Trump trial: Judge rebukes Michael Cohen ahead of expected testimony Monday

In June of 2017, Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout sent Trump Organization executive assistant Rhona Graff a photo and said then-President Trump wanted it framed.

"President Trump wanted to put in a frame to put behind his desk in the office," Westerhout testified. "Behind the Resolute Desk there was a little credenza."

Graff responded that she had no empty frames and offered to go to Tiffany & Co., next door to the Trump Tower, but she said the frames were "on the pricey side," about $650.

"Does DJT want to spend that much?" Graff asked in the email.

"Is this the type of thing that Mr. Trump would want to weigh in on?" prosecutor Becky Mangold asked Westerhout.

"I don't recall another instance like this," said Westerhout, but she said this was a photo of Trump's mother that he wanted it framed.

"We may have made the executive decision without his approval," Westerhout said. She glanced toward Trump sitting at the defense table, and said, "Sorry, sir."

Jurors saw an example of Donald Trump individually approving an expense. Prosecutors showed the jury a handwritten note on Trump's bill for the Winged Foot Golf Club. The bill totaled approximately $7,000.

"PAY," the note said. "ASAP OK."

"Whose handwriting is that?" prosecutor Becky Mangold asked Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout.

"That's the president's," Westerhout said, referring to Trump. "That looks to be a Sharpie or another felt tip pen."

Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout testified that Trump would sometimes receive a stack of checks to sign from the Trump Organization that was sometime "maybe half an inch thick."

"It was consistent -- maybe twice a month," she said about the frequency of receiving a package of checks.

Asked about the number of checks in each package, Westerhout said, "Sometimes there was one. Sometimes there was a stack -- maybe half an inch thick. I never counted them."

From the times when Westerhout saw Trump signing checks, she recounted that Trump signed the checks individually using a felt-tip pen.

Once he was done signing, "He would give the folder back to me, and I would put it in a pre-labeled Fedex envelope and send it back to the Trump Organization."

If Trump had a question about any of the checks, Westerhout said Trump would call then-CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Prosecutor Becky Mangold asked Trump White House aide Madeleine Westerhout about a series of exhibits, including an email with Michael Cohen coordinating an in-person meeting with Donald Trump in February 2017, as well as correspondence with then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

"I understood them to be close," she said of Trump's relationship with Weisselberg.

The conversation with Westerhout then turned to then-President Trump's personal expenses.

"It's my understanding they were handled by checks," Westerhout said. "Checks were sent from the Trump Organization to an employee at the White House and I brought them in for the president to sign."

At first, the checks were sent to Keith Schiller, "and then later they were sent to me," Westerhout said.

"The checks came in a FedEx envelope. Inside was a manila folder with a stack of checks and I brought the manila folder into the president," testified Westerhout, who said there were invoices attached to some of the checks.