#TrumpTrial 🧵 starts HERE. #Trump #legal
Please remember I don’t reply while live-posting. Plz use NFL (Not For Laffy, but no hashtag) so I can ignore those replies.
1/
Pagliery:
Today's session starts with prosecutors asking for a sidebar with the judge. Lawyers on both sides are now discussing something in hushed tones.
2/ Pagliery:
Everyone's nodding, so there doesn't seem to be much disagreement so far.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is leading the discussion.
Interesting. The judge had to call over the court bailiff at the very end of the discussion to brief the sergeant about something.
The court transcript released later today should provide some insight.
3/ Klasfeld:
Westerhout re-enters.
Katie Phang:
No Trump family members are present today
Inner City Press (aka Press):
Trump's lawyer Necheles: You were at the RNC?
Westerhout: Yes
4/ Anna Bower:
Necheles pulls up a list of contacts for Trump prior to his time at the White House. Trump's executive assistant, Rhona Graff, sent that list to Westerhout when Trump transitioned to the White House.
5/ Phang:
Katie’s Sidebar: don’t expect any scathing cross by Susan Necheles of Westerhout. It’s a stark contrast between the way she questioned Stormy Daniels yesterday as compared to the kid gloves she has used thus far with Westerhout.
6/ Klasfeld:
On Thursday, Westerhout said the RNC considered plans to replace Trump after the "Access Hollywood" tape landed.
"It's my recollection that there were conversations about how to, if it was needed, how it would be possible to replace him as the candidate if it came to that."
It seemed that cross-examination was headed toward mitigating the blow of that testimony, but Necheles quickly pivoted to another subject following her questions about the RNC.
7/ Press:
Necheles: Would the RNC create a travel schedule for presumptive nominee Trump?
Westerhout: Yes.
Necheles: I want to show you L-8 and L-9. Oh, when they're ready. So People's 69 [the Trump contact list]
8/ WHILE IT’S A LITTLE SLOW, HEADS UP:
We have another house showing today, hopefully during lunch break. + remember, I have Mr. Blowdryer break coming up soon.
Sorry for the interruptions, but I always catch you up, so … patience, Grasshopper.
Back to coverage…
9/ McBrien is off today, Bower is reporting today:
That list of contacts was for people Trump spoke to a lot before he was in office? Yes.
Many of those people are people Trump never called while he was in the Oval Office? Correct.
Now Necheles displays the newspaper clipping that Trump had Westerhout send to Allen Weisselberg.
He sent newspaper clippings to lots of people? Yes.
And you don't recall any other time that Trump sent a clipping to Weisselberg? Yes.
10/ Bower:
And you don't have any specific recollection of Trump and Weisselberg speaking about a check? No.
In fact you don't recall any specific phone calls between Trump and Weisselberg during his time in the White House? No, he spoke to lots of people.
11/ Bower:
There's an objection by thew prosecution and the parties approach the bench. Sidebar.
While we wait, peruse Trump's pre-White House frequent contact list here: https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/Evidence/People/5-9-2024/People's%2069B%20(Attached%20Contact%20List%20PDF%201.24.2017).pdf
It includes, among others, Serena Williams, Lorne Michaels, Jerry Falwell, Sean Hannity...
12/ Press’s take:
Trump's lawyer Necheles: You sent out this photo of the first time President Trump boarded Air Force One - he was proud, right?
Westerhout: Yes, he was proud.
Necheles: He often sent newspaper clippings to people?
Westerhout: He did.
Necheles: But only once to Allen Weisselberg?
Westerhout: It could have been.
Necheles: And he barely spoke to Allen Weisselberg in that first year, right?
Westerhout: Right
Necheles: I want to show you-
Prosecutor: Objection! Can we approach?
Yes
13/ Bower:
Sidebar over.
Necheles displays a travel schedule of Trump's travel during the campaign, which was shared with the RNC. Westerhout worked at the RNC at the time.
Necheles starts walking through questions to establish that the documents are business records.
14/ Bower:
Necheles offers the documents consisting of Trump's travel schedules into evidence. Mangold objects.
Justice Merchan tells the parties to approach the bench. An out-of-earshot sidebar conference ensues.
15/ Klasfeld’s take:
Prosecutors are fighting the admission of the travel schedules.
Westerhout says she didn't receive them, and asked whether she remembered the one she was shown, she said only since her lawyer showed it to her this morning. Not contemporaneously.
ADA Mangold: "We object."
16/ Pagliery:
Effective lawyering from the DA's office. Necheles tries to bring up Trump's 2016 GOP candidate travel schedule, but prosecutor Becky Mangold interjects & questions Westerhout.
Turns out her lawyer just showed them to her this morning. Judge stops it from entering evidence.
17/ Press:
#WompWomp
👉🏼Justice Merchan: The motion to introduce this into evidence is denied.
Trump's lawyer Necheles: You were asked about how checks were sent, right?
Westerhout: Yes.
18/ Bower:
Now Necheles asks Westerhout about the process of getting the checks to Trump.
Sending things to the White House were slow, right? Yes.
There was lots of security? Yes.
You found out that some of his personal items sent to the White House were never received? Yes.
19/ Bower:
With this line of questioning, Necheles is trying to tell the jurors that there are other reasons why Trump's personal mail--the checks--would be sent to Keith Schiller or John McEntee instead of the White House.
20/ Bower:
So it was a way to get items quickly to Trump? Yes.
Was it your understanding that getting items promptly to the president of the United States was a problem for previous administrations? I don't have knowledge of that, but I can't imagine it would be any different.
21/ Press:
Necheles: You didn't give packages to Ivanka Trump?
Westerhout: I didn't.
Bower:
If Trump had time, he would sign the checks? Yes if he had time and if he was in the office.
And he had a tremendous amount of things to sign? Yes.
Would you see him signing things without reviewing them? Yes.
You saw him sign checks without reviewing? Yes.
22/ Press:
Trump's lawyer Necheles: He signed a lot of things. He felt if people were getting his signature they should get his real signature, right?
👉🏼Justice Merchan: Sustained. Stricken from the record.
Necheles: He signed checks while on the phone?
Westerhout: Yes.
23/ Leave it to Pagliery:
Westerhout is being quite the friendly witness for the former president, happily agreeing with Necheles' descriptions of him being a very busy man who multitasked all day, signed everything by hand, and couldn't possibly read everything he signed.
NFL this is an insult to the jury. If I was on the jury I would find it appaling. That's all you got. He was a penny pinching miser who didn't know when he signed these huge checks to #michaelcohen . Uh huh!
Other presidents didn't have this problem because other presidents weren't leveraging their office to benefit their private companies, so 'getting things' to them wasn't an issue.
NFL if I were a juror that would not RING 🔔 true. Very thin ice. ⛸️
@kwheaton Now I'm wondering about his autopen (signature machine) usage.
@73rdNemesio Oh, the hair (me) always wins.
Mr. Blowdryer always tries to challenge us, but always loses, and always will.
Laffy
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