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.

25/ I'm back, and Mr. Blowdry has waved the white flag again.

Catching you up now via this handy copy/paste from thread reader!

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1788902135058268502.html

26/ Via Bower from the above recap:

Good news for the reporters who are shivering in the overflow room: The prosecution says it only has two more witnesses today, and they will be relatively brief. So we expect to wrap up with today's witness testimony by lunchtime (around 1 pm).

27/ And this from Bower recap:

The next witness is Georgia Longstreet, America's favorite paralegal, who is back to provide testimony on Donald Trump's social media usage.

We see a Trump post on Twitter form April 21, 2018, in which he says that a "third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunky who don't speak to," is going out of her way to destroy Michael Cohen in the hopes that he will "flip."

28/ Bower:

Another Trump tweet from August 22, 2018 (after Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges):

"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!"

(Not bad advice, actually!)

29/ re "damning posts", Pagliery:

She also read these out loud. Keep in mind, NYT reporter Maggie Haberman is *in the courtroom.*

The former president's long-running and openly combative relationship with reporters adds a weird dimension to this trial.

30/ Press:

Prosecutor [after showing a tweet praising Paul Manafort for, by contrast, not flipping] Is this a three tweet thread?
Longstreet: Yes. May 3, 2018.
[Thread about NDA payment, "campaign contributions played no part in this transaction"]

Prosecutor: Who redacted these text messages?
Longstreet: I did.
Prosecutor: Please read them?
Longstreet: This is from Gina Rodriguez to Dylan Howard: Stormy Daniels was his mistress... She will talk under two conditions

31/ Bower:

More Trump tweets about Cohen. This one is from May 3, 2018, and it's the tweet in which Trump specifically concedes that Cohen was "reimbursed" for the Daniels payment.

Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are.....

32/ Bower:

The prosecution now instructs Longstreet to read a series of text messages into the record. They are messages between Stormy Daniels' manager, Gina Rodriguez, and the National Enquirer's Dylan Howard.

The texts were previously admitted into evidence: https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/Evidence/People/4-30-2024/People's%20171A%20(Howard-Rodriguez%20Texts%204.7.2016-10.26.2016).pdf

33/ All caught up.

This from Josh Gerstein from 20 mins ago:

Trump typically ignores the press as he walks through the courtroom for a break, but just now he leaned over and gave a friendly tap to Fox News personality Judge Jeanine Pirro, who's seated near the aisle

34/ Pagliery:

The paralegal read this one too.

No one laughed, but reading these one after the other comically show just how sharply Trump turned on his former legal adviser.

Great lawyer! What? Never mind!

35/ Press:

Prosecutor: Read these please, from July 31, 2016
Longstreet: Gina R to Dylan H: Whatever happened with the Stormy Daniels interview? Then on August 8, 2016, Call me
Prosecutor: And these?
Longstreet: Dylan H to Gina R: He likely will pay. How much? Gina R: 250K

36/ re: that tweet about Michael Cohen, via Klasfeld::

Recall:

During opening statements, Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche explicitly denied his client reimbursed Michael Cohen.

He claimed they were legal fees.

"President Trump did not pay Mr. Cohen back $130,000. President Trump paid Michael Cohen $420,000."

37/👀 Klasfeld:

Now, the jury has at least three of Trump's admissions to the contrary before them: (1) this tweet, (2) a conflict-of-interest form, and (3) testimony about a court document with such an admission.

38/ Press:

Prosecutor: Please read this from October 8-9, 2016
Longstreet: "$120,000 - sold." Then Dylan H to Gina, I'm at dinner but will forward contract. Gina R to Dylan H, I haven't told them anything accept [sic] what I said yesterday

39/ Klasfeld, who notes the Internet is spotty and interfering with reporting:

Texts between Stormy Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez and the Enquirer's then-editor in chief Dylan Howard.

On Oct. 25, 2016, they seemed to be angry that Daniels hadn't been paid.

Howard: "I'm not going to burn my lifelong contacts for these fuckers."

40/ Bower:

Blanche is up for cross examination:

You testified that you review thousands of tweets during your social media review? Yes.
Have you done any additional review recently? No.
So you're reviewing Michael Cohen's TikTok? I am not.

He moves to the Howard-Rodriguez texts.

You don't know if what they said is true? No.
You just read what was written on the exhibit? Yes.

Longstreet, a 20-something paralegal, frowns disapprovingly at TFG's lawyer as she responds to his q's

41/ Klasfeld:

On Oct. 26, 2016, Cohen opened up the bank account for his shell company used to obtain a $130,000 home equity loan to wire to Daniels' then-lawyer Keith Davidson.

"Good news I heard," Howard wrote that day.