investigated the former president. Pomerantz resigned in February 2022, soon after District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) took office, citing his reluctance to seek an indictment of Trump on another prong of the investigation unrelated to the hush money deals.
In his four-page ruling, Merchan denied Trump’s demand that Pomerantz produce various documents on multiple grounds. The judge called some of the document requests “impermissibly broad” or an “improper fishing expedition.”
— Zach Schonfeld
Michael Cohen testifying Monday: Source
Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s fixer-turned-foe, is expected to take the stand Monday in Trump’s New York criminal trial, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Billed as a star witness for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Cohen’s testimony is expected to mark the culmination of prosecutors’ case in chief as it approaches its end. It could last multiple days.
Read more about what to expect when he takes the stand here.
Westerhout concludes testimony; AT&T records custodian testifies next
Westerhout is finished testifying in her former boss’s criminal trial, speaking mostly to her role in passing along checks to Trump for him to sign and getting them back to the Trump Organization.
The next witness is Daniel Dixon, a lead compliance analyst at AT&T. Prosecutor Chris Conroy is conducting the direct examination, in which Dixon is acting as a custodian of records for the phone company.
— Ella Lee
Westerhout says she saw Trump sign things without reviewing them
Westerhout told Trump attorney Susan Necheles that she would see Trump signing things without reviewing them.
The witness responded “definitely” when Necheles asked if the former president was a person who multi-tasked.
Prosecutors are attempting to persuade jurors that Trump’s signatures on the checks he is charged over are evidence of his personal knowledge of the hush money arrangements, also highlighting portions of his books that suggest his frugality.
But the defense has leveraged Westerhout and other witnesses to suggest to jurors that aides would constantly ask Trump to sign various documents while in the White House, and he didn’t actually know what he was signing.
Cross-examination is now completed.
— Zach Schonfeld
READ: Trump’s January 2017 Rolodex
Madeleine Westerhout has retaken the stand.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked her about the list of contacts she maintained for Trump once he arrived in the White House. The list ranges from news anchors such as Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski to athletes including Tom Brady and Serena Williams.
Trump arrives in court
Former President Trump arrived in court Friday at 9:30 a.m., his entourage significantly smaller than in previous days. Campaign operative Susie Wiles and advisor Boris Epshteyn were present.
Prosecutors arrived around 9:17 a.m.
The judge has now taken the bench, and proceedings are underway.
— Ella Lee
Trump: Yesterday was incredible
Trump spoke to reporters before entering the courtroom, reading commentary from pundits that supported his case.
“Yesterday was incredible,” Trump added. “It was incredible what they did. This trial was so horrible. It’s no longer justice.”
— Brett Samuels
What’s left as prosecutors approach end of case?
Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case in chief in the coming days, possibly as early as next week.
Today, ex-Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout is expected to finish her testimony. Prosecutors have also signaled they will recall to the stand today Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal in the district attorney’s office who is tasked with reviewing Trump and others’ social media posts.
Prosecutors may also call additional custodians of records who will testify to authenticate various pieces of evidence.
The presentation is expected to culminate with Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-fixer who made the hush money payment at the center of the case. Cohen has said he expects to be called next week.
When they finish, Trump will be able to call witnesses in his defense, but he is not required to do so.
— Zach Schonfeld
No photogs allowed — again
Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, has banned photographers from snapping photos of Trump from the well of the courtroom for a second day.
A court spokesperson said “conversations are continuing” regarding whether photographers will be let in again.
The spokesperson said a photographer Tuesday broke an “established rule” to only photograph Trump from what is known as the well of the courtroom, facing Trump at the defense table. It appears a photograph was taken from another angle showing other parts of the courtroom.
“Judge Merchan was consulted and has determined that for now no photography from the courtroom will be permitted,” the spokesperson said.
Pool photographers had been let in for a couple of minutes each morning to take pictures of Trump at the defense table.
Trial takeaways
The testimony of Stormy Daniels on Tuesday and Thursday of this week drew fire from Trump attorneys while putting her under cross-examination.
It also led to his defense team’s request to both narrow a gag order in order for Trump to be able to respond to Daniels, and a motion for a mistrial.
The judge denied both motions.