SwigAg11 said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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jt2hunt said:

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Would you want your witness doing this on the eve of testifying?

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would anyone?

i suspect the new york DA office is pulling their hair out as their "star" witness, who they knew would lots of credibility issues, is going to me much much worse than they ever could have expected

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I guess the bigger question is if the judge will let the defense bring the ticktock/twitter posts into evidence during cross?

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That is going to be quite the crapshow with how this judge operates with his handling of objections. I still can't find out if all of these sidebars are being transcribed or not. My assumption is they would be part of the record but after that hearing late yesterday, not so sure anymore.

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I still can't find out if all of these sidebars are being transcribed or not. My assumption is they would be part of the record but after that hearing late yesterday, not so sure anymore.

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every sidebar is part of the record and on the transcript.

BMX Bandit said:

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with some exceptions for spouse, experts, etc., the texas rule is "the witnesses on both sides shall be sworn and removed out of the courtroom to some place where they cannot hear the testimony as delivered by any other witness in the cause"

I have never had a case that got play-by-play media coverage (doubt anyone here has), so I've never had to think about if "cannot hear the testimony as delivered" would include reading a story or blog about it.

interesting question though. trump's lawyers may bring this up and move to exclude him from testifying.

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This was partially the motivation from my original question if the defense can attempt that.

Edit: If Cohen cannot testify, the prosecution has nothing to connect any dots.

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Madeleine Westerhout says she spoke with Donald Trump after the article about the Stormy Daniels story was published.
"He was very upset by it," Westerhout says. "My understanding was he knew it would be hurtful to his family."
Westerhout then clarifies that was her understanding but not that Trump specifically said that to her. "He didn't specifically speak about his family in that conversation," she says.

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The defense is done with cross-examination. Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is back up with another round of questions for Madeleine Westerhout.

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Madeleine Westerhout spoke with defense attorney Susan Necheles once before on Wednesday night the day before she was called as a witness.
The meeting with Necheles was for one hour via zoom. Westerhout met with prosecutors three times for hours.
More on this: At the start of most cross-examinations, the defense attorneys have noted they have not previously spoken to witnesses. It is not uncommon for witnesses to speak with prosecutors or defense attorneys.

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Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is asking whether the FedEx method of sending checks was an "end run" around White House security protocols.

"Not to my understanding," Westerhout says, adding that it was a way to get things to Trump "faster."

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Madeleine Westerhout is off the stand and her testimony is over.
She raised her eyebrows and smiled at Trump as she left the courtroom. He smiled back at her and mouthed something.
At the end of redriect, Westerhout confirmed she works as the chief of staff to the chair of American Global Strategies, who is Trump's former national security adviser Robert O'Brien.

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Daniel Dixon, who works as a lead compliance analyst for AT&T, is the next witness.
He is testifying under subpoena to AT&T as a records custodian.

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Daniel Dixon is being asked about call-detail records and subscriber records that are kept by AT&T.

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aggiehawg said:

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Donald Trump's attorney Susan Necheles is now asking about an invoice from the Winged Foot Golf Club, where longtime assistant Rhona Graff had asked for Madeleine Westerhout's help in whether to suspend or pay for his membership while he was president.
"He answered one word, just pay," Necheles says. "Boom, it was off his desk."
"Yes," Westerhout says.

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I am not understanding the prosecution's obsession with his membership at Winged Foot? That's a private club established in the 20s in upper NY state that the state made a big point about on direct so defense is coming back to it.

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I have to imagine they think that's setting up something for later which I can't fathom what that would be. Did Trump meet with Cohen at Winged Foot or something and they want to make the case that's why he kept the membership? lol

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The records from AT&T have been admitted into evidence. They are being brought up to show jurors.

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One of the AT&T records admitted into evidence is for Michael Cohen's cell phone.

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Daniel Dixon is now going into detail about what subscriber reports are and what call-detail records are.
He is defining certain words, including "mobility," "wireline," "voice usage" and "SMS." He adds that AT&T records are kept in the UTC time zone.
This may be the most tedious testimony of the trial so far. It's required, like other records custodians, because Trump's lawyers would not agree to admit the evidence.

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LOL. Why would they?

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Cross-examination of Daniel Dixon is now beginning.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove introduces himself and says he represents former President Donald Trump over to his left.
Dixon glances over and smiles, appearing to shift in his seat when he acknowledges Trump.
Jurors are following along, looking at their monitors.

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What a world we live in

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Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking about what one code on the form stands for. "It's the serial number of a SIM card," Dixon says.
A SIM "can be pulled out of one phone and put into another," Bove says.
"Yes," Dixon confirms.

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Trump attorney Emil Bove is now asking about the limits of certain call records.
"These records don't reflect the content of these calls?" Bove asks.
"Correct," Daniel Dixon says.
"You can't tell from the records themselves who actually spoke?" Bove asks.
"Correct," Dixon says.
"You're familiar with the concept of a pocket dial?" Bove asks, suggesting the transactional record shown could've been an accidental call.

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There is no redirect, and Daniel Dixon leaves the witness stand.

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From earlier:

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n a written order Friday Judge Juan Merchan granted prosecutors motion to quash a subpoena from Donald Trump's lawyers seeking to compel former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to turn over more records.
Merchan called Trump's request for "all Documents" for a 13-month period from several individuals covering a range of topics including "Cohen's recollection of interactions with President Trump" and "any form of bias or animosity toward President Trump" an improper fishing expedition.
Trump's lawyers also asked for all documents relating to a February 2021 internal memo on "whether Stephanie Clifford a/k/a 'Stormy Daniels,' committed 'extortion and or 'larceny,' and (b) whether President Trump was a 'victim of blackmail."

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Merchan ruled Friday that the information is protected as privileged work product while also calling the request impermissibly broad. Merchan denied another request in the subpoena seeking years worth of communications between personnel within the Manhattan DA's office calling it an apparent "attempt to obtain DANY's internal communications about their discovery obligations."

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The order notes Trump's legal team has received some discovery from Pomerantz as recently as March before the trial began.

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has entered the courtroom.

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Jennie Tomalin is the next witness. She works for Verizon as a senior analyst in executive relations

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I'll explain in a minute where I think the defense is heading with the cell phone evidence questions.

aggiehawg said:

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Jennie Tomalin is the next witness. She works for Verizon as a senior analyst in executive relations

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I'll explain in a minute where I think the defense is heading with the cell phone evidence questions.

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I'm vaguely remembering something about Cohen's phones being tampered with?

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The records that prosecutors are introducing through Jennie Tomalin relate to 12 subscriber phone records, she says.
The records from Verizon are accepted into evidence, including one of a phone for Allen Weisselberg.

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Prosecutors have finished their first questions for Jennie Tomalin. Trump attorney Emil Bove is now asking her questions.

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Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking Jennie Tomalin about the Verizon records, including one for Keith Davidson.
Remember: Davidson is the former attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. He testified last week.

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The court is taking a short break.

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Going back to Westerhout's testimony from earlier, I've read through a twitter feed that is trying to capture more of the language being used. If I'm reading it correctly, it looks like every time Westerhout was asked about Trump being upset about the Stormy Daniels story for his family's sake, Merchan had it stricken from the record.

That seems like it supports multiple other witnesses stating that Trump was concerned for his family. Is the judge not allowing this because of speculation? I'm guessing because she didn't personally hear him say that?

Trump's lawyer Necheles: You were working in the White House when Stormy Daniels' story came out?
Westerhout: Yes.
Necheles: He was upset?
Westerhout: Yes. He was concerned his family would see it.
Justice Merchan: Sustained. The answer is stricken. Any redirect?

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

SwigAg11 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Jennie Tomalin is the next witness. She works for Verizon as a senior analyst in executive relations

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I'll explain in a minute where I think the defense is heading with the cell phone evidence questions.

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I'm vaguely remembering something about Cohen's phones being tampered with?

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Not exactly but the possibility is certainly there. Bragg's cell phone extraction expert took Cohen's cell phone from him in January 2023. He didn't receive the physical phone until four days after Cohen agreed to provide it to the prosecution.

However, the feds raided Cohen's office and home in April 2018, nearly five years earlier. That raid included his electronic devices. And that is when it was leaked that Cohen had recorded his attorney client conversations with Trump. So the feds had that information for five years. Which means the SDNY had them. They declined to prosecute Trump at that time presumably on federal election law violations. Trump was out of office January 2021 and could have revived that case had they felt there was just cause to do so.

Finally, the recording itself is incomplete with at least 46 seconds deleted.

My assumption is the defense has an expert to further cast doubt on the supposed contents of Cohen's phone in 2023. And Cohen will be asked about deletions, his use of his cloud account, etc.

nortex97 said:

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Colangelo already told the jury to keep an open mind about his testimony. I have zero doubt Merchan will allow him to testify.

I am hopeful lightning will strike the courthouse when he puts his hand on the Bible and swears to tell the truth, but not entirely confident of God taking that specific act.

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Believe it or not they don't swear on a Bible anymore

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Lawyers are now taking up an objection to an upcoming exhibit.
Defense attorney Emil Bove says the exhibit is a clip of Trump on "Larry King Live" in 1999 being asked about campaign finance laws. Bove argues that Trump's views on campaign finance in 1999 are not relevant to his state of mind in 2016 or 2017.

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"There was extensive revisions to campaign finance laws in intervening period both statutory and by the Supreme Court," Bove argues.

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Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold says that the corporate contribution ban, which is what's relevant here, has been part of campaign finance law since 1907.
Judge Juan Merchan says he will rule after the break.

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1999? While Clinton was in office? Before McCain Feingold? Totally irrelevant.

Rare display of sanity from Merchan.

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Judge Juan Merchan sides with the defense and says he will not allow Trump's interview in 1999 about campaign finance into evidence.

He says trying to draw an inference to what he knew in 2015 or 2017 is a step too far.

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Judge Juan Merchan says they are going to end early today. They are going until 1 p.m. ET or perhaps a bit later but will not be returning after lunch.

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Prosecutors have two more witnesses, which they estimate will take about an hour, according to reporters in the courtroom.

They have one more evidentiary issue to take up after their testimonies.

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I assume they mean two more witnesses for today.

SwigAg11 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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BMX Bandit said:

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SwigAg11 said:

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From earlier, is that really Cohen advertising trump-to-jail shirts on ticktock this morning? If so, how is a witness at a trial allowed to do that against a defendant in the middle of the trial?

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why wouldn't a witness at a trial be allowed to do that? as long as that can be used to impeach his credibility, he's not breaking any law

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The bigger issue to me is how closely is Cohen following th trial in violation of the exclusionary rule?

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Are certain witnesses, like expert witnesses, allowed to follow the trial?

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If Cohen is following the trial, then he would know what all the previous witness said, which would allow him to craft his responses to match their testimony. I think that's why a witness is not supposed to know about previous testimony. I don't tik tok, but if Cohen has mentioned anything about what a previous witness said, or even something like, "Stormy was treated unfairly" then you bet the defense is going to try to get him to be blocked from testifying.

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Georgia Longstreet is being called back to the witness stand.

The paralegal at the Manhattan district attorney's office testified last week. Longstreet tells prosecutor Rebecca Mangold that as part of her duties as a paralegal she's responsible for analyzing records produced via subpoena.

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That was the social media witness.

SwigAg11 said:

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Going back to Westerhout's testimony from earlier, I've read through a twitter feed that is trying to capture more of the language being used. If I'm reading it correctly, it looks like every time Westerhout was asked about Trump being upset about the Stormy Daniels story for his family's sake, Merchan had it stricken from the record.

That seems like it supports multiple other witnesses stating that Trump was concerned for his family. Is the judge not allowing this because of speculation? I'm guessing because she didn't personally hear him say that?

Trump's lawyer Necheles: You were working in the White House when Stormy Daniels' story came out?
Westerhout: Yes.
Necheles: He was upset?
Westerhout: Yes. He was concerned his family would see it.
Justice Merchan: Sustained. The answer is stricken. Any redirect?

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

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This stuff always gives me an eye roll. Strike it from the record, yet the jury already heard it. Humans don't just wipe the memory bank. Everything they here is influential even in the slightest degree.

aggiehawg said:

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Judge Juan Merchan says they are going to end early today. They are going until 1 p.m. ET or perhaps a bit later but will not be returning after lunch.

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Prosecutors have two more witnesses, which they estimate will take about an hour, according to reporters in the courtroom.

They have one more evidentiary issue to take up after their testimonies.

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I assume they mean two more witnesses for today.

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They are saving Cohen for Monday

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They are saving Cohen for Monday

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If the state ends their case in chief with Cohen, they are nuttier than squirrel s***.

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Georgia Longstreet says the team of paralegals have reviewed and saved public posts from Trump's Twitter account. This is how prosecutors are entering additional Trump tweets into evidence.

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Georgia Longstreet is testifying about the text messages she reviewed for this case. She and the other paralegals on the case have reviewed 500 pages of text messages in relation to the case. She's personally reviewed about 100 pages.
The paralegals have reviewed over 10,000 pages of call records for the case. She's personally reviewed about 200 to 300, she says.
The paralegals have reviewed 300 to 500 pages of contact records. She says she's matched about 50 contacts to phone records.
They also reviewed 75 different court cases.

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Jurors are now being shown some of Donald Trump's tweets.
The first set is a thread related to Michael Cohen, dated April 21, 2018.
It also attacks New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who is in the courtroom today as well.
To note: This tweet is days after Cohen's home, apartment and hotel room were raided by the FBI.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche renewed his objection to tweets from the former president being admitted to evidence. Judge Juan Merchan overruled the objection.

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Georgia Longstreet is now being shown messages between former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels' then-publicist Gina Rodriguez.
On June 28, Rodriguez wrote to Howard, "are you working in favor of trump?"
Howard responded immediately: "Out (typo) CEO endorsed him but I'm not no."
The messages were visible on the screen. Longstreet is now reading some of them.

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One message from Rodriguez on April 7 2016 read, "But Stormy Daniels was his mistress."
Howard responded that same day, "I bet she was."
And also, "Can u email me what u have on that?"
Rodriguez said, "Yes I will."

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Georgia Longstreet continues reading tweets from Donald Trump, including a thread from May 3, 2018, which starts out:

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"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."

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The tweet was at the same time Rudy Giuliani told Fox News' Sean Hannity that Trump paid back Cohen the $130,000 in hush money that was used to pay off Stormy Daniels.
Some context: Trump's attorneys fought this tweet about the Cohen retainer and others from coming in before trial, arguing that Trump should be protected by presidential immunity for these public posts he published during what they argued was his capacity as president. This was also one of the unsuccessful attempts to delay the trial. His lawyers asked at the time for Judge Juan Merchan to wait for the Supreme Court to weigh in on Trump's presidential immunity claim.

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Georgia Longstreet is now reading more texts between Stormy Daniels' publicist Gina Rodriguez and National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard into record.
The jury saw saw these texts during Daniels testimony.
On June 28, 2016, Howard texted Rodriguez: "Is she ready to talk?" and "I thought she denounced it previously."
Rodriguez responded: "She said she will do it under two conditions" and "She never did."

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Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the district attorney's office, is reading additional text messages that show Stormy Daniels' publicist Gina Rodriguez followed up with National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard several times asking about AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer, is using Daniels' story.
On July 23, 2016, Rodriguez said, "What happened with the Stormy Daniels interview on Trump."
Howard responded, "Let's discuss this week."

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The texts that are being read have now moved into October 2016, when Stormy Daniels' former publicist Gina Rodriguez tells then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard that Daniels is willing to confirm her story on the record.
On October 8, 2016, Rodriguez texted: "Stormy Daniels and Trump with her [REDACTED LINES] is up on the Dirty and Fox News has been calling Stormy has not confirmed or spoken are you interested?"
Howard asks Rodriguez to email him the pitch so he can elevate it to then-CEO David Pecker. "He likely will pay," Howard texts, with Rodriguez writing, "250k."

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A series of text messages between Stormy Daniels' then-publicist Gina Rodriguez and former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard regarding their negotiations for Daniels' story were introduced to jurors today.
Here are those messages:

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Howard: "I can get 100"
Rodriguez: "Lol"
Rodriguez: "Ok what about 150"
Howard: "110"
Rodriguez: "125k"
Howard: "lol"
Howard: "120"
Rodriguez: "Sold"

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LOL. But it was never about the money.

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Prosecutors have wrapped up their questioning of Georgia Longstreet. Defense attorney Todd Blanche is now up.

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So it was the state that introduced Stormy's agent haggling with Howard at the Enquirer? Even funnier.

Trump's lawyer Blanche: You have not reviewed Michael Cohen's TikTok's for example from Wednesday night?
Longstreet: I have not.
Blanche: These texts you read, you have no personal knowledge if they are true or what they mean, do you?
Longstreet: I do not.

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 10, 2024

Defense already hinting at the Cohen selling Trump-to-jail merchandise?