Day 4 of the Trump criminal trial saw three different witnesses take the stand.
-The judge rescheduled Trump’s contempt hearing from next Wednesday to Thursday. Still no ruling on the previously pending contempt motion.
-Testimony continued with more cross examination of David Pecker by Trump’s defense counsel.
-A recurring theme of such cross-ex was attempting to show that the payments to various people made by the National Enquirer, to include McDougal, is that the Enquirer had a business interest in the agreements. Trump’s counsel is trying to claim the payments were to advance the Enquirer’s own business goals rather than help Trump’s Campaign. Pecker has directly testified the McDougal payment was to help Trump’s campaign.
-In the above effort Trump’s attorney may have made a mistake. He asked Pecker if he regarded McDougal as a celebrity in her own right. The purpose was to present as having value for the few articles she wrote for The Enquirer. However, Pecker answered that he did not regard her as a celebrity, suggesting her only real value to The Enquirer was in gaining her silence for the story of her affair with Trump.
-Trump’s counsel continued to pick at inconsistencies in Pecker’s testimony vs. interviews he gave the FBI. Pecker stood by his testimony at trial.
-More reports of Trump sleeping during testimony today, and for longer periods of time.
-On redirect from prosecutors Pecker again emphasized that Cohen tried to pressure him into buying and killing the Stormy Daniels story. He told Pecker that if the story came out in another media outlet that: “The boss is going to be very, very, very angry with you.”
-On redirect Pecker again emphasized that Trump was very concerned the doorman and McDougal stories “would be very damaging to his campaign and his election.”
-On recross Trump attorneys prompted Pecker to say that “of course” Trump cares about his family.
-With that Pecker ended his testimony mid-afternoon. The prosecution then called Rhona Graff. Graff is Trump’s longtime former assistance. She worked for Trump for 34 years, sitting outside his office in Trump Tower and was responsible for his calendar and contact lists.
-Graff testified that she never saw trump use email.
-Graff confirmed that both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels were on Trump’s contact list. While McDougals was under her full name Daniels was just under “Stormy.”
-Graff saw Stormy Daniels in the reception are of Trump Tower before Trump ran for President. On cross examination Graff stated she believed Daniels was there as a potential contestant on The Apprentice and that there was “office chatter” to that effect. However, this actually corroborates claims by Daniels that Trump spoke to her about being on The Apprentice at the time of their alleged tryst.
-Under questioning from Trump’s attorney Graff testified that Trump was a good boss to work for who treated her respectfully. Trump’s attorneys should tread carefully with this. Introducing testimony as to Trump’s general character could open the door to put his character at issue and allow the prosecution to present rebuttal witnesses who would disparage Trump’s character.
-Graff also told Trump’s attorneys she did not want to be there but was compelled to testify due to a prosecution subpoena.
-Next up to the witness stand was Gary Farro a bank manager involved in the loan to Michael Cohen that Cohen used to pay Stormy Daniels.
-Farro testified that Cohen contacted him in October 2016 seeking to open an LLC account for “capital real estate” consulting purposes and that Cohen checked “no” to a bank question of whether the account was for political purposes.
That was about as far as Farro got before the court adjourned. Trial resumes Tuesday, 9:30.
As to where it’s going with Farro, Cohen’s representation as to the purpose of the loan was false and he was convicted of bank fraud for it. The actual purpose of the loan was to get the money by which he would pay Stormy Daniels for her silence. Expect to hear more about that on Tuesday.
