Trump trial sees investigator return to the stand as 3rd week nears close

A forensic analyst who works for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will resume testimony Friday in the trial of former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Douglas Daus introduced a recording of Michael Cohen speaking to Trump, which he said he located on Cohen’s phone.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David,” said Cohen, referring to former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who helped suppress a model’s claim of an affair with Trump.

“So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?” Trump can be heard asking, describing the amount that Pecker’s publication paid the model, Karen McDougal.

Earlier in the day, McDougal’s former attorney Keith Davidson testified about that deal and another he negotiated from just before the presidential election: a $130,000 payment from Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Davidson and the jury heard another of Cohen’s recordings. In that October 2017 phone call, Cohen said, “I can’t even tell you how many times [Trump] said to me, you know, ‘I hate the fact that we did it,'” referring to the Daniels deal.

Cohen is expected to testify later in the trial. He is prosecutors’ central witness against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump denies committing the crimes and says he did not have sex with Daniels or McDougal.