“The whole situation was very unpleasant,” said Madeleine Westerhout, a former director of Oval Office operations under Trump, in the ex-president’s criminal trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Westerhout said she spoke with Trump at that time about Daniels, who testified that she had sex with Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Trump “was very upset about it,” Westerhout recalled.
“My understanding is that he knew it would be hurtful to his family,” she said. Trump was married to his wife, Melania Trump, at the time the alleged one-night stand occurred.
The questions about Trump’s reaction came from Trump’s lawyers in their cross-examination of Westerhout, who is a witness for the prosecution.
Defense attorneys have tried to undermine the prosecution’s argument in the case, that the hush money payment to Daniels was meant to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
They argue that Trump was also concerned about how the sex story would affect his wife and children.
On Thursday, Westerhout testified about Trump’s work habits in the White House, and she confirmed a list of high-profile contacts that was compiled for Trump in 2017. The contact list included “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels, quarterback Tom Brady and tennis great Serena Williams.
Also listed were ex-tabloid publisher David Pecker and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The two men are at the center of Manhattan prosecutors’ case, in which Trump is charged with falsifying business records about hush money payments as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Former US President Donald Trump walks to speak to the press at the end of the day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 9, 2024.
Angela Weiss | Via Reuters
Westerhout painted a flattering portrait of Trump, praising his work ethic and his relationship with his wife. She cried while describing how she was fired from her job in 2019 after criticizing members of Trump’s family at a dinner with reporters.
Her portrayal of Trump as a devoted husband cut sharply against the testimony of Daniels, who graphically detailed her sexual encounter with Trump over seven hours of testimony.
Daniels also clashed with Trump’s attorney, who aggressively questioned her on cross-examination about her later attempts to sell her story about sex with Trump.
At one point, Trump’s attorney said to Daniels, “You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex,” referring to Daniels’ work in the adult film industry.
“Wow. That’s not how I would put it,” Daniels shot back. “The sex in the films is very much real. Just like what happened to me in that room” with Trump.
After the jury was excused for the day, Trump’s lawyers requested a mistrial for the second time in two days. And, for the second time in two days, the request was denied.
Judge Juan Merchan also rejected a request by Trump that he revise a gag order to permit the former president to publicly attack Daniels, now that she had finished testifying. Trump is currently barred from making statements about any of the witnesses in the trial.
“My concern is protecting the integrity of the proceedings as a whole,” said Merchan, rather than individual witnesses only before they testify. Merchan has already held Trump in contempt of court 10 times for violating the gag order.
