Trump trial: Emotional Hope Hicks faces her former boss on 'Access Hollywood' tape, Stormy Daniels payment
Trump's former top aide was the top witness on Day 11 of his hush money trial.
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
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Expert can't fully say why Trump-Cohen recording cuts off
In his cross-examination of expert witness Douglas Daus, defense attorney Emil Bove asked Daus why the 2016 Trump-Cohen recording on Cohen's phone abruptly cuts off, attempting to raise doubts about the integrity of the recording.
Daus suggested that he heard in the recording that another call was coming in, but Daus said he could not say with certainty why the recording ended.
"You don't have firsthand knowledge of why it cuts off?" Bove said.
Bove -- a former prosecutor with plenty of experience handling cellphone extractions -- then discussed with Daus the different ways to extract a device. For a brief moment, the tone of the cross-examination shifted from tense to friendly.
Judge Merchan subsequently ended the proceedings for the day, dismissing the parties.
The proceedings are scheduled to resume tomorrow at 9:30 p.m. ET.
In 2016 recording, Cohen tells Trump of 'transfer' of 'info'
Expert witness Douglas Daus testified about a recording on Michael Cohen's phone from Sept. 6, 2016, at 10:56 a.m.
The recording, approximately two minutes long, captures a conversation between Cohen and Trump.
"I need to open up a company for the transfer for all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen says on the call. "I am all over that, and I spoke to Allen about it when it comes time for the financing," Cohen says.
"What financing?" Trump asks.
"We'll have to pay him something," Cohen said.
The prosecution then concluded its direct examination of Daus.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Emil Bove sought to raise doubts about the integrity of the material on Cohen's phone, suggesting it had been "subject to the risk of manipulation" somewhere in the chain of custody.
Expert says Cohen had 40K phone contacts, 10 pages for Trump
Expert witness Douglas Daus walked jurors through what he found on Cohen's phones after he extracted the data -- including an astounding 39,745 contacts.
Most phones have a few hundred contacts, Daus said.
On one of Cohen's phones, he had 10 pages of contacts for Donald Trump alone, according to Daus.
On Cohen's second phone, he had 385 contacts, which is average, according to Daus.
Daus then displayed for the jury text messages between Cohen and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.
"Call me," Cohen texted Hicks on November 4, 2016.
Jurors then saw a photo of Cohen in the White House briefing room which was contained on his phone. Cohen is standing behind the podium in the photo.
Jurors also saw a calendar entry on Cohen's phone called "Meeting with POTUS" on February 8, 2017.
Daus identified that Cohen's phone contained three encrypted messaging apps: WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
Less than an hour after jurors listened to some of Cohen's recordings of his phone calls with Keith Davidson, Daus showed the jurors the location of some of those recordings on Cohen's phone.
DA calls expert who extracted Cohen's cellphone data
Prosecutors have called their next witness: Douglas Daus, who works for the lab that processes devices for the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Daus works as an analyst in the unit of the Manhattan DA's office that handles intake and processing of electronic devices, such as a cell phone seized pursuant to a search warrant. Daus said the unit creates "extractions" of the devices, which are copies of the devices called a Cellebrite or GreyKey report.
The extraction contain "anything that is normally on a phone," according to Daus, including text messages, contacts, call history, and software.
The extraction also includes metadata, which provides a deeper record of when, where, and how a device was used.
For the Trump case, Daus conducted an analysis of two of Michael Cohen's phones -- an iPhone 6S and iPhone 7.
Daus said Cohen consented to the analysis of the devices.
Cohen was a 'fixer' because 'he first broke it,' Hicks says
Defense attorney Emil Bove restarted his cross-examination of questioning longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks by asking her about her time at the Trump Organization -- following up on her earlier sentiment about the company functioning like a family business.
He asked if she met members of the Trump family, his wife and other employees.
"You felt you had his trust and respect, right?" Bove asked regarding Trump.
"Trust and respect? Yes," Hicks said.
Hicks' voice wavered during her testimony about the Trump Organization, which she recalled fondly.
"I really looked up to Rhona," Hicks said about Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime executive assistant.
Asked about then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen, she said found him something of a headache for the campaign when he circumvented their press shop.
"He went rogue, at times? Fair to say?" Bove asked.
"Yes," Hicks said.
"There were times ... he did things that were not helpful?" Bove asked.
"I used to say he would like to call himself a 'fixer,' or 'Mr. Fix-it,'" Hicks testified. "But it was only because he first broke it."