Trump trial resumes Friday, with key witness Michael Cohen expected to testify Monday

Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, was called to the stand for the second time.

Longstreet previously introduced evidence related to social media posts made by Trump. She introduced a few more posts Friday, as well as phone and text records.

Bragg, who runs one of the busiest city prosecutors' offices in the country, has not frequently been in the courtroom. But he has attended every time one of his staff has been called to the stand to introduce records.

Trump, who was writing notes on the stack of papers he brought into the courtroom, turned his attention to Longstreet and exhibits of his tweets she was reading from. 

One of the tweets shown was about Maggie Haberman, a reporter at the New York Times, who Trump referred to as a "Crooked H flunkie who I don't speak to." 

Longstreet also introduced a long series of text messages sent between Gina Rodriguez, who in 2016 represented Stormy Daniels in negotiations around her story, and former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard. The text messages showed Rodriguez shopping Daniels' story in mid-2016, and closer to the election, updating Howard on negotiations around it.

Prosecutors wanted to introduce as evidence a 1999 Larry King interview in which Trump said he was familiar with campaign finance laws.

The defense protested, and Merchan sided with Trump.

"You're asking the jurors to speculate that because he knew the laws in 1999, he knew it in 2017," Merchan said.

Jenny Tomalin was called to introduce phone records that related to, among others, Allen Weisselberg and Keith Davidson.

Bove again raised questions about their usefulness as evidence.

"Phone numbers can shift from person to person, phone to phone, right?" Bove asked.

As Trump left the room for a mid-morning break he spotted Fox News host Jeanine Pirro in the gallery. He smiled, leaned over, and patted her on the shoulder.

Daniel Dixon, an AT&T compliance officer, was called to the stand to introduce phone records subpoenaed by prosecutors.

They're call and data logs tied to at least one of Cohen's phones.

On cross examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove, continued an effort he began earlier in this trial seeking to undermine the credibility of evidence seized from Cohen's phones. 

"There's a lot of data here, but the data also has limits, right," Bove asked shortly before concluding his cross-examination.

Before the court was in session, Trump was speaking in an animated manner with his lawyer, Todd Blanche, and looking at papers with him that appeared to show printouts of tweets or Truth Social posts.

The former president  was pointing things out on the papers to Blanche, as they whispered intently. Then, he put them down and sharply straightened the front of his navy suit. Trump is also wearing a red tie and white shirt. He looks glum this morning.

Judge Juan Merchan has rejected Trump's effort to subpoena former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, granting a motion to quash it. 

Pomerantz worked on the Trump investigation in New York before writing a memoir criticizing Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg. Merchan ruled that Trump's subpoena was "far too broad" and said it amounted "to an improper fishing expedition."

Trump attorney Susan Necheles was in the middle of questioning Westerhout Thursday when proceedings drew to a close.

Necheles asked Westerhout about her experience working for Trump, who Westerhout called, "a really good boss."

That's a tact the defense team has taken with several of Trump's former employees, eliciting often glowing testimony of their time working for the defendant.

"He never made me feel like I didn't  belong there," Westerhout said.

Necheles also continued a defense theme of eliciting testimony from former employees about Trump's relationship with family members. Westerhout said he's "very close" to them. 

Westerhout seemed cheerful this morning, smiling frequently. It was quite a contrast from her tearful testimony yesterday, when she broke down on the stand and choked up as she answered questions.

Necheles established that Trump did not call all of the people on the list Westerhout received from Rhona Graff, Trump's assistant at the Trump Organization. In particular, Westerhout didn't specifically recall any phone calls with Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's chief financial officer who is accused of orchestrating the scheme to funnel the "hush money" reimbursements to Cohen."He spoke to so many people."

Necheles also questioned Westerhout about the plan to send checks and personal items for Donald and Melania Trump by Federal Express to Keith Schiller, John McEntee and then later, Westerhout, rather than to the White House. Westerhout testified that they bypassed the White House mail system because it was slow and things would get lost.
Westerhout also said that she had seen Trump signing things without reviewing them.

When the story about Stormy Daniels broke in 2018, Westerhout said Trump was "very upset by it."
"My understanding is that he knew it would be hurtful to his family," she said. "I don't believe he specifically said that," she conceded, "but I could just tell that the whole situation was very unpleasant."

Graham Kates, Katrina Kaufman

The key witness against former President Donald Trump, his former lawyer Michael Cohen, is expected to be called to the stand Monday, sources tell CBS News.

Cohen's testimony marks the home stretch of the prosecution's case, nearly a month after this trial began. Cohen is expected to testify that Trump understood that records related to reimbursement checks to Cohen would be falsified in order to cover up the fact that they were tied to the purchase of Daniels' story.

Many of the exhibits and witnesses called by prosecutors were geared toward bolstering Cohen before Trump's attorneys attack his credibility.  Defense attorneys are expected to paint Cohen as a scorned former employee who has previously lied under oath.