A calm day before the star witness, Trump trial delves into records: What you missed on Day 15 of the hush money trial.

In the metaphorical eye of the storm, the fifteenth day of Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial focused on phone records, social media posts, and payments — bookended by the testimony from Stormy Daniels the day before and the anticipated appearance of Michael Cohen on Monday. 

Even Trump seemed tired of the proceedings at times, piecing through newspaper articles as a paralegal from the district attorney’s office authenticated financial records for the payments made to Cohen, his former fixer. 

The district attorney’s office has argued that Trump violated campaign finance laws when his associates struck a deal with adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter in exchange for a $130,000 payment. 

Trump has been charged with 34 state counts related to falsifying business records, which prosecutors say were used to obscure the payments to Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has also denied having had an affair with Daniels.

The day in court came to an end early. Lead prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the court that prosecutors have two more witnesses and may rest at the end of next week. On Monday, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, a star witness in the case, will take the stand.

Here’s what you missed on Day 15 of the trial:

Trump's aides, current and former, fill the courtroom

Inside the courtroom, Trump’s defacto campaign manager for his current bid sat behind him and could be seen talking with Boris Epsteyhn, a senior adviser to Trump, during breaks or pauses in the testimony.

The trial has produced a rotating cast of Trump's current and former employees.

Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s former executive assistant in the White House, returned to the stand Friday morning, after beginning her testimony on Thursday. 

Cohen is expected to take the stand on Monday.

Discussion of evidence

Much of Friday's proceedings had to do with entering evidence — a process that in some courts is done via stipulation, or a simple agreement by both sides, but in this trial has been handled by witnesses in what can at times be a slow process.

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The judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, ruled that a 1999 Larry King interview, in which Trump talked about his familiarity with campaign finance law, could not be entered into evidence.

The decision came after Trump’s defense team moved to strike it from the record.

An AT&T employee and a Verizon employee were called to authenticate phone records.

And a paralegal from the prosecutor's office authenticated payment records made to Cohen from the former president’s personal checking account and revocable trust. 

Another paralegal for the prosecution authenticated a series of messages between former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels’ manager about whether she would go public with her allegations of an affair with Trump.

Sowing doubt 

Trump’s lawyers have sought to portray the former president as too busy to pay close attention to some of the documents that landed on his desk.

Under cross-examination, Westerhout agreed that Trump was fielding incoming requests nonstop. She testified on Thursday that Trump was detail-oriented and “always knew where things were.”

Trump would simply scrawl one-word requests on papers that came before him, for instance responding to one bill with just “PAY.” 

Westerhout at times looked uncomfortable under cross-examination by Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles, pausing and narrowing her gaze as she answered questions about the mail procedures at the White House after Trump took office. 

Under questioning, Westerhout said she had met with Trump’s defense attorney on the eve of her first appearance on the stand, over Zoom. Additionally, she testified that she is currently the chief of staff to Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser in the White House, and someone who could be expected to return in a future Trump administration.

She testified that she participated in three prep sessions with the district attorney’s office, meeting for hours as recently as Wednesday morning.

Westerhout also testified to not having first-hand knowledge of Trump’s real-time response to the Access Hollywood tape. She had agreed with Necheles on Thursday that Trump “did not freak out” and the story quickly blew over. But on Friday, recalled how she was working at the time at the Republican National Committee.