Five Bombshells From the First Week of Donald Trump's Trial

The second week of former President Donald Trump's criminal trial concluded on Friday after testimony from three witnesses were presented to the jury.

Attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense made their opening arguments Monday, and the rest of the week was followed by testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker testified Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, when the defense began their cross examination, which lasted into and concluded on Friday.

Rhona Graff, Trump's former assistant at the Trump Organization, was then called to the stand Friday afternoon for a very short testimony. After her witness account, Gary Farro, a former First Republic banker who worked with former Trump fixer turned critic Michael Cohen, was called to the stand. He told the court that Cohen was assigned to him as a client in 2015 because of his "knowledge and ability to handle clients many people find challenging."

The court also spent much of Tuesday hearing the alleged gag order violations from Trump. The Manhattan District Attorney's office argued that Trump violated the order in eight posts on Truth Social and two posts on his official campaign website. The People filed four additional violations with the court on Thursday. On the first 10 alleged violations, prosecutors have asked Judge Juan Merchan to fine Trump the maximum $1,000 penalty per violation. Merchan set another hearing for May 1.

Here are the five biggest bombshells from the trial so far:

Who Paid Who?

This week, Pecker laid out the details of the three hush money payments that we're made ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Across three days of testimony, the former chairman, president and CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI) testified that his company made two of those payments, one to Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin and one to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The third, which was made to adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, was paid by Cohen.

Sajudin received $30,000 while McDougal received $130,000. Pecker said that neither he nor AMI were reimbursed for those payments.

Daniels, on the other hand, was an individual that Pecker wanted no association with. He said on the stand that the National Enquirer's largest retailer was Walmart and he thought the affiliation with Daniels could hurt business, so he told the magazine's editor-in-chief, "I don't want any affiliation at all."

It was not until after the election that Pecker learned Cohen had been the one to buy Daniels' story. He said the "first time" he heard that Cohen paid her "out of his own funds" was during a meeting he had with Cohen in November or December of 2016.

Trump's Role in the Hush Money Payments After Winning Election

Pecker recalled that the then-president elect continued to check up on McDougal even after winning the 2016 election, sometimes referring to her as "our girl."

At a January 6, 2017, meeting at Trump Tower, Pecker says Trump had asked how McDougal was doing. The meeting between the two men occurred about five months after AMI paid her for the rights to her story about Trump.

"He asked me how Karen was doing, 'How's our girl doing?' " Pecker said. "I said, 'She's writing her articles. She's quiet. Things are going fine.' He said, 'I want to thank you for handling the Mcdougal situation,' and then he said, 'I want to thank you for the doorman situation.' "

Asked what Trump meant by the "situation," Pecker told prosecutors that he felt that Trump was thanking him for "buying them and for not publishing any of the stories." During cross-examination, Pecker was asked by Trump attorney Emil Bove if he possibly got that wrong, asking, "Do you believe that President Donald Trump said that to you as we sit here right now?"

Pecker held firm, telling Bove, "Yes I do."

Pecker also testified about the thank you dinner that was hosted for him by Trump at the White House on July 11, 2017. He recalled that after he and some business associates took photos with the then-president in the Oval Office, Trump pulled him aside on the way to dinner.

"As we walked down Mr. Trump asked me, 'How's Karen doing?' so I said, 'She's doing well. She's quiet. Everything's going good.' "

Eight months later, Trump called Pecker after McDougal sat for an interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, demanding to know how she was allowed to speak with the press when there was an agreement in place. Pecker then informed Trump that the agreement had been amended in the wake of the Wall Street Journal article that revealed AMI had paid her for her story.

McDougal would go on to file a lawsuit AMI, asking the publisher to return her lifetime rights, which Pecker agrees to.

Awkward Moment with Graff

Trump's former assistant Graff was on the stand for less than 30 minutes on Friday, verifying several calendar events for the prosecution and testifying about Trump's demeanor as a boss for the defense. But as she left the courtroom after a short testimony, the former president rose from the defense table to greet her in front of the jury. What resulted was an awkward moment between the two, who seemed unsure if they could embrace.

While being questioned by the DA's office, Graff confirmed that Trump was working in Trump Tower from January 16-19 in 2017, just before he was inaugurated as president.

Upon cross-examination, she seemed cheerful about the three decades she spent working for Trump, telling his attorneys, "I don't think I would have been there 34 years" if he didn't respect her intelligence. She said that he would ask about her family on "occasion," and would sometimes pop his head into her office to tell her to go home to her family, which she found "thoughtful."

She also said that Trump was "fairly hands-on" with the Celebrity Apprentice, which she said elevated him to "rockstar status." Graff recalled "vaguely" remembering that Trump was considering Stormy Daniels for the show.

Michael Cohen's Relationship with "The Boss"

"When I spoke to Michael Cohen, that's how he referred to Donald Trump, as 'the boss,' " Pecker said on Tuesday.

Pecker pulled back the curtain further on Cohen and Trump's strange relationship over the years. Throughout Pecker's time as the "ears and eyes" of the campaign, he primarily communicated to Trump through Cohen.

He recalled that when he bought the Sajudin story, Cohen told him, "The boss would be very pleased," and that when he called off the reimbursement for the McDougal story, Cohen relayed to him, "The boss is going to be very angry with you." Additionally, when Pecker refused to purchase Daniels' story, Cohen told Pecker, "The boss would be furious with me."

But while Cohen referred to Trump as "the boss," Pecker said that Cohen's employment with the Trump Organization was murky. Pecker recalled "always" being the one to pay for lunch with Cohen, which suggested to the former publisher that Cohen was not authorized to spend money without Trump's approval, and that at one point, Cohen had pleaded Pecker to have a word with Trump about his paycheck.

Around November and December of 2016, Cohen told Pecker that Trump had not reimbursed him for the Daniels payment. On top of that, Cohen took issue with the fact that he had not yet received his annual bonus from the Trump Organization, even though the company normally paid those out during the holiday season.

"He asked if I would talk to the boss on his behalf, to tell him everything that he did, to try and help him get his bonus," Pecker recalled.

He said that when he vouched for Cohen, Trump told him, "I don't know what you're talking about. Michael Cohen has multiple apartments in my building ... . Don't worry about him, I'll take care of him."

When Pecker was being cross-examined on Friday, he also revealed that Cohen asked him to arrange paparazzi to photograph a meeting Cohen had with businessman Mark Cuban. Pecker agreed with the defense that those photos were taken to "put pressure on President Trump to treat Cohen differently."

How Arnold Schwarzenegger Impacted the Trump Payments

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hollywood megastar bodybuilder-turned-governor-of-California, came up for a notable portion of a trial that seemed to have nothing to do with him.

His name was raised by Pecker, who cited an earlier issue he had with the former governor for his "sensitivity" related to working with political candidates. Asked if he was concerned about the legality of AMI paying for stories on behalf of a presidential candidate, Pecker said "yes" and pointed to the instance with Schwarzenegger as being the reason for his hesitations.

In 2002, there were four fitness magazines—Self, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, and Health and Fitness—were up for sale. Pecker had wanted to purchase them, but because the founder of those titles had a longstanding relationship with Schwarzenegger, Pecker was instructed to make a deal before the transaction was finalized.

Schwarzenegger told Pecker that he wanted to be the editor-at-large for Muscle and Fitness and Flex as well as have an agreement that would stop Pecker's tabloids from running negative stories about him because he was planning to run for the governor's office. Pecker said shortly after Schwarzenegger made his candidacy announcement on the Jay Leno Show, there were a number of women who called the Enquirer about relationships they had with Schwarzenegger or claims of sexual harassment.

For a period of time, Pecker would buy those stories and not publish them. But one of those women proceeded to sell her story to the Los Angeles Times since the Enquirer wasn't moving on it and the Times ended up running it days before Schwarzenegger is elected as governor.

"The press approached Arnoald Schwarzenegger when he was governor about the story, and his comment was, 'Ask my friend David Pecker,' " Pecker recalled on the stand. "It was very embarrassing to me and my company."

"It gave me the sensitivity about buying any stories in the future," he said.

Schwarzenegger would ultimately resign from his editor-at-large role as a result of the scandal.