NEW YORK—After the fourth official day of testimony has concluded, jurors in the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump have a three-day weekend to consider what they were told by the prosecutors and defense attorneys. Trump stands accused of 34 felony counts related to a scheme to silence adult star Stormy Daniels from sharing the story that she had a brief affair with the 2024 presidential candidate in 2006. Elements of the case include payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal via coordination with the former publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer, David Pecker, who spent the first days of testimony explaining the alleged "catch-and-kill" scheme to silence stories critical of Trump.
Pecker stepped down from the witness stand after testifying for 10 hours across four days. He told the court Thursday that he believed that payments to both Daniels and McDougal violated campaign finance laws and were made to influence the 2016 election. Trump's plan, per Pecker's remarks on Friday, was to help circumvent campaign finance laws so that the parent company of National Enquirer, American Media Inc., and other principal firms and individuals didn't have to disclose any contributions they made to Trump's campaign. Federal law requires all federal political candidates, from Congress to the presidency, to disclose financial contributions made to all political campaigns related to electioneering activities.
Defense attorneys for Trump once again tried to poke holes in the testimony Pecker delivered in a bid to weaken the former tabloid publisher's credibility. According to a recap by CNN, Trump lawyer Emil Bove tried to find inconsistencies in Pecker testifying to the payments made to Karen McDougal through American Media totaling about $150,000.
A banker, Gary Farro, testified for the prosecutors about the paper trail left by personal Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Farro explained Cohen set up a shell corporation in Delaware to funnel the payments to silence Stormy Daniels and potentially circumvent campaign finance disclosure requirements. Cohen formed a shell company and a bank account to compensate American Media for McDougal's silence but this account was never funded, Farro said. Later, Cohen opened an account for another shell company called Essential Consultants in October 2016, which ultimately served as the vehicle to pay off Daniels to suppress her story about having an affair with Trump in 2006, in the amount of $130,000. Farro is expected to continue his testimony next week.
Another individual who testified for the prosecution was Trump's long-time former assistant, Rhona Graff. Graff testified that she managed Trump's contacts and calendar for decades as his assistant. Jury members were presented exhibits showing evidence of contact entries for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Graff testified that she input those entries into the Trump Organization's rolodex for Trump. Daniels was referred to simply as "Stormy." She also testified she saw Daniels once at Trump Tower. A defense attorney for Trump, Susan Necheles, tried to clarify to Graff that Daniels might have been meeting with Trump to discuss a possible appearance on his reality show Celebrity Apprentice as a contestant.
“I vaguely recall hearing him say that she was one of the people that may be an interesting contestant on the show,” Graff told the court. “I never had the same day twice in all that time. ... It was a very stimulating, exciting, fascinating place to be.” Trump reportedly gave her a smirk from across the courtroom. With the depth of testimony, there is still public interest regarding whether Trump will be held in contempt of court for continuing to violate the gag orders placed on him by Judge Juan Merchan. ABC News online recollects at least 14 gag order violations, including a post by Trump to Truth Social, "Thank you to Michael Avenatti." Avenatti, who for a time served as Daniels' attorney and is currently serving a 14-year sentence in a federal prison for defrauding former clients, including Daniels, posted on X somehow that Daniels and Cohen should be held to the same gag order standard as the former president.
Merchan has yet to rule on the gag order violations Trump is accused of by the prosecutors.
