Prosecutors in New York are expected to rely on several witnesses from Trump’s inner circle to prove their criminal hush money case against former President Donald Trump, including his longtime assistant, Rhona Graff, his former director of Oval Office operations, Madeleine Westerhout, and his longtime trusted aide, Hope Hicks, according to sources familiar with the case.
According to sources, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are also expected to call Deborah Tarasoff, who worked in the Trump Organization’s accounting department; Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization’s former controller; and Trump’s former attorney and so-called “fixer,” Michael Cohen. According to sources, McConney will also provide testimony in support of Trump.
The sources indicate that the grand jury investigating the matter is unlikely to call other former Trump aides, including Trump’s longtime adviser Kellyanne Conway, as trial witnesses.
Westerhout, who also worked as Trump’s executive assistant for the first two and a half years of his presidency, was summoned to testify by the Manhattan district attorney, according to her lawyer, Jason Wright. He informed ABC News that Westerhout has no idea when or if she will be called to the witness stand.
Prosecutors have not publicly issued a witness list, and sources emphasized that the decision to summon someone to testify could alter before the trial, which begins April 15. A Manhattan district attorney’s office spokesman declined to comment to ABC News regarding the potential witnesses. The lawyers for the other possible witnesses either declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment accusing him of falsifying company documents in connection with Cohen’s hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.
“It’s a disgrace that it can happen,” Trump stated last month. “This was a case that could have been brought three and a half years ago, and they decided to wait now just during the election so that I wouldn’t be able to campaign.”
According to sources, the prosecution may call former American Media Inc. executive David Pecker and National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard as witnesses. Both were key players in what prosecutors call a “scheme” to “catch and kill” damaging reports about Trump during his first campaign for president.
“[Pecker] agreed to help with the defendant’s campaign, saying that he would act as the ‘eyes and ears’ for the campaign by looking out for negative stories about the defendant and alerting Cohen before the stories were published,” according to the complaint.
In recent court filings, Trump’s attorneys have questioned the integrity of prosecution witnesses, including Cohen.
“Cohen is not a truthteller; he is a serial liar,” defense lawyers argued in a February motion urging the judge to limit Cohen, Daniels, and others’ testimony.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is conducting federal investigations into Trump’s handling of sensitive documents and efforts to reverse the 2020 election results, is also working with some of Trump’s closest aides, advisers, and allies to create those two criminal cases. The indictments in both cases are based on the remarks of people around Trump during his final days in office.
Sources in the New York case predict that Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who received a $150,000 payment from AMI for the rights to her story of an alleged romance with Trump, will both testify at trial. Donald Trump has denied having affairs with both McDougal and Daniels.
“I’m fully prepared. “I’ve been prepared,” Daniels told ABC’s “The View” last month. “I relish the day that I get to face him and speak my truth.”
Dino Sajudin, a former doorman who was paid $30,000 to remain silent following false accusations, later refuted, that Trump had a love child with a building employee, was a potential witness in the case but is no longer expected to appear at the trial, according to sources familiar with the subject.
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan cleared the path for witnesses like Daniels, McDougal, and Sajudin to testify last month, stating that their acts “flow directly from the 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where Pecker, Cohen,” and Trump agreed to the catch-and-kill strategy.
“The evidence and testimony surrounding these individuals is inextricably intertwined with the narrative of events and is necessary background for the jury,” he said.
