Trump trial: Stormy Daniels tells (almost) all about alleged encounter with Trump

Before Judge Merchan ended the proceedings for the day, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass flagged that the DA's office plans to recall a previous witness: Manhattan DA paralegal Georgia Longstreet.

According to Steinglass, Longstreet would testify about some additional social media posts from Trump, and text messages between National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez.

Merchan consented to the plan, as long as defense lawyers get 24 hours' notice before calling Longstreet. She will likely testify again on Thursday or Friday, Steinglass said.

Steinglass also raised concerns about defense attorneys' complaints about the limited notice about the next witness and their relevant exhibits.

"I don't like the impression being left that we are somehow sandbagging the defense," Steinglass said, defending the practice of not disclosing their next witness, given Trump's recent violations of the case's limited gag order.

"The defendant has been violating the order restricting extrajudicial speech, and we don't want to have the next witnesses' names out there," Steinglass said.

"How are we doing on scheduling?" Merchan asked to conclude the day.

Steinglass told Judge Juan Merchan that the state's case will likely conclude two weeks from tomorrow.

"I would say about two more weeks," he said.

The defense's case will then follow.

With the introduction of People's exhibit 34, a check with Donald Trump's signature, the jury has now seen all 34 allegedly falsified invoices, ledger entries and checks, concluding the direct testimony of Trump Organization staffer Deborah Tarasoff.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche then carried out a brief cross-examination, during which Trump readjusted in his chair to get a better view of Tarasoff.

"You never had any reason to believe President Trump was hiding anything, correct?" Blanche asked Tarasoff at the end of his cross.

"Correct," she answered.

Tarasoff then stepped off the witness stand. Trump looked over toward her as she exited the courtroom, but the two did not interact.

Like earlier, Tarasoff smiled at Eric Trump on her way out of the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan then sent the jury home for the day.

As she reentered the courtroom after the mid-afternoon break, longtime Trump Organization staffer Deborah Tarasoff, who still works at the company, patted the hand of Eric Trump, who is seated in the front row of the spectators' gallery.

Tarasoff's direct examination resumed, with jurors continuing to pay close attention to her testimony.

As she walked the jury through each of Michael Cohen's invoices and the resulting ledger entries and checks -- which comprise the 34 counts of the DA's indictment -- the jury members shifted their attention between Tarasoff at the witness stand, the exhibits on the screen in front of them, and prosecutor Christopher Conroy.

Many of the jurors continued to take notes as they thoroughly examined the exhibits.

Trump, sitting at the defense table, was similarly engaged with the testimony, occasionally conferring with his lawyers and examining the evidence.

Trump Organization accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff walked the jurors through the process for processing the invoices and checks for Michael Cohen in 2017.

The process generally began with an email from controller Jeffrey McConney, who approved the expenses.

"Please pay. Post to same g/l as last month," McConney said in his email from March 2017.

"Please pay," McConney emailed Tarasoff in April.

Jurors then saw the invoice processed on the Trump Organization's general ledger, labeled as "legal expenses."

"Where did that come from?" prosecutor Christopher Conroy asked.

"I put that in. It came from the invoice," Tarasoff said.

For checks from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, two people -- from among either Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Allen Weisselberg -- signed the check. For the checks from Donald Trump's personal account, Donald Trump had to sign the check himself.

Some of the jurors appeared to be attentive during this testimony, watching Tarasoff explain the exhibits displayed on the screen in front of them. Others sat passively, some with their arms crossed, as the testimony continued.