- Testimony began with continued cross-examination of former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout. Prosecutors had elicited testimony about checks President Trump signed personally after they were received by his bodyguard. Defense attorneys elicited testimony that this not some "run-around" technique to bypass White House security.
- Analysts with AT&T and Verizon testified about the processes by which they collected data that was turned over to the district attorney's office on subpoena. A paralegal with the district attorney's office testified about compiling phone records, including recordings Mr. Cohen made, into summaries for evidence. Another paralegal read into the record a series of texts that revealed negotiations for the Stormy Daniels story between attorney Gina Rodriguez and editor Dylan Howard.
Leaving the courtroom, President Trump said the gag order situation was a "disgrace."
"[What] the judge did was amazing, actually was amazing. Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want. I'm not allowed to say anything about anybody," he said.
He did not answer whether he would testify next week.
Mr. Blanche asked the judge to impose a gag order on Mr. Cohen, arguing there was precedent for such an order. He argued that though Mr. Cohen made a statement that he would cease his attacks on social media, he in fact has not.
Mr. Steinglass said prosecutors have "repeatedly instructed all the witnesses in this case to refrain from public statements."
"The fact is, we have no control over what they do," Mr. Steinglass said. "The fact of the matter is, these witnesses are not subject to a gag order and we have no remedy if they engage in these activities."
Defense attorney Emil Bove told the judge that "Mr. Weisselberg's absence from this trial is a very complicated issue."
He said the government was using a hearsay claim.
"They're saying he conspired with Mr. Cohen. He is, in that way, I submit, an uncalled government witness," Mr. Bove said. "We think that it's unduly prejudicial, and it's not particularly relevant. This would look differently if we had sought to offer hearsay, but that's not what we're doing."
Prosecutors said in court they expect to call two more witnesses.
"I think it's entirely possible that we will rest at the end of next week," said prosecuting attorney Joshua Steinglass.
Prosecuting attorney Christopher Conroy asked to submit Mr. Weisselberg's severance agreement into evidence.
Defense attorney Emil Bove asked if putting together the call summary charts was "at time, arguable tedious work?"
"Honesty, I kind of enjoyed it," Mr. Jarmel-Schneider said.
Mr. Jarmel-Schneider confirmed there were also calls that were deleted from the summary charts.
David Jarmel-Schneider took the witness stand next. He has worked in the district attorney's office for almost two years, as a paralegal assigned to this case.
He reviewed call logs, contact lists, calendar invites, and other metadata and compiled a summary report on contact information for the case.
"We wanted to give the jury a sense of how we figured out which phone numbers were associated with which people," he said.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche questioned Ms. Longstreet, who confirmed that she has not been tasked with doing additional social media review since she testified last Friday. She confirmed she has been in court every day during trial, and recalled Mr. Pecker's testimony.
"So when for example Ms. Rodriguez talks about messages from the Daily Mail, and the timing of those offers, you have knowledge of the truthfulness of those messages?" Mr. Blanche asked.
"No," Ms. Longstreet said.
Two months later, Ms. Rodriguez texted Mr. Howard about the story again.
"Stormy Daniels and Trump with her is up on the Dirty and Fox News has been calling. Stormy has not called or spoken. Are you interested?" Ms. Rodriguez texted on Oct. 8, 2016.
"She will confirm on record?" Mr. Howard asked. "Yes," Ms. Rodriguez texted.
Prosecutors showed text exchanges between Dylan Howard, chief content officer at American Media Inc., and Gina Rodriguez, Ms. Clifford's manager and Mr. Howard's source.
On April 7, 2016, Ms. Rodriguez sent, "But stormy daniels was his mistress." Mr. Howard wrote back, "I bet she was."
On June 28, 2016, they exchanged several more texts.
Prosecutors called Georgia Longstreet back to the witness stand. Ms. Longstreet had reviewed social media posts in relation to the case, flagging and archiving posts.
She testified that she also worked in a paralegal capacity on the case, reviewing other records.
She had reviewed and archived posts from the @realdonaldtrump Twitter, now X, account.
Justice Merchan granted the defense's request to exclude an interview President Trump had given in 1999 that the prosecution wanted to use to establish that he had knowledge of campaign finance laws.
Jenny Tomalin, senior analyst with Verzion, took the witness stand.
She affirmed phone records prosecutors entered into evidence were captured between 2015 and 2018 from Verizon subscribers.
Ms. Tomalin confirmed phone records shown were for an account belonging to Keith Davidson.
Daniel Dixon, lead compliance analyst with AT&T, took the witness stand.
"I assist with compliance legal demands, and I help law enforcement obtaining our records," he said.
Prosecutors showed records related to a phone belonging to Mr. Cohen. Mr. Dixon affirmed that their records can log when calls and texts took place, excluding texts sent through encrypted apps, as well as data usage.
Prosecuting attorney Rebecca Mangold asked, "was the method of sending checks through Fedex to somebody's personal address an end-run around the White House security protocols?"
"Not to my understanding, it was just a way to get him things faster," Ms. Westerhout said.
Ms. Westerhout confirmed she met President Trump in November, after the election, and had no firsthand knowledge of his reaction to the release of the Access Hollywood tape.
Ms. Westerhout told attorneys yesterday that President Trump preferred to sign things personally rather than using an automated signature.
"You would leave items for President Trump on his desk; if he had time and you gave them to him, he would sign items. There was proclamations that he was signing?" Ms. Nechcles asked.
"Yes, commissions, proclamations, memos, letters," Ms. Westerhout said, confirming it could be hundreds a day.
Prosecutors had asked Ms. Westerhout several questions about the way President Trump received Trump Organization checks, including how they went directly to him and how he would personally sign them.
Ms. Westerhout confirmed for the defense that a P.O. box had been set up for President Trump to receive personal items, but it turned out to be a very slow method because of the security involved. She confirmed that the president felt it disrespectful not to returns call promptly, and that was how his bodyguard Keith Schiller came to receive the checks that President Trump was to sign for The Trump Organization.
"President Trump was upset that he was not getting personal documents and letters from friends of his, right?" Ms. Necheles said.
Madeleine Westerhout, former Director of Oval Office Operations, returned to the witness stand for questioning by the defense.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles showed the contact list President Trump's executive assistant Rhona Graff had prepared for Ms. Westerhout. Yesterday, prosecutors pointed out that David Pecker and Michael Cohen were on a shortlist of contacts that would be patched through to the president.
"There were many people on the list President Trump never called," Ms. Necheles said.
President Trump shared several op-eds by legal commentators before heading into court on Friday morning, first sharing that he was holding a rally on Saturday.
"Everything you've been watching has nothing to do with the case, they know that," President Trump said. He quoted one expert who opined that such testimony has "backfired spectacularly."
"Why did they bring this case right before the election? You know, and so did I," he added, before reading another op-ed that said the district attorney should be prosecuting violent crime instead. "They are cheating."
Friday morning, Justice Merchan issued a decision rejecting the defense's subpoena to Mark Pomerantz. Prosecutors had moved to quash, and the judge granted that motion.
Mr. Pomerantz had written a book detailing his investigation into President Trump during his time at the district attorney's office. He had resigned before an indictment was returned, publicly criticizing Mr. Bragg for not bringing charges. Allies of President Trump, including House Republicans who recently opened an investigation, have pointed to Mr. Pomerantz's book account as evidence that the case is politically motivated.
Justice Merchan said subpoena had been overly broad and sought information that he deemed not relevant or amounted to a fishing expedition.
Former President Donald Trump's trial has been eventful this week, with two rejected motions for mistrial and emotional testimonies on the witness stand.
Stephanie Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, testified over two days, providing unsolicited details on the witness stand. Attorneys on both sides and the judge found her to be a "difficult-to-control" witness, who often did not answer questions directly and added commentary unrelated to the questions asked.
Her testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 was colored with descriptions of how fearful she felt and a power imbalance between them. Defense attorneys moved for a mistrial after her first day of testimony, arguing that her statements were "extremely prejudicial" and would influence the jury on issues far beyond the scope of the business record charges that the case is about.