Trump trial live updates: Witnesses enter cell phone data and Michael Cohen’s records into evidence after ex-president’s aide told court how Donald would quickly sign checks

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is asking Georgia Longstreet to read through Twitter posts from @RealDonaldTrump.

The posts are dated from April, May and August of 2018. In them, Trump goes after his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

In one, Trump tweets about Stormy Daniels’ NDA.

Trump appears to hunch over to read his old tweets off the screen before him as Longstreet reads.

Georgia Longstreet works for the Manhattan’s district attorney’s office as a paralegal.

She has been reviewing documents and social media posts related to the case.

Longstreet is being questioned by prosecutor Rebecca Mangold.

Donald Trump walked back into court where he looked around the room including in the direction of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

Bragg has retaken his seat two rows back from prosecution table.

Donald Trump stood up and walked out of the courtroom for a break passing close to where Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was standing.

He appeared to avoid making eye contact as he walked up the aisle.

Trump did acknowledge Fox News’ Jeanine Piro, touching her shoulder as she sat near the aisle on his way out.

Tomalin was cross-examined quickly by defense attorney Emil Bove.

From Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter in court:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg entered the courtroom this morning.

He walked in carrying a brown folder and sat down a few rows back from the prosecution table.

He is watching Jennie Tomalin from Verizon testify about telephone records.

Bragg has visited the courtroom for the hush money trial before but has not sat in to observe most of the case.

Donald Trump continues to look forward as testimony continues.

Jennie is a senior analyst at Verizon.

She is testifying about records in the hush money case.

Prosecutors introduced records of twelve phones from 2015 to 2017. One set of records belonged to Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization.

Donald Trump’s defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Madeleine Westerhout a series of questions during cross-examination that show his team is trying to distance the ex-president from some of the personal finance decisions made while he was in the White House.

At one point, Necheles asked ‘would you see him signing things without reviewing them?’

‘Yes,’ Westerhout said.

‘Would you see him signing checks without reviewing them?’

Necheles also suggested Trump was multitasking while signing checks at the White House – taking phone calls and meetings with people.

‘We was a person who multitasked?’ Necheles asked.

‘Yes,’ Westerhout confirmed.

Daniel Dixon works for AT&T where he is a lead compliance analyst.

He is being questioned by prosecutor Chris Conroy.

Madeleine Westerhout has left the witness stand.

Madeleine Westerhout testifies that she did have a conversation with Donald Trump after the story about Stormy Daniels came out.

She recalls that he was ‘very upset by it.’

Westerhout says that it was her understanding that he felt the story would be ‘very hurtful to his family.’

She says however that he did not specifically speak about his family in that conversation.

Susan Necheles is asking a series of questions about the transition during the start of Trump’s presidency.

Westerhout is testifying about how the president would receive mail which was a very slow process due to security. She also confirms that things would get lost.

Necheles asks ‘Wasn’t that a problem about getting personal mail to Trump to the White House?’

‘Yes,’ Westerhout says.

She confirms they were trying to figure out way for Trump and Melania to get mail promptly.

Idea came up that mail would be sent to Keith Schiller, Westerhout confirms.

Schiller would bring them in and give them to her, and she would give them to Trump.

Donald Trump’s longtime executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout spoke warmly of her old boss on the stand on Thursday.

But her exit from the White House was more acrimonious, and the reminder sparked her to cry on the stand.

She was fired in 2019 after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters Ivanka and Tiffany.

Reports suggested at the time that she didn’t like being in photos with Tiffany, because she was perceived as overweight.

Westerhout worked extremely closely with Trump as his Director of Oval Office Operations and knew intimate details about his family and schedule.

Her departure may have been mired in tension, but it appears she has since mended her relationship with Trump.

Madeleine Westerhout served as Donald Trump’s executive assistant in the White House.

She is wearing a cream silk blouse and a black jacket in court.

Westerhout is being cross-examined by defense lawyer Susan Necheles.

From U.S. Senior Political Reporter Sarah Ewall-Wice in court:

Donald Trump is back in the courtroom after slamming his ‘horrible gag order’ to reporters staged outside.

He also touted his rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, Saturday.

When he reached the defense table inside the courtroom, he appeared to slam his papers down.

He’s joined in court by Boris Epshteyn today.

There was puzzlement on Thursday – not least from Judge Juan Merchan – as to why Donald Trump’s lawyers did not object to Stormy Daniels’ salacious evidence that he did not wear a condom during their alleged sexual encounter.

The judge, referring to Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, said: ‘Why on Earth she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom I don’t understand.’

Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor, puts foward the theory that it was ‘calculated gamesmanship’ by the defense not to object. He tells MSNBC:

I can’t say for sure, but every bone in my body tells me this is calculated on the defense part. This is not sort of ‘Oh, we forgot to object’. Susan Necheles is really experienced. She doesn’t forget to object. So when you have gamesmanship, I mean, they want this in the case.

Wait until summation. They (the defense) are going to say in summation, ‘They (the prosecution) wanted this to be as salacious as possible because they don’t have a case and they wanted to bring in all of this stuff.’

After a photographer took a photo from an area where they were not supposed to, the ban on photography in the courtroom remains in place.

Talks continue to see if photographers can make a return.

For the first few weeks of the trial, photographers were allowed in the courtroom at the start of the day to take photographs of Donald Trump at the defense table.

Trump is en route to the courthouse for Day 15 of his criminal hush money trial.

Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is expected to testify himself on Monday, setting up a brilliant showdown in court.

He is likely to be on the stand for several days.

Cohen’s recounting of events is central to the case, which hinges on the $130,000 hush money payment he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election.

Donald Trump’s former executive assistant has revealed that Melania Trump was ‘definitely the one in charge’ in her marriage to Donald Trump.

In dramatic testimony to Trump’s hush money trial Madeleine Westerhout said the former first couple had a ‘special relationship’ founded on ‘mutual respect’.

When he was president Trump would call his wife from the Oval Office and ask her to look down from a window in the White House residence.

And when he was leaving on a helicopter he would call her to ‘check in’.

Judge Juan Merchan gave a brutal dressing down of Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in front of the former president Thursday as he denied their motion for a mistrial in the hush money case Thursday afternoon.

It was the second motion for a mistrial from the defense this week after scandalous testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

In his call for a mistrial, lawyer Todd Blanche called Stormy Daniels’ testimony ‘extraordinarily prejudicial’ and noted that even the judge had agreed some of the testimony was ‘unnecessary.’

‘It almost defies belief that we’re here about a records case and the government is asking about an incident that happened in 2006,’ Blanche argued referring to Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday about rolling up a magazine and spanking Trump with it nearly 20 years ago.