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Over the last five weeks, the jury in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial witnessed a marathon of testimony.
Among the 22 witnesses who took the stand, jurors heard from Trump’s former lawyer, an adult film actress, two of Trump’s executive assistants, a tabloid executive, a top White House aide, and a flurry of custodial witnesses as prosecutors sought to show that Trump falsified business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to boost Trump’s electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Defense lawyers told a markedly different story, pinning the responsibility for the invoices on Cohen and suggesting that Trump — who has denied all wrongdoing — was simply protecting his family from false allegations.
Ahead of closing arguments on Tuesday, here is a summary of what each witness said on the stand.David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer
Pecker told jurors that he agreed to serve as the «eyes and ears» of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign by flagging any potentially negative stories to Cohen, who could then coordinate a way to kill them.
Pecker testified that his company made two catch-and-kill payments to honor his agreement with Trump, paying $30,000 to a former doorman who falsely alleged that Trump had a child out of wedlock, and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump that he denied took place.
Pecker also said he flagged Stormy Daniels’ potential story to Cohen in October 2016, but declined to make the $130,000 hush money payment out of his own pocket.Rhona Graff, Donald Trump’s longtime executive assistant
During 35 minutes of testimony, Graff testified that she created contact entries in the Trump Organization’s computer system for both McDougal and Daniels. She also testified that at one point she saw Daniels in Trump Tower on the same floor as the former president’s office.Gary Farro, former Managing Director at First Republic Bank
Farro described what he said was Michael Cohen’s frantic effort in October 2016 to create bank accounts for two shell companies, Resolution Consultants LLC and Essential Consultants LLC, which were described in applications as real estate consulting companies.
Farro said that had Cohen been truthful about the purpose of the accounts — which were created to make hush money payments as part of the catch-and-kill plan —the accounts and wire transfers would have likely been delayed or not approved.Robert Browning, Executive Director of C-SPAN Archives
Browning served as a custodial witness to verify two campaign videos of Trump in 2016, and one speech after Trump was elected.
In one of the videos, Trump denied any of the allegations made against him by women and suggested that the accusations could result in him losing the 2016 election. Prosecutors say that concern prompted Trump to make the Stormy Daniels hush money payment.Philip Thompson, Esquire Deposition Solutions
Thompson served as a custodial witness to authenticate the transcript and video from Trump’s deposition in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case.Keith Davidson, ex-attorney for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels
Davidson testified about his role brokering the hush money payments for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. While Davidson testified that Cohen ultimately made Daniels’ payment out of his own pocket, he said that he understood that Trump would effectively fund and be the beneficiary of the payment.
During his testimony, jurors also heard a secretly made recording of a conversation between Davidson and Cohen, in which Cohen spoke about Trump’s alleged take on the Daniels payment.
«I can’t even tell you how many times he said to me, you know, ‘I hate the fact that we did it.’ And my comment to him was, ‘But every person that you’ve spoken to told you it was the right move,'» Cohen said in the recording.Douglas Daus, Analyst for Manhattan DA’s Office
Daus testified as a custodial witness about his work extracting the contents of Michael Cohen’s two iPhones. During Daus’ testimony, prosecutors introduced into evidence a recording that Cohen secretly made of a 2016 conversation with Trump.
