Trump trial live updates as prosecutors call second witness
Rhona Graff, who for decades served as Donald Trump’s executive assistant and a senior executive at the Trump Organization, was called to stand Friday as the second witness in the former president’s criminal trial in New York.
Graff was Trump’s confidant and gatekeeper from the late 1980s until he became president in January 2017, and left the Trump Organization in 2021. Stationed outside Trump’s office in Trump Tower, she handled his phone calls and schedule, engaging with those coming and going from meetings.
Prosecutors are expected to ask her to verify the authenticity of a variety of documents that they will enter as exhibits in the case.
Her turn on the witness stand comes after the conclusion of testimony by Donald Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Over the course of four days, Pecker detailed his involvement in a “catch and kill” scheme to acquire the rights to damaging stories about Trump and keep them from public view, saying he did so to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Pecker testified about several meetings he said he had at Trump Tower, including a 2015 meeting where he said he agreed to be the “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign. He said that arrangement led him to pay $150,000 to the model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump in 2006. Trump denies that relationship.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges relate to reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid adult film star Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim of a sexual encounter with Trump days before the 2016 election. Trump denies her account as well.