Former Trump assistant testifies ex-president had contact info for Daniels, McDougal

A former longtime assistant to ex-President Donald Trump testified Friday that Trump had the cellphone numbers for both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, the two women prosecutors say received hush money payments to conceal their affairs with Trump to protect his prospects of being elected president in 2016.

Rhona Graff, who worked at the Trump Organization for 34 years, noted that she was something of a hesitant witness, taking the stand for the prosecution against her former boss, who hired her in 1987, pursuant to a subpoena.

During a very brief stint on the witness stand, she nevertheless walked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger through her duties while employed at the Trump Organization, which included entering and maintaining Trump's contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Two addresses, one cellphone number and an email were listed for McDougal; a cell was listed for Daniels, Graff testified.

When Graff once saw Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the waiting room at Trump Tower, she assumed Daniels was auditioning for Trump's then-hit show “Celebrity Apprentice,” Graff testified.

“I recall hearing [Trump] saying that she would be an interesting contestant on the show,” Graff said, of Daniels.

Graff took the stand during the tail end of the first week of testimony in Trump's historic trial, which is the first time a president or ex-president is being tried on criminal charges.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the $130,000 payment to Daniels, an adult film star.

Prosecutors have said the payment was illegally recorded in Trump's business records as legal services but said it amounted “election fraud.”

Prosecutors have said that Trump “formed a conspiracy” with Lawrence native Michael Cohen, then Trump's personal attorney and fixer, and David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher, during a meeting in August 2015 at Trump Tower to conceal negative information about Trump from becoming public.

Trump, in statements to the press Friday in the hallway outside the courtroom, decried his trial as a “disgrace,” wished happy birthday to his wife, Melania Trump, and invited President Joe Biden, his opponent in the 2024 presidential election, to debate him.

“I want to start by wishing my wife Melania a very happy birthday,” Trump said in the morning before proceedings started. “It'd be nice to be with her but I'm at a courthouse for a rigged trial. It's a rigged trial, it's terrible. But we're doing very well in this rigged trial.”

Trump has apparently managed to keep up with news events while sitting in the 15th floor courtroom that’s he’s bemoaned as freezing, because he commented after court ended for the day about Biden telling radio host Howard Stern that he would be willing to debate the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee.

“I just want to say that I've invited Biden to debate,” Trump said. “He can do it anytime he wants, including tonight. I'm ready, here we are. I invited him to the courthouse.”

Earlier Friday, Trump defense attorney Emil Bove wrapped up his questioning of Pecker, who spent four days on the stand giving the jury a look at the inner workings of the National Enquirer. That included “catch and kill” schemes to buy the exclusive rights to the stories of Daniels and McDougal to prevent them from becoming public.

Pecker, on cross-examination during his fourth day testifying, recalled again being led into Trump's office in Trump Tower on Jan. 6, 2017, with then-President-Elect Trump at his desk and a cadre of soon-to-be administration officials gathered around him discussing a fatal shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale airport.

The officials present included Reince Priebus, who would go on to serve as Trump's chief of staff, and Mike Pompeo, who would become secretary of state, Sean Spicer, Trump's White House press secretary, and James Comey, who was FBI director.

“He probably knows more than anyone in this room,” said Trump, according to Pecker, who clarified on cross that Trump was “joking.”

Pecker had testified that he knew before his role in brokering the deals to silence Trump’s alleged paramours, as well as a door attendant who falsely said Trump had fathered a child with a maid, that the financial arrangements could run afoul of election law because he had dealt with the issues in 2003 when former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for office.

The third witness to take the stand on Friday was banker Garry Farro, who testified that he handled Michael Cohen's bank accounts in 2016 at First Republic Bank.

Farro said that Cohen put in paperwork in the fall of that year ahead of the November presidential election to establish two accounts for separate limited liability companies, Resolution Consultants LLC and Essential Consultants LLC.

Prosecutors claim Trump's former lawyer and fixer set up the accounts to these shell companies to launder the hush money payments to Daniels.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Mangold pointed out that in filling out the paperwork to set up Resolution Consultants, Cohen checked a box to assert the account would not be used for fundraising for a political campaign.

Farro testified that he was assigned the Cohen accounts because he was known to be adept at handling “challenging” clients.

Though Farro said he never found him challenging, the former Trump lawyer always seemed harried.

“Every time that Michael Cohen spoke to me he gave me a sense of urgency,” Farro said.

The banker, who now works for Flagstar Bank, will be back on the stand on Tuesday morning when the trial resumes.