Trump hush money trial highlights: First week comes to an end

The former president spoke to reporters with more energy than he had in past days after spending the day in the courtroom. He declared that the case was politically motivated and reaffirmed his willingness to debate President Joe Biden anytime, anywhere, even Friday night or at the White House.

Trump left for the day after speaking for a few minutes and didn’t take any questions from reporters on the way out of court. He’s expected to head back to Florida.

So far, prosecutors have called three witnesses.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker spent about 10 hours on the stand over the course of four days.

Then Trump’s longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff answered questions for about 30 minutes.

The current witness, Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro, was on the stand for a little under an hour Friday and will return Tuesday when the trial resumes.

Trump walked out of court, exhaling and with a stern expression.

With Monday a long-scheduled day off, the trial will resume Tuesday.

Farro detailed, step by step, the process of helping Michael Cohen create an account for his limited liability company, Resolution Consultants. Prosecutors have also shown emails in which Cohen describes the opening of the account as an “important matter.”

Cohen said the company, which he opened in September 2016, was related to real estate, according to Farro. In fact, the LLC was formed to facilitate the planned purchase of Karen McDougal’s story rights from American Media. That deal never went through.

Farro said that since the account was never funded, it was never technically opened. Instead, Cohen pivoted to starting another account for another LLC — Essential Consultants, which he used to make the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Similarly, Farro said Cohen led him to believe that firm would be involved in real estate consulting.

Farro testified that Cohen had several personal bank accounts at First Republic Bank when Farro took over the client relationship in 2015.

“I was told that I was selected because of my knowledge and because of my ability to handle individuals that may be a little challenging,” Farro said.

“Frankly, I didn’t find him that difficult,” he added.

Gary Farro works at Flagstar Bank as a private client adviser and was previously at First Republic, which was used by former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.

He’s testifying pursuant to a subpoena.

The former president is back in court after a break.

He was carrying the thick stack of papers he brought in with him in the morning. He gave a thumbs up as he left and ignored a shouted question from a reporter about Stormy Daniels.

Trump spoke briefly to Graff as she left the witness stand.

He appeared to reach out to her with his hand as an officer guided her away from the witness stand past the defense table.

Trump’s lawyers were at the bench, talking with Judge Merchan, when Trump stood up and engaged with Graff.

Stormy Daniels was once at Trump’s offices in Trump Tower, Graff testified.

“I have a vague recollection of seeing her in the reception area” one time, the longtime former Trump assistant said.

The date of the visit wasn’t immediately clear.

Graff said she assumed Daniels was there to discuss potentially being a contestant on one of Trump’s “Apprentice”-brand TV shows.

“You had heard President Trump say that he thought that she would be an interesting addition” to the cast, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked.

“It was part of the office chatter,” Graff said.

After prosecutors zipped through questions for Graff, primarily focused on specific scheduling details, attorneys for Trump asked open-ended questions about her working relationship with her former boss.

“I never had the same day twice. It was a very stimulating, exciting, fascinating place to be,” she said of her 34 years working for the Trump Organization.

Graff then described Trump as a “fair” and “respectful” boss.

Longtime Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff testified that contact information for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were maintained in the Trump Organization’s Outlook computer system.

Prosecutors then displayed those contact entries to jurors. The exhibits showed McDougal’s contact info included a phone number and address. For Daniels, a phone number was listed under a single name: “Stormy.”

Before Pecker left the witness stand, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass elicited testimony pushing back on a defense suggestion that the former National Enquirer publisher had changed his story about Trump thanking him at a Jan. 6, 2017, Trump Tower meeting for his help burying negative stories.

During cross-examination, Trump lawyer Emil Bove had shown Pecker notes from the first of two FBI interviews he gave in 2018. According to the notes, Pecker told investigators Trump hadn’t shown gratitude at their meeting.

Pecker maintained that the FBI’s notes of the interview may have been wrong. And, as Steinglass noted, he told investigators in an interview a week later that Trump had thanked him “for handling” Karen McDougal’s affair claims and a Trump Tower doorman’s false rumor about him.

Pecker confirmed he later told a federal grand jury Trump was “very grateful and these stories could have been very, very damaging.”

Asked by Steinglass if he had any confusion over whether that happened, Pecker replied: “No.”

Rhona Graff, who started working for Trump in 1987 and left the Trump Organization in April 2021, has been described as his gatekeeper and right hand.

She was among several people involved in keeping his records. Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, wrote in his 2020 book “Disloyal” that she had her own Trump Tower office with a large filing cabinet containing folders on various issues pertaining to Trump.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, the first prosecution witness called, testified Thursday that Graff was often the conduit for his communications with Trump, routing his calls and summoning him to a Trump Tower meeting on Jan. 6, 2017. At the meeting, the ex-publisher said, he and Trump discussed some of the hush money arrangements at issue in the case.

Graff was previously subpoenaed in the New York attorney general’s Trump civil fraud investigation but did not testify when the case went to trial last year.

Pecker has concluded his testimony.

“I’m going to try not to keep you here too much longer,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told David Pecker as questioning got underway.

Former President Donald Trump has returned to the courtroom following the lunch break.

As he sat down at the defense table, he summoned lawyer Emil Bove, who was standing, to his side. He then spoke with the attorney before turning away and chatting with one of his other lawyers, Todd Blanche.

During the trial’s lunch break, Trump reacted on social media to President Joe Biden’s comment Friday that he’s willing to debate this fall.

Trump said on Truth Social that he thinks Biden “doesn’t really mean it.” He said if Biden is serious, they should debate next week or even Friday at the Manhattan courthouse on national television, saying “I’ll wait around.”

On the way into court Friday morning, Trump complained he was in court instead of in Florida with his wife for her birthday and said he planned to fly to Florida after the trial wrapped for the day.

Before breaking for lunch, prosecutors clawed back at the defense’s contention that the National Enquirer arrangement wasn’t unique to Trump, eliciting testimony from Pecker that underscored the unusual nature of their deal.

“Is it standard operating procedure for AMI to be consulting with a presidential candidate’s fixer about amendments to a source agreement,” Steinglass asked, using initials for the tabloid’s parent company. “No,” Pecker responded.

Several similar questions followed suit, with Pecker acknowledging he had not previously sought out stories and worked the company’s sources for information on behalf of a presidential candidate or allowed political fixers close access to internal decision-making.

“It’s the only one,” Pecker said.

Trump stopped to confer with aide Jason Miller just outside the courtroom doors. He left without making any remarks to reporters waiting nearby.

After resuming his questioning of Pecker, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass made a point of returning to a topic that had been raised during cross-examination: the true objective of a 2016 contract the National Enquirer’s parent company made with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Wasn’t the contract really aimed at “locking up the Karen McDougal story?” he asked.

“Yes,” Pecker said, later adding that the parts about columns and articles were “included in the contract basically to disguise the actual purpose of it.”

“And what was the actual purpose of it?”

Pecker said it was “to acquire the lifetime rights to her story so it’s not published.”

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is now conducting what the legal world calls “redirect” examination -- a follow-up round of questioning in response to what defense lawyers asked Pecker.

And the defense can then conduct a “recross.” The sides can go back and forth, but they generally can’t just re-ask questions or delve into new topics that weren’t raised in prior questioning.

As Bove wrapped up his cross-examination, Pecker said “I’ve been truthful, to the best of my recollection.”

Now prosecutors will get to ask the former National Enquirer publisher some more questions, which is standard in trials.

Defense attorney Emil Bove is questioning Pecker about various agreements American Media Inc. made to resolve investigations into its role in purchasing stories on Trump’s behalf.

After focusing on the company’s non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, the defense lawyer turned to asking Pecker about a conciliation agreement the publishing firm had with the Federal Election Commission. Under the deal, American Media Inc. paid a $187,500 civil penalty to resolve a campaign finance violation.

Trump sat chatting and gesturing with lawyer Susan Necheles while the other lawyers had an extended conversation with Judge Merchan at the bench.

After the sidebar conversation broke up for a few minutes, Trump leaned over to another one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, whispering something to him. Blanche then leaned toward Trump and covered his mouth as he whispered a response, while attorney Emil Bove resumed questioning Pecker.

In their fourth day of hearing from Pecker, jurors remain attentive even as cross-examination turns to parsing a 2018 non-prosecution agreement between federal authorities and American Media, the parent company of the National Enquirer.

Members of the jury are variously watching Pecker or defense lawyer Bove, looking at the document on big screens in the courtroom or appearing to take notes.

Pecker pushed back on a line of questioning from the defense suggesting a proposed deal to sell his tabloid empire may have pushed him to resolve a federal investigation into his company.

Defense attorney Emil Bove zeroed in on the context surrounding a non-prosecution agreement between Pecker and the federal government. He repeatedly suggested Pecker may have felt pressured to accept an agreement in order to finalize a deal to sell his company to newsstand operator Hudson News Group for a proposed $100 million.

“To consummate that deal, you knew you had to clear up the investigations,” Bove asks. After pausing for several seconds, Pecker replied in the affirmative. But Pecker also said he felt “no pressure” to finalize the non-prosecution agreement in order to complete the transaction.

In the end, the deal never went through.

Trump waved to reporters but did not say anything as he returned to the courtroom.

In the most confrontational moment so far Friday, Bove challenged Pecker on statements he made to federal prosecutors in 2018, which the defense attorney said are “inconsistent” with the publisher’s testimony given this week.

Pecker testified that Trump thanked him for his help handling stories involving former Playboy model Karen
McDougal and Dino Sajudin, a Trump Tower doorman, during a White House visit on Jan. 6, 2017.

But according to notes cited by Bove in court, Pecker had previously told federal authorities Trump did not express any gratitude to him or American Media during the meeting.

Pecker on Friday stuck to the story that he’s given in court.

“I know what the truth is,” he said.

Trump left the courtroom and gave a thumbs up without answering questions.

The defense’s questioning has turned to the deal between the National Enquirer’s parent company and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Defense attorney Emil Bove sought to get at what both her and the Enquirer’s objectives really were in making the 2016 deal.

The $150,000 agreement gave American Media Inc. exclusive rights to McDougal’s account of any relationship with “any then-married man,” a clause Pecker has testified was specifically about Trump. She claims they had an affair in 2006 and 2007; he denies it.

The contract also called for McDougal to pose for magazine covers and to produce, with a ghostwriter’s help, columns and other content on fitness and aging for various American Media titles.

Pecker testified earlier this week that the provision for content was essentially a fig leaf for a pact that was really about keeping McDougal’s story from becoming public and potentially influencing Trump’s chances at the presidency.
But in response to questions Friday from Bove, Pecker said McDougal was looking to restart her career and that American Media had pitched itself in a video conference as a venue that could help her. The company indeed ended up running more than 65 stories in her name, he said.

When American Media signed its agreement with her, “you believed it had a legitimate business purpose, correct?” Bove asked.

“I did,” Pecker said.

McDougal’s story -- and American Media’s deal with her -- ultimately became public, anyway in a Wall Street Journal article four days before the 2016 election, after early and absentee voting had started.

In his fourth day on the witness stand, Pecker appears wearier than usual.

He’s interrupting his answers at times with long pauses and is speaking in a strained voice that can be difficult to hear.

In addition to the long hours of testimony, the nature of cross-examination may have also contributed to Pecker’s apparent fatigue, as defense attorneys rattle off questions with “yes” or “no” answers meant to poke holes in his earlier testimony.

The defense’s insistence on referring to Trump as “President Trump,” even when describing events that took place before his election, is rankling prosecutors.

Trump’s lawyers said at the outset of the trial that they’ll refer to their client as President Trump “out of respect for the office that he held from 2017 to 2021.”

But Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass suggested Friday that using the title is anachronistic and confusing when tacked onto questions and testimony that involve things that happened while he was campaigning for the office in 2015 and 2016.

“Objection. He wasn’t President Trump in June of 2016,” Steinglass noted after one such mention. The judge sustained the objection.

Getting to the salacious stories at the center of Pecker’s earlier testimony, defense attorney Emil Bove brought up that the National Enquirer’s parent company -- not Trump or his then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen -- paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 in 2015 for the rights to an unsubstantiated claim that Trump had fathered a child with an employee at Trump Tower.

Pecker testified earlier that the Enquirer thought the tale would make for a huge tabloid story if it were accurate, but eventually concluded the story was “1,000% untrue” and never ran it. Trump and the woman involved both have denied the allegations.

Bove asked whether he would run the story if it were true. Pecker replied: “Yes.”

Pecker has testified that he hatched a plan with Trump and former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen in August 2015 for the National Enquirer to help Trump’s presidential campaign.

But, under questioning by Trump’s lawyer, Pecker acknowledged there was no mention at that meeting of the term “catch-and-kill,” which describes the practice of tabloids purchasing the rights to story so they never see the light of day. Nor was there discussion at the meeting of any “financial dimension,” such as the National Enquirer paying people on Trump’s behalf for the rights to their stories, Pecker said.

Bove is getting under the hood of the National Enquirer’s editorial process, seeking to show the tabloid had its own publishing incentives unrelated to any deal with Trump.

To underscore his point, Bove pulled up five headlines that ran in 2015 about Ben Carson -- who ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP primary -- describing him as a “bungling surgeon” and alleging he harmed patients, among other claims. Bove noted the information was pulled from publicly available information published in other outlets, including the Guardian.

In his testimony, Pecker acknowledged it was standard practice at the publication to recycle stories from other outlets with a new slant.

“Because it’s good, quick and cost efficient, and you would’ve done it without President Trump?” Bove asked.

“Um, yes,” Pecker replied.

Pecker acknowledged that the National Enquirer had been running negative stories about Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, long before the August 2015 meeting where he said he agreed to help Trump’s campaign. Pecker previously testified that stories about the Clintons boosted sales of the supermarket tabloid.

The jury’s day began with an instruction from the judge that it’s OK for prosecutors or defense lawyers to meet with witnesses ahead of a trial to help them prepare to testify.

That pertains to testimony that came out toward the end of the day Thursday, when Trump lawyer Emil Bove was cross-examining Pecker.

Bove has now resumed questioning the former National Enquirer publisher.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker has returned to the witness stand for his fourth day of testimony. Donald Trump’s lawyers are questioning him on cross-examination.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has taken the bench.

Trump entered court carrying a thick stack of bound papers, which he said was a report put out by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee about the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Trump said he had not read the report, “but it could be interesting.”

Trump told reporters he wanted to wish his wife, Melania Trump, a happy birthday, saying: “It would be nice to be with her, but I’m in a courthouse.”

He said he planned to fly home to Florida where she is Friday evening after court wraps.

The former president’s motorcade has arrived at the courthouse.

The former president is in his motorcade, heading for the courthouse.

• Todd Blanche: A former federal prosecutor, Blanche previously represented Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a mortgage fraud case — and got it thrown out.
• Susan Necheles: A former Brooklyn prosecutor, Necheles is a respected New York City defense lawyer who represented Trump’s company at its tax fraud trial last year.
• Emil Bove: A star college lacrosse player, Bove was a veteran federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.

▶ Read more on the key players in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial.

Trump’s many legal problems collided this week.

The U.S. Supreme Court also heard arguments over whether Trump should be immune from criminal prosecution while he was the president, stemming from federal charges over his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

The hush money case includes a looming decision on whether he violated a gag order and should be held in contempt. His former lawyers and associates were indicted in a 2020 election-related scheme in Arizona. And a New York judge rejected a request for a new trial in a defamation case that found Trump liable for $83.3 million in damages.

▶ You can track the criminal and civil cases against Donald Trump here.

Even by National Enquirer standards, testimony by its former publisher David Pecker at Donald Trump’s hush money trial this week has revealed an astonishing level of corruption at America’s best-known tabloid and may one day be seen as the moment it effectively died.

“It just has zero credibility,” said Lachlan Cartwright, executive editor of the Enquirer from 2014 to 2017. “Whatever sort of credibility it had was totally damaged by what happened in court this week.”

▶ Read more about how the National Enquirer was the go-to American tabloid for many years here.

After prosecutors’ lead witness painted a tawdry portrait of “catch and kill” tabloid schemes, defense lawyers in Donald Trump’s hush money trial are poised Friday to dig into an account of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to protect Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.

David Pecker will return to the witness stand for the fourth day as defense attorneys try to poke holes in the testimony of the former National Enquirer publisher, who has described helping bury embarrassing stories Trump feared could hurt his campaign.

It will cap a consequential week in the criminal cases the former president is facing as he vies to reclaim the White House in November.