The fourth week of Donald Trump’s Manhattan election interference hush money trial wrapped up with a string of mundane witnesses addressing the origination and authenticity of records–boredom mandated by Trump’s lawyers who refused to stipulate to the legitimacy of phone records.

• Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s effort to subpoena Mark Pomerantz, a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney who resigned in February 2022 in protest for Alvin Bragg not pursuing changes against Trump.  Pomerantz later wrote a book about the investigation.
• Merchan asked why Allan Weisselberg couldn’t testify instead of having prosecutors submit various documents.  Prosecutors said they didn’t want him to testify because he is still owed more than $500k from the Trump Org to stay silent and his testimony is unreliable; he may also take the Fifth.  When told no one approached Weisselberg about testifying, Merchan said he may want to hear from Weisselberg himself on the issue to determine if his testimony would be beneficial, efficient and honest.
• Madeleine Westerhout starts back on the stand with the defense team questioning her.
• Unlike yesterday, when she portrayed Trump something of a micromanager–highly involved and attentive to the things he signed–Westerhout said Trump frequently signed checks without reviewing them including when he was on the phone and in meetings, painting him as less connected to their purpose and more like an Autopen.
• Georgia Longstreet, a DA paralegal, returns to the stand.  She authenticates social media posts.
• An AT&T executive, Daniel Dixon, took the stand to verify documents from the company regarding call records.  
• Jennie Tomalin, an executive with Verizon, was called to verify call and customer records.
• Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, another paralegal from the DA’s office, also took the stand to authenticate phone records.  
• Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said that the DA’s office could wrap up next week.  
• Trump wanted gag order extended to Michael Cohen, the expected witness for Monday.  Merchan denied the request, but he instructed prosecutors to instruct Cohen to self-censor his public statements and social media posts.  
• Prosecutors say they have two more witnesses, with Michael Cohen being one.  The other person is currently unknown, but it could be a legal expert to explain the underlying crime Trump was supporting by covering up the affair by lying on business records, a necessary connection to justify the elevation to a felony.
• The trial will pick up again Monday morning.