Donald Trump's former White House assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, kicked off this week's final day of testimony
She described a complex system to get mail - including cheques - from Trump Tower to the White House, where he signed some cheques without reviewing them
The jury has also heard from paralegals and phone analysts who were questioned on details to do with phone records
The key witness in the trial, Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, says he expects to testify next week
Trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 (£104,300) hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels before he won the 2016 election
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of fraud and also denies having any sexual encounter with her
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
And we're back.
Donald Trump has returned to the courtroom along with his lawyers and Secret Service detail.
Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro is here today. She has been a vocal backer of Trump in conservative media.
It seemed to me that Trump may have mouthed her name as she walked by, and gestured the papers he was holding back in her direction.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Judge Juan Merchan asks the prosecutors how many witnesses we will have today. They say two, and he suggests that we might be able to wrap up today's session at lunchtime.
We shall see.
Merchan also sides with the defence, and excludes evidence Trump's lawyers objected to just before the break, related to an interview Trump gave about campaign finance law.
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court
After a short and technical testimony from the Verizon employee, we are now taking a morning recess and there will be a new witness when we get back.
Trump's team is arguing to exclude evidence related to campaign finance laws. When they're done, Trump leaves the courtroom.
His entourage is a little smaller today but includes a key addition: campaign manager Susie Wiles.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the case, just arrived in the courtroom.
He has been here some days of the trial, but not for every single moment.
His team of assistant district attorneys handle the questioning each day.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Our next witness is Jennie Tomalin, a senior analyst with Verizon, another phone carrier.
It looks like she will serve a similar purpose to the witness we just saw.
Image source, Getty ImagesTrump spoke before court started with his lawyer, Todd Blanche, by his side
Before entering court today, Donald Trump spoke to reporters - as he does every morning.
He ignored questions asking whether he will testify, but repeated his claims that Justice Juan Merchan is “very conflicted” and “refuses to take himself off the trial”.
Trump also spoke of what he calls the “horrible” gag order, which bans him from speaking about witnesses or potential witnesses for their own protection.
On Thursday, the judge refused to alter the terms of the gag order. Trump's lawyers had asked for their client to be able to respond to Stormy Daniels’ testimony.
Trump went on to claim the court’s objective is to “humiliate and smear Trump with a gossipy tale of sex that had nothing to do with the criminal charges”.
Several times he states he has to be very careful with what he says, “one wrong word they’ll put me in jail”.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy's questioning was relatively brief.
We went over a lot of nitty gritty details about how phone, text, and usage records would work.
Defence attorney Emil Bove is now cross-examining him.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
The prosecution calls Daniel Dixon, an AT&T employee from Florida.
He is likely a documents witness, here to respond to a subpoena request from the District Attorney's office.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Susan Necheles is done with her cross-examination.
With yes or no questions, she sought to portray the system of sending cheques to Trump as routine.
Then prosecutor Rebecca Mangold does some housekeeping in a few more questions to Westerhout.
She asks if sending FedEx mail to the personal address of a White House staffer was an "end-run" around the White House security process.
Westerhouse said no, but Mangold follows up to ask if this mail would not go through the normal security protocols.
No, Westerhout confirms.
Westerhout also replies that while she did not see Trump sign all documents without reviewing them, he had people around him that he trusted to prepare documents with his signature, so by the time it got to his desk it was ready for him to sign.
Westerhout is off the stand and we have a new witness.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Susan Necheles asks if Donald Trump had to sign "hundreds" of documents a day. Westerhout says not every day, but on some days.
Crucially, Necheles asks Westerhout if she ever saw Trump signing cheques without reviewing them?
Yes, Westerhout responds.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Susan Necheles asks how sending mail to Trump at the White House would work.
Asking her a series of yes or no questions, Necheles gets the former aide to confirm that there were issues with Trump and his wife, Melania, receiving mail promptly once they were at the White House because of security.
That's how the workaround came about - mail would be sent via FedEx to Trump's bodyguard-turned-Director of Oval Office Operations, Keith Schiller, and then passed to Madeleine Westerhout.
Westerhout confirms that is all correct.
Prosecutors have zeroed in on the FedEx invoices to show that cheques were sent from Trump Tower in New York to the White House, for Trump to sign.
Prosecutors say some of those invoices show the trail for cheques that form the basis for some of the charges in this case: the cheques reimbursing Michael Cohen that bore Trump's signature.
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court
Donald Trump is watching closely as his former White House staffer testifies.
He's sitting slightly back in his chair, but his eyes are focused on Madeleine Westerhout as she speaks.
This hasn't been the case for every witness, he often looks at the screen in front of him or his gaze flickers across the room.
His lawyer Todd Blanche just whispered in Trump's ear, but the former president did not react.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Susan Necheles moves in to undercut the prosecution's assertion that Donald Trump was aware of Michael Cohen's reimbursement scheme while he was at the White House.
She asks Madeleine Westerhout if it was true that she had no "specific recollection" of Trump speaking with his company's then-CFO, Allen Weisselberg, during his first year in the White House.
Westerhout confirms that is true, but notes that Trump spoke to many people when he was president.
Weisselberg is important because we previously saw a document, in his handwriting, breaking down the reimbursement plan to Cohen into monthly installments.
Necheles is likely trying to create space between Trump and Weisselberg with this line of questioning.
Image source, ReutersAllen Weisselberg, pictured in 2016, was the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, but now he is serving a prison sentence at New York's notorious Rikers Island complex for perjury
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Susan Necheles kicks off the cross-examination of Madeleine Westerhout.
Necheles is trying to undercut the prosecution's line of questioning from yesterday by portraying the communications we saw as ordinary.
She begins by sharing the list of Trump's contacts his executive assistant at the business, Rhona Graff, sent to Westerhout at the White House.
"These were business contacts, correct? From before he came to the White House?"
Yes, they were people he had spoken to before he went to the White House or people he might have talked to while he was there, Westerhout responds.
Necheles also displays a newspaper clipping that Trump wanted sent around, featuring a photo of him on the front page of The New York Times boarding Air Force One for the first time.
Westerhout said it was an exciting moment, and that Trump was very "proud" and confirms it was common for Trump to want news clips sent to family and friends, and sometimes signed them.
Image source, Getty ImagesDonald Trump during his maiden flight on Air Force One in January 2017
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
We began with a brief sidebar with the judge, prosecutors, and defence team.
We don’t know what was said, but we’re moving on to fetching the witness and the jury.
Madeleine Westerhout enters the room wearing a black pantsuit and white shirt. She appears calm and composed, as she did for most of yesterday.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Image source, Getty ImagesDonald Trump walked into the courtroom at 9:29 am – a bit later than usual, wearing a navy suit and red tie.
He is carrying a stack of papers, and the sheaf on top appears to be a print-out of a news article from online.
Trump set the papers on the table in front of him before turning to his other lawyer, Susan Necheles, who will handle the next cross-examination.
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court
The former president has sat next to his lawyers inside the courtroom. He's whispering to Todd Blanche.
Justice Juan Merchan just walked in and we are about to begin.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Image source, GettyMadeleine Westerhout leaving court after her testimony on Thursday
Yesterday, we saw Madeleine Westerhout break down in tears as she recounted the circumstances that led her to abruptly leave the White House in 2019.
Westerhout had reportedly shared information about Donald Trump, his family relationships, and his thoughts about his daughters at an off-the-record dinner.
In the courtroom, Trump watched his former aide silently, but intently, for much of her testimony.
Trump cannot comment on witnesses due to the gag order, so we don’t know what he makes of her time on the stand.
But as he did with many subjects during his presidency, Trump tweeted , externalin 2019 about Westerhout’s departure.
“While Madeleine Westerhout has a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she is a very good person and I don’t think there would ever be reason to use it,” Trump tweeted.
“She called me yesterday to apologise, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave her! I love Tiffany, doing great!”
Tiffany Trump was allegedly mentioned by Westerhout at that dinner.
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court
Donald Trump's hush-money trial in New York takes place in one courtroom filled with journalists, security and legal teams.
But in another courtroom a few doors down, called the overflow, it's a mix of journalists and members of the public who sit together and watch large televisions showing the proceedings.
To secure a seat you need to line up outside court very early. Yesterday, when we knew Stormy Daniels would be on the stand, some 200 members of the public were turned away - there simply wasn't enough room.
Today the line was much shorter, but there was still a dedicated group of people waiting to witness this historic trial.
At the front of the line, they are like hardened veterans.
They know each other, banter with the police and familiar faces in the journalist line. When I walked past they were addressing each other by their line number, wondering where "number 1" went, who was first in the queue that day but had vanished to maybe get a coffee.
Further back in the line, I chatted with some European tourists who were trying to figure out if they would make the cut off.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Good morning from a rainy - though not stormy - day at the Manhattan courthouse where Trump is on trial.
Today we will hear more testimony from former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout, who worked just outside the Oval Office during the first years of Trump’s presidency.
Westerhout was one of the people who helped ferry Trump personal cheques from New York to Washington for him to sign.
Yesterday she testified she brought the mailed cheques for Trump to sign, and then sent the signed cheques back to Trump Tower in New York. Some of those cheques, prosecutors say, were reimbursements to Michael Cohen for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
The most dramatic moment on the stand came when Westerhout began to cry, as she recounted her abrupt departure from the White House.
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles will pick up the cross examination today. We will likely continue to see Trump’s team trying to show the process of sending cheques was ordinary.