Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
#Blanche has yet to ask #MichaelCohen about anything in connection to the actual case that's on trial.
Trump's lawyers have focused on impeaching the credibility of the prosecution's 2 biggest witnesses, #StormyDaniels & Cohen. Though while Susan #Necheles’s cross-examination of Daniels was largely focused & had an arc, Blanche’s cross-examination of Cohen has been all over the place.
#Trump has his posse again. Today it’s more #Republican elected officials. Today, Trump will be joined by the #House speaker, #MikeJohnson, as well as #NorthDakota’s governor, #DougBurgum, a contender to be Trump's running mate. Also present will be Representatives #ByronDonalds & #CoryMills of Florida, & #VivekRamaswamy, who was one of Trump's primary rivals this year. Both Donalds & Ramaswamy are longshot hopefuls to be Trump's running mate.
#MichaelCohen continues to testify about the times prosecutors have warned him not to talk about the trial.
#Trump smiles at one of his lawyers, Susan #Necheles, who smiles back.
#Blanche is now making it clear that Cohen defied prosecutors’ wishes by talking to reporters. The idea, again, is to show Cohen is capable of going off on his own & doing what he wants, which the defense will likely say he did while working w/Trump.
A fmr White House aide who worked closely w/ #Trump returned to the stand to testify about a significant meeting between Trump & #MichaelCohen his personal lawyer that is at the center of Trump’s #criminal trial.
#Westerhout who worked for #Trump in the #WhiteHouse is back on the stand. Trump atty #Necheles —whose day ended yesterday w/the judge harshly criticizing her, saying she did not object as she should have to some of #StormyDaniels’s testimony— is back questioning this witness.
The prosecutors called Westerhout to testify about Trump’s behavior once in the WH, specifically whether he met w/ #MichaelCohen & how he dealt w/checks.
Defense lawyers have sought to use #Westerhout's testimony for their purposes, asking her about her experience during the 2016 campaign. She didn’t testify about that period for the prosecution much — but the defense clearly thinks her knowledge of the campaign could be helpful.
#Trump atty #Necheles is seeking to use Westerhout's testimony to suggest that Trump & #AllenWeisselberg may not have spoken much in 2017, when the alleged falsification of business records occurred.
While #Westerhout is testifying about Trump’s travel schedule, #Trump has been glancing down to read his printed puff pieces.
Part of the reason aides supply Trump w/these articles during trials — & they did it at his civil fraud trial last year as well — is to keep him occupied during the proeedings.
#Necheles is now again trying to suggest there were things happening in the chain of custody of mail sent to Trump that would have been out of Westerhout’s view.
The defense lawyer #Necheles is steering the witness, #Westerhout, toward describing the mailing arrangement for #Trump in the WH as a system that was set up merely to get mail to him quickly. She is seeking to suggest that there was nothing nefarious about it.
Necheles asks whether there was a similar set-up in previous presidential admins as well. Westerhout says that she doesn’t have personal knowledge about this but adds: “I can’t imagine it would have been any different.”
#Necheles is now taking up a second, familiar defense line, asking #Westerhout to describe #Trump as a multi-tasker who did not pay close attn while signing checks.
Overall, Necheles is seeking to cast doubt on the narrative the prosecution sought to establish yesterday: That Trump kept a close eye on private financial matters even while at the WH, & — in an unusual move — kept the checks out of the normal flow of WH mail by sending them to underlings.
#Westerhout testifies #Trump would sign checks while on the phone or in meetings.
#Necheles gets Westerhout to say that Trump felt strongly that he needed to get back to people quickly & was frustrated w/the slow pace of the mail in the WH. He found it disrespectful to friends who were trying to reach him — implying that the workaround to the WH’s mail — used for #HushMoney reimbursement — was not designed to conceal illegality, but bc he wanted to promptly responding to mail.
Importantly, #Necheles’s is again not addressing the #criminal charges #Trump faces — the fact that there was a system in place that maybe was about getting Trump his mail promptly — or suggesting that #Westerhout couldn’t see everything he was doing, or all the places checks/mail may have gotten to — all of it, unrelated to the actual charges.
While they only may suggest that there could be some alternate explanation for events, they never say what that explanation is.
Trump atty #Necheles turned to the subject of #StormyDaniels. #Westerhout testifies that the “whole situation” w/Daniels was “very unpleasant.”
But she does not seem to go where Necheles was hoping she would. Necheles asked if #Trump brought up his family in relation to Daniels's claims, but Westerhout said that he did not.
This is important because defense is seeking to suggest that Trump was motivated to pay #HushMoney because of concerns about his family, not the election.
#Mangold, the prosecutor, questions #Westerhout again during re-direct, & suggests that her actual knowledge about the reaction to the #AccessHollywood tape was nonexistent because she wasn't working for #Trump at the time.
👀🚨 Westerhout admits that she spoke to the defense lawyer #Necheles 2 nights ago. Another indication that she is trying to be a helpful witness to the defense.
The prosecution asks that the defense be precluded from asking #StormyDaniels whether she was arrested. Justice #Merchan agrees w/the prosecutors, saying that “anybody can be arrested” & that it “doesn’t prove anything.”
The people call Stormy Daniels back to the stand
#Trump atty #Necheles begins questioning by saying that in 2011, Daniels denied having had sex w/Trump.
#Necheles has taken a risky tack in cross-examination. She accused #StormyDaniels of making up the sexual encounter w/ #Trump in part by pointing out the idea of a power imbalance. The imbalance is obvious to anyone.
It's worth noting, that the defense only need to convince one of the jurors to distrust Daniels, or to buy into the idea that her word affects the case. It doesn’t.
"You are trying to make me say it's changed, but it hasn't changed," Daniels says about her story.
After a break, Necheles continued her cross-examination. She introduced a story about #StormyDaniels being at a nightclub w/ #Trump & the football player Ben Roethlisberger.
#Necheles then asked about Daniels promoting her "Make America Horny Again" tour on her Instagram account.
She's still trying to catch Daniels in very small contradictions. Daniels is fighting back, but w/ less energy.
#Necheles returned to #StormyDaniels's account of the sex, seeking to draw a contrast between Daniels's testimony on Tues & a 2018 interview she gave to Vogue. But Daniels's story sounded consistent w/her testimony, w/a key detail repeated - that #Trump may have let her leave if she had wanted to.
Cross-examination concluded.
Necheles outright accused Stormy Daniels of lying about her story again. There was a sustained objection, & the lawyers discussed the issue w/the judge.
#StormyDaniels continued to insult #Trump up until the end of her cross-examination, at one point even questioning which #indictment of his #Necheles was referring to. She quipped: "There were a lot of indictments."
The defense moved it to strike that comment from the record, but the judge said no: he said Daniels's testimony had been responsive to the questioning.
#Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is doing a classic example of a redirect examination, calmly pointing to facts the defense left out in cross.
E.G. #Necheles spent a lot of time on discrepancies between #StormyDaniels's testimony & an interview she gave in 2011 to InTouch mag. But, Hoffinger drew Daniels's attention - & the jury's - to the fine print at the bottom of the article saying it had been lightly edited.
Implying that the story did not contain every detail of Daniels's account.
#Necheles, Trump's lawyer, gets another chance at cross & is once again drilling down on #StormyDaniels for responding to #Trump's attacks.
Not only does Necheles's client often claim he has to defend himself against others on social media, but he often does preemptive strikes that are disproportionate & seem to come out of nowhere.
A lawyer, for Trump, who loves assailing people on social media, is going after Daniels for fighting back against randos attacking her.
#Westerhout’s testimony - including about the email scheduling the meeting w/ #MichaelCohen & #Trump's close attention to his finances while in the White House are very bad for her fmr boss.
Prosecution is done.
Trump lawyer, #Necheles cross-examines Westerhout, she brings up the fact that Trump wasn't Westerhout’s preferred candidate when he was elected president.
Many people have described her as crying on election night.
#Necheles describes the release of the #AccessHollywood tape as one of a number of events that rattled the #Trump campaign, & through which he stayed calm while others were "freaking out." She is trying to normalize his reaction to the tape.
Necheles is also using Westerhout’s testimony to present Trump as a nice boss & a family man. She’s also portraying Westerhout as young, out of her depth & unfamiliar w/the details of the materials she was handling on Trump's behalf.
The defense is asking for a mistrial & that #Trump be allowed to respond in public (not court) to #StormyDaniels's testimony. To be clear. Trump is asking the court to lift the #legal restrictions of the #GagOrder, so he can publicly attack a witness’s testimony.
Steinglass also criticized Blanche's colleague Susan #Necheles's cross-examination of #StormyDaniels, calling it "very thorough but somewhat misleading" & hardcore [#SlutShaming ]
Prosecutor #Steinglass says that the details of Daniels's story before & during the sexual act corroborate her account, & show the fact that sex happened, which increases the motivation to silence her.
Justice #Merchan criticizes defense for not #objecting to #testimony that was later used in a motion for #mistrial. He says he agrees that the question about whether #Trump wore a condom should not have been asked or answered. But he says he does not know "why on earth” defense atty #Necheles didn't object to that question.
Not only is Merchan signaling that he will likely reject defense’s mistrial motion, but he's dressing down their lawyering in front of their client.
#Merchan even criticized specific lines of defense’s cross-examination, chiding #Necheles in particular for leaning into the most awkward & uncomfortable parts of #StormyDaniels's testimony w/her questions in a way that he says he simply didn't understand.
[remember, the jury isn’t there]
After insisting to the defense that he barred certain details "to protect your client," Justice Merchan says, "I disagree w/your narrative that there's any new account here."