Trump trial: 1st week of testimony ends with testimony from Michael Cohen's former banker
Banker Gary Farro testified in Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York.
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 to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Top headlines:
- Banker says he set up LLC, which Cohen used to pay Daniels
- 'Thank you for handling' McDougal, Pecker says Trump told him
- 'This story is true,' Pecker recounts being told of Stormy Daniels
- Pecker describes $150,000 negotiations for McDougal's story
- Secret Service has plans if Trump is confined for contempt: Sources
What to know about the hush money case
READ MORE: Here's what you need to know about the historic case.
Prosecutors call David Pecker as 1st witness
Prosecutors have called former American Media Inc. executive David Pecker as their first witness.
The DA alleges that Pecker, who oversaw the National Enquirer, engaged in a conspiracy with Trump and Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen to help influence the 2016 election by killing negative stories about Trump.
Michael Cohen obsessed with 'getting Trump,' defense claims
In his opening statement, defense attorney Todd Blanche sought to eviscerate Michael Cohen's credibility, saying Cohen is obsessed with Donald Trump, has a desire to see Trump incarcerated and has a propensity to lie.
"He has a goal, an obsession, with getting Trump. I submit to you he cannot be trusted," Blanche said.
On Sunday night, Cohen publicly posted online that he had a "mental excitement about this trial" and the testimony he would deliver, Blanche said.
"His entire financial livelihood depends on President Trump's destruction," Blanche said. "You cannot make a serious decision about President Trump by relying on the words of Michael Cohen."
Trump had 'nothing to do' with invoices, defense says
"I have a spoiler alert," defense attorney Todd Blanche told jurors during his opening statement. "There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy."
Amid frequent objections from prosecutors, Blanche argued that the Manhattan district attorney has attempted to make the payments and non-disclosure agreements between Trump and Stormy Daniels "sinister" to the jury.
Judge Merchan had to interrupt Blanche's opening after multiple objections from prosecutors, then he met the parties at a sidebar conference, after which he struck a line from Blanche's opening.
"There is nothing illegal about entering into a non-disclosure agreement. Period," Blanche restated after the portion of his opening was struck from the record.
Blanche's opening has come off more casual and off-the-cuff than the state's opening, with Blanche improvising and posing hypotheticals to argue that accountants at the Trump Organization did not run the invoices by Trump as he was "running the country."
"'Hey, we got this invoice. I know we are trying to cover it up here,'" Blanche said sarcastically about how prosecutors described how accountants received invoices from Cohen. "Absolutely not."
According to Blanche, Trump was unaware of how the invoices were processed by his employees.
"President Trump has nothing to do -- nothing to do -- with the invoice, with the check being generated, or with the entry on the ledger," Blanche said, arguing that Trump was busy "in the White House while he was running the country."
"The reality is that President Trump is not on the hook -- criminally responsible -- for something Michael Cohen might have done years after the fact. The evidence will prove otherwise," Blanche said.
'None of this was a crime,' defense attorney says
Donald Trump is "not just our former president, he's not just Donald Trump that you've seen on TV," said defense attorney Todd Blanche in his opening statement.
"He's also a man. He's a husband," Blanche said. "He's a father."
Blanche pushed back on the DA's overall allegation that the payments to Trump's attorney Michael Cohen were weren't only payback for Stormy Daniels by using the prosecutor's own words against him.
Blanche noted that Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels, but that Trump paid back Cohen a total of $420,000. If Trump really was a frugal businessman, as prosecutors said, why would he overpay that money, Blanche asked.
"Ask yourself, would a frugal businessman, a man who pinched his pennies, repay a $130,000 debt to the tune of $420,000?" Blanche asked.
Blanche repeatedly reiterated that Cohen truly was an attorney for Trump and was doing legal work for him, pointing out that Michael Cohen's own email signature noted he was Trump's attorney.
"None of this was a crime," Blanche said, saying the 34 counts against Trump "are really just 34 pieces of paper."
Pecker reiterates that he didn't want Stormy Daniels' story
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified on cross-examination that the publication's limited involvement in Stormy Daniels' hush money payment was unrelated to the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting where Pecker vowed to serve as the "eyes and ears" of Trump's presidential campaign.
Pecker's testimony on cross-examination about the Daniels story appeared consistent with his testimony yesterday about his strong desire not to be involved in the Stormy Daniels payment.
Pecker said yesterday that he did not want to be involved in the story due to concerns about reputational harm to the National Enquirer and a lack of reimbursement for the other payments he had made to suppress previous Trump stories.
"I said, we already paid $30,000 to the doorman, we paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, and I am not a bank. I am not paying out any further disbursements among us," Pecker testified yesterday. Pecker said he instructed National Enquirer Chief Content Officer Dylan Howard to flag the Stormy Daniels story to Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels himself.
Asked about Daniels' payment on cross-examination, Pecker said that the National Enquirer's limited involvement was unrelated to their vow to Trump.
"You did not consider the Stormy Daniels story to be part of any agreement you had in August 2015?" defense attorney Emil Bove asked.
"That is correct," Pecker said.
"You wanted nothing to do with it?" Bove said.
"That's correct," Pecker said.
Pecker added that he did not "authorize" Howard to continue communicating with Stormy Daniels' lawyer Keith Davidson about the payment.
When Howard raised concerns to Pecker that Davidson had not yet been paid by Michael Cohen, Pecker said he was angry that Howard continued to communicate with Davidson about the story. In addition to the nature of the story -- which Pecker said could endanger the National Enquirer's relationship with its distributors -- Pecker said Cohen's delay in paying Daniels' lawyer could result in reputational harm to the National Enquirer.
"Frankly, you were not happy to be hearing that?" Bove asked about Cohen's delayed payment.
"Yes," Pecker said.
"The main concern was Howard's reputation?" Bove asked.
"Yes," Pecker said.