Former US President Donald Trump sits in a Manhattan Criminal Courtroom courtroom on Friday, April 26, 2024 in New York, US.
Gina Moon | via Reuters
This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day.
Prosecutors called two new witnesses Friday afternoon in former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York.
The first was Lorna Graff, who served as President Trump’s personal assistant for many years. Graf, considered by many to be the former president’s most influential gatekeeper during his time at the Trump Organization, said Friday that although he no longer works for Trump, said his attorneys were paid by the Trump Organization.
Graf acknowledged that President Trump had saved contact information for two women at the center of the hush-money scandal: former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels. Ta.
Following Mr. Graf, prosecutors subpoenaed Gary Faro, a banker who was a managing director at First Republic Bank in 2016, when hush money payments were made that were key to the indictment against Mr. Trump.
Faro described how Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen worked with him to wire $130,000 into First Republic’s bank account, which Cohen later used through his lawyer to keep Daniels quiet. He said he paid to buy it.
Graf and Faro’s testimony came after defense attorneys spent the morning cross-examining former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. The cross came three days after Pecker gave scathing testimony for prosecutors.
Pecker’s cross-examination
Among the questions asked of Pecker by Trump attorney Emile Bove was whether Pecker’s former tabloid, the National Enquirer, had ties to outside sources like Trump and then-attorney Michael Cohen. The question was whether this was standard practice. Mr. Pecker said yes.
Mr. Pecker also wrote about the National Enquirer’s hit articles for years about former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, who ran for president against Mr. Trump in 2016. He seems to have admitted that he often redistributed old important news articles, such as
Pecker later pursued his relationship with Cohen, an apparent attempt by Bove to suggest that the two were closer than previously known.
Bove said Cohen wanted Pecker to get a job at a company called iPayments in 2016, and also asked for help securing a position working with businessman Mark Cuban.
Mr. Pecker acknowledged that Mr. Cohen asked him to send paparazzi to the meeting between Mr. Trump’s lawyers and the Cubans. He did not reveal whether he actually sent a photographer.
Friday’s testimony also focused on a hush-money agreement between Mr. Pecker’s publisher, American Media, and Mr. McDougall. Mr Bove sought to portray the financial agreement as primarily focused on advancing Mr McDougall’s media career.
All week, prosecutors and Pecker have described McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump as an attempt to kill the story because it could hurt Trump’s presidential bid.
Pecker acknowledged that American Media published dozens of articles based on McDougal’s byline and said the value of the services portion of her contract was worth “several hundred thousand dollars.” .
Mr. Pecker’s testimony was also the latest example of how close the media executive was to Mr. Trump during the campaign and early in his presidency.
Pecker mentioned a meeting between Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower in New York in August 2015. The testimony then moved to another meeting Pecker attended at Trump Tower on January 6, 2017, where he saw Reince Priebus and Mike Pompeo sitting with Trump. Priebus and Pompeo later became White House chief of staff and secretary of state, respectively, in the Trump administration.
Entering the courtroom Friday morning, President Trump said he thought Thursday’s trial went “very well.”
He also complained about how cold the courtroom was and what he claimed was a conflict of interest by the judges. He called the proceedings a “rigged trial.” President Trump has repeatedly made similar claims on social media.
Mr. Pecker’s previous testimony
Pecker announced earlier this week that he and Mr. Cohen had devised a “catch” plan to buy the rights to negative tabloid articles about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and then not publish them, effectively killing them. He testified about the “And Kill” plan.
Mr. Pecker paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 for an article that the publisher did not believe to be true, and gave Mr. McDougal the rights to her article about the affair allegations, which Mr. Pecker believed to be true. He also explained how he paid an additional $150,000.
Mr. Pecker also bought the first two articles, but after not being compensated by Mr. Trump, bought the silence of Mr. Daniels, who claims to have had sexual contact with Mr. Trump 10 years before his candidacy. He explained that he was not willing to pay an additional $130,000 for the purpose. president.
Mr. Pecker spoke while sitting just a few feet away from President Trump, and the two occasionally looked at each other. Trump falsified business records in 34 cases as part of a scheme to conceal repayments he ultimately made to Cohen after a lawyer and independent repairman paid $130,000 to buy Daniels’ hush money. has been charged with.
Mr. Pecker also questioned whether the company’s payments for the doorman’s silence and Mr. McDougal’s story amounted to campaign finance violations because they were essentially undeclared donations to support Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. He also testified that he had doubts.
He consulted a campaign finance lawyer about the matter, but then publisher AMI, the National Enquirer’s parent company, was investigated by the Federal Election Commission over the payments.
The company ultimately admitted to campaign finance violations and paid a fine of more than 500,000 yen in 2021. $180,000 A mediation agreement was reached with the FEC to resolve the matter.
