- Longtime personal aide Rhona Graff spoke Friday at Trump’s secret trial in New York.
- Under questioning, a defense attorney asked several questions about Trump’s “multitasking” while signing the checks.
- Trump could claim he was distracted when he signed the only allegedly falsified documents he personally handled.
A longtime personal assistant to Donald Trump was forced by subpoena to appear against him at his secret trial in New York on Friday — but she may have helped her former boss more than harmed him.
Now-retired aide Rhona Graff told jurors that Trump was prone to “multitasking” and was sometimes on the phone at the same time as he signed checks.
And nine of the checks personally signed by Trump – reimbursing his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in monthly installments for a quiet $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels – are the most damning evidence in the Republican frontrunner’s Manhattan criminal trial .
The testimony was elicited during cross-examination of Graff by Trump attorney Susan Necheles.
“Am I correct that when he was signing checks he was also multitasking? Necheles asked Graff.
“It’s happened on occasion,” Graff replied.
“Did you often see him on the phone when he signed checks?” insisted the lawyer.
This multitasking with a phone in one hand and a Sharpie in the other didn’t happen often, Graff told Necheles — but it happened.
“I don’t know how common that was in the White House,” the former aide added.
The nine checks are the only documents bearing Trump’s signature out of 34 checks, invoices and business records he allegedly falsified.
Friday’s testimony suggests the defense — or Trump himself if he takes the stand — could lay the groundwork for a claim that he was on the phone and distracted by the direction of the country throughout 2017, when he signed nine months of silence. reimbursement checks made out to Cohen, his lawyer and “fixer” at the time.
One of Trump’s personal checks for $35,000, paid to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. House Oversight Committee
District Attorney Alvin Bragg claims the nine checks — one for each of April through December — were withdrawn from Trump’s personal bank account.
Each month, FedEx sent another check from the Trump Organization to the White House to obtain Trump’s signature, Bragg claims.
Once Trump signed each check, it was FedExed back to the Trump Organization’s Trump Tower headquarters, scanned into the company’s archives, then cut and mailed to Cohen.
The checks reimbursed Cohen for directly paying Daniels $130,000 to remain silent just 11 days before the November 2016 election, prosecutors allege.
Under direct examination, Graff gave damaging, or at least cringe-worthy, testimony, telling jurors that as part of her duties at the Trump Organization, she kept Windows contact cards in her files Outlook with the phone numbers of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Prosecutors allege Trump falsified business records as part of an election influence plot to prevent Daniels (a porn star) and McDougal (a former Playboy Bunny) from going public with their allegations of having sex with Trump.
Trump denies sleeping with Daniels and McDougal or tampering with his books.
“Did you create it?” a Manhattan prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, asked Graff as Popular Exhibit 83 was displayed on four large screens in the courtroom. Each screen displayed an Outlook card for Daniels, with his cell phone number obscured.
“I think so,” replied Graff, who said she couldn’t remember a single instance in 34 years of working for Trump where he used a computer.
But defense attorney Susan Necheles used her cross-examination to ask a series of softball questions that allowed the loyal ex-aide to speak enthusiastically about Trump.
“Was he a good boss?” » asked Necheles.
“I think he was a fair boss and — what’s the word I’m looking for? — respectful to me,” Graff told jurors about working alongside Trump at the Trump Organization’s 25th-floor headquarters of Trump Tower.
Trump asked her about her family, told her to go home when she worked late and gave her a good seat at his inauguration, the aide said.
“I was on the platform,” Graff said, smiling at the memory of the inauguration. “I don’t think I deserved to be, frankly, but I was on the platform,” she added.
“I will say it was a pretty unique and enjoyable experience,” she added.
Testimony is expected to continue Tuesday and the trial is expected to last another month. If convicted, Trump faces between no jail time and four years in prison.
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