Jurors will now have a three-day weekend to think about what they heard during the first full week of testimony in the historic Donald Trump hush money trial.
David Pecker finally stepped down from the witness stand after more than 10 hours of testimony across four days, where the former American Media Inc. chief described in detail how he helped Donald Trump suppress negative stories and pummel Trump’s rivals in the National Enquirer during the 2016 campaign.
On Friday afternoon, prosecutors called Rhona Graff, who was Trump’s assistant at the Trump Organization, where she worked for more than 30 years. She was quickly off the stand, and a banker for Cohen came next – signaling a move in the trial toward the documents at the heart of the charges against Trump.
Here are the key takeaways from Friday:
- Jury sees paper trail: The hush money case against Trump weaves a colorful narrative, but Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records — so prosecutors have warned this will in many ways be a routine, document-heavy trial. Friday afternoon prosecutors called a banker from First Republic Bank as their third witness where jurors saw the paper trail for a shell company and corresponding bank account Michael Cohen created in Delaware that was meant to be used to pay AMI for the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
- Trump lawyer tries to puncture Pecker’s credibility: Prosecutors elicited testimony from the AMI chief about how Pecker’s 2015 deal with Trump was unique, helping him be the “eyes and ears” of the campaign. But in Pecker’s final day on the stand, Trump’s attorneys sought to undercut his testimony with a series of alleged inconsistencies, poking holes in discrepancies from prior interviews with federal and state prosecutors and disputing his testimony that AMI admitted it violated campaign finance law.
- Prosecutors try to re-establish Pecker’s credibility: Prosecutors responded during redirect to reestablish Pecker’s credibility in his answers, showing how his story was consistent and that AMI did admit to campaign finance violations. The points were small in the grand scheme of Pecker’s testimony related to the case, but the fight was really about Pecker’s credibility as a witness. That’s key to the prosecution’s case because he helps tie together the larger hush money scheme – and will be a corroborator of Cohen’s testimony.
- Trump cracks a smile for his longtime assistant: Trump’s longtime assistant Rhona Graff testified for less than an hour. Graff managed Trump’s contacts and calendar for much of her 34 years as his assistant at Trump Tower. Graff’s testimony about her former boss prompted a smile from an otherwise subdued Trump on Friday.
- Defense tries to humanize Trump: Pecker was a longtime friend of Trump dating back to the 1980s, the former AMI chief said on the stand. As his ending question, Bove asked Pecker if he believed Trump cares about his family. He replied, “Of course I do.” Graff no longer works for Trump but she spoke positively about her experience at the Trump Organization and having Trump as a boss. Other coming witnesses, like Cohen and Daniels, will have a far more hostile view of the defendant in this case.