Lessons learned from Day 8 of the Trump hush money trial

 Lessons learned from Day 8 of the Trump hush money trial

On April 26, former president Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City for allegedly concealing payments for hush money. He is seated with attorney Todd Blanche, on the right. 

With three days off coming up, jurors will have time to consider the testimony they heard during the first full week of the historic Donald Trump hush money trial.

After more than ten hours of testimony spread over four days, David Pecker finally left the witness stand. During that time, the former CEO of American Media Inc. went into great detail about how he assisted Donald Trump in stifling criticism of him and sabotaging his opponents in the National Enquirer during the 2016 campaign.

The back-and-forth over Pecker's tale prepared the audience for the upcoming fights between Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, and Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer and lawyer, when they testified.

Prosecutors called Rhona Graff on Friday afternoon. Graff worked as Trump's assistant at the Trump Organization for almost thirty years.

She was soon taken from the witness stand, and Cohen's banker followed, indicating that the trial will now turn to the documents that form the basis of the accusations against Trump.

The following are the main lessons from Friday:

Jurors notice a paper trail

The hush money lawsuit against Trump is a colorful story of a now-disbarred lawyer orchestrating a hush money conspiracy to pay a porn star, and a tabloid publisher covering up scandalous affairs for a tycoon turned politician.

However, prosecutors have warned that because Trump is accused with 34 counts of falsifying company records, this will essentially be a regular trial with a lot of documentation.

As their third witness, prosecutors called a First Republic Bank banker on Friday afternoon.

Jurors were shown the documentation for a Delaware shell corporation and bank account that Michael Cohen established with the intention of paying AMI for the rights to Karen McDougal's story—a transaction that never happened. The banker testified that in the end, the account was never financed.

According to documents provided by banker Gary Farro, Cohen redirected his efforts approximately two weeks later in October 2016 and opened an account for Essential Consultants, a different business that was eventually used to pay Daniels in the hush money scheme to bury her report about an alleged affair with Trump. (Trump has refuted the allegations of both affairs.)

Monday is a dark day for court. When the trial reconvenes on Tuesday of next week, Farro is anticipated to continue testifying. He is anticipated to take the jury through the documentation pertaining to a home equity line of credit that Cohen obtained on his own property in order to pay Daniels.

The Trump attorney aims to undermine Pecker's legitimacy

Throughout his four days of testimony, Pecker presented the jury with two opposing accounts: The head of AMI was called in by prosecutors to testify about how Pecker's 2015 arrangement with Trump was special, enabling him to serve as the campaign's "eyes and ears" and purchasing uncharacteristically large amounts of bad press about the president.

During Pecker's last day on the witness stand, Trump's lawyers attempted to undermine his evidence by bringing up a number of purported inconsistencies, including differences from earlier interviews with federal and state investigators and challenging his statement that AMI acknowledged breaking campaign financing laws.

During Pecker's cross-examination, Trump lawyer Emil Bove repeatedly questioned him about whether or not his testimony was a "mistake."

Every time, Bove attempted to draw attention to discrepancies between Pecker's testimony to prosecutors earlier in the week and his previous interviews with investigators concerning AMI's $150,000 payment to McDougal for her claim that the company had an affair with Trump.

Bove once cited FBI interview notes from 2018, citing Pecker's testimony that Trump did not express gratitude to him or AMI at a meeting held at Trump Tower on January 6, 2017. Earlier this week, Pecker had testified that he received a thank-you from Trump for handling the reports about the doorman and McDougal during the campaign.

Pecker acknowledged that there were discrepancies between his current testimony and the FBI notes, even if he disagreed with them.

The goal of the prosecution is to restore Pecker's credibility

During the redirect, the prosecution reacted to bolster Pecker's credibility by demonstrating the consistency of his account and the fact that AMI had acknowledged engaging in campaign financing violations.

A week after the interview that Bove referenced, the prosecutor referred to another FBI interview from 2018 during a redirect from associate district attorney Joshua Steinglass. Pecker stated in that interview that Trump had, in fact, complimented him at the Trump Tower meeting in 2017. According to Pecker, this was in line with his evidence.

Pecker was pressed to clarify that AMI had not admitted to any campaign finance crimes after Bove claimed that Pecker's testimony was inaccurate when he stated that AMI had acknowledged to such violations. However, in response, Steinglass had Pecker attest that AMI did recognize in the agreement that "The actions it acknowledged about the Karen McDougal payment were in violation of federal campaign election law."

CNN News

In the larger context of Pecker's testimony regarding the case, the point was minor, but the crux of the dispute was Pecker's credibility as a witness.

He connects the dots in the broader hush money conspiracy, which is crucial to the prosecution's case and will support Cohen's evidence.

Trump smiles for his devoted helper

Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime assistant, gave a less than hourlong testimony.

For the majority of her 34 years working as Trump's assistant at Trump Tower, Graff oversaw his calendar and connections. Daniels' and McDougal's contact records from the Trump Organization were presented to the jury. As per Graff, she entered them for Trump.

Daniels' contact information was only provided with a mobile phone number and was saved as "Stormy" in the Trump Org contact file. McDougal's contact information contained two addresses, a phone number, and an email address.

During direct examination, Graff further stated that she had once seen Daniels at Trump Tower. Susan Necheles, the Trump lawyer, explained to Graff during cross-examination that Daniels may have visited Trump's office to talk about "Celebrity Apprentice."

Graff remarked, "I kind of remember him saying that she was one of the people who might be an interesting contestant on the show."

On Friday, a normally reserved Trump cracked a smile in response to Graff's comments about her old employer.

She remarked, "In all that time, I never had the same day twice." "It was an extremely engaging, thrilling, and fascinating place to be."

Trump's humanity is attempted by Defense

Pecker, the former head of AMI, stated on the stand that he had been friends with Trump since the 1980s. Even though it had been a few years since their last conversation, Pecker talked kindly of Trump earlier in the week, calling him a "mentor" and asserting that he had no animosity toward the man.

Bove questioned Pecker one last time, asking him if he thought Trump had any concern for his family. With a "Of course I do," he said.

Graff, who is no longer employed by Trump, gave a favourable review of her time at the Trump Organization and her time working under him. Graff responded, "If he hadn't, I doubt I would have stayed there for 34 years." Trump grinned and giggled at the remark. 

This is news of cnn about joe biden and trump.

Code: