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

Defense attorney Emil Bove used DA office paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider's testimony to highlight a point about former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and longtime top Trump aide Hope Hicks.

Earlier in the trial, Pecker testified about a phone call he had with with Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders where they discussed extending Karen McDougal's "catch-and-kill" agreement with the publication.

However, Hicks testified that she never had such a phone call with Pecker.

Bove, during his cross-examination of Jarmel-Schneider, suggested that no phone records exist to document the call taking place.

"I don't think that's true," Jarmel-Schneider responded, muddying Bove's point. The two briefly discussed which exhibit might contain a record of the call.

Bove subsequently completed his cross-examination.

With the day's testimony over, Judge Merchan then dismissed the jury for the weekend.

Jurors saw a summary exhibit prepared by DA office paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider that breaks down the 34 records that prosecutors allege Trump falsified in the course of repaying Michael Cohen for Stormy Daniels' hush money payment.

The exhibit shows each of the vouchers, checks, and invoices -- broken down by each criminal count -- that prosecutors say Trump falsified to disguise his reimbursement to Cohen.

The chart appears to be the jury's clearest roadmap so far to each of the documents at the center of the case.

Defense attorney Emil Bove -- once a paralegal himself -- began his cross-examination by asking Jarmel-Schneider how much time he spent on the project, suggesting it was "tedious."

"Honestly, I kind of enjoyed it," Jarmel-Schneider said, prompting jurors and several members of the gallery to break out into laughter.

"I hear you -- respect," Bove said in a rare moment of levity.

Prosecutors next called Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, another paralegal with the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Jarmel-Schneider testified that he prepared exhibits to summarize the phone calls between relevant witnesses in the case.

Using the phone records, Jarmel-Schneider said he removed extraneous calls, standardized the time zones, and created charts to act as a "roadmap" so jurors could easily see the witnesses' relevant communications.

These charts are likely to be used during Michael Cohen's testimony, which is scheduled to start Monday, and the jury will have access to the records during their deliberations.

After reviewing a series of Trump's tweets about Michael Cohen, custodial witness Georgia Longstreet read into evidence several 2016 text messages between Stormy Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer.

"Stormy Daniels ... I have her," Rodriguez wrote in one text.

"Is she ready to talk," Howard asked. "I thought she denounced it previously."

"She said she would do it under two conditions," Rodriguez wrote. "She doesn't want to go on record about it but will tell the story through a source," Rodriguez said.

"She's had sex with him. She wants 100K," Rodriguez wrote.

Jurors also saw the text exchange where Howard and Rodriguez set the price of the story at $120,000, before Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson added his $10,000 fee to bring the amount to $130.000.

In addition, the jury saw text messages from when the deal initially fell through in early October 2016. Keith Davidson testified earlier that he retracted the offer after Cohen offered multiple “excuses” for not paying the $130,000.

Longstreet stepped off the stand following a brief cross-examination.