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In the third week of testimony in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, jurors have seen dozens of dry records and heard hours of sordid stories.
This week’s witnesses included Stormy Daniels, an adult film-star who was paid $130,000 in hush money by Mr. Trump’s one-time fixer when her story of a sexual encounter threatened to derail the then-candidate’s 2016 election bid. Mr. Trump is charged with masking his reimbursement to the fixer, Michael D. Cohen, by orchestrating the falsification of 34 documents related to the transaction.
The first American president to face criminal proceedings, Mr. Trump has denied the felony charges and having had sex with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face probation or prison.
Here are the most memorable things said in court over the past seven days:
‘Pay with cash.’
Mr. Trump’s words echoed through the courtroom last Thursday, pulled from an audio clip that Mr. Cohen surreptitiously recorded in 2016.
He and Mr. Trump were discussing a payment to David Pecker, then the publisher of The National Enquirer, to suppress the story of a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who said she had had an affair with Mr. Trump.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend David,” Mr. Cohen said on the recording. Mr. Trump directed Mr. Cohen to “pay with cash.”
It was a key piece of evidence demonstrating that Mr. Cohen had spoken with Mr. Trump regarding at least one of the hush-money payoffs made during the presidential campaign, and that Mr. Trump had been involved in the effort to keep that story under wraps. In the end, Mr. Pecker was never paid back for his payment to Ms. McDougal.
‘Deny, deny, deny.’
Hope Hicks, Mr. Trump’s former press secretary, testified about pressure within his presidential campaign.
One crisis arose when The Washington Post published the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Mr. Trump had been caught on a hot mic saying he could grope women with no consequence.
The campaign’s strategy, as Ms. Hicks documented in an email to other senior aides, was simple: “Deny, deny, deny.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have suggested that if there had been a cover-up of the hush-money payments, it would have been related to Mr. Trump’s desire to protect his family, rather than his political aims. Ms. Hicks recounted how Mr. Trump had asked that newspapers not be delivered to his residence after a story about a hush-money payment broke.
“I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign,” she said. “He wanted them to be proud of him.”
‘That’s contemptuous.’
Mr. Trump has been threatened with jail and fined $10,000 for comments outside the courtroom, violating a judge’s gag order that prevents him from speaking about witnesses, court staff, jurors and others.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump shook his head and muttered a profanity under his breath during Ms. Daniels’s testimony.
“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually, and that’s contemptuous,” Justice Juan M. Merchan told Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche during a sidebar. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness, and the jury can see that.”
The stern warning took place away from jurors. “I am speaking to you here at the bench, because I don’t want to embarrass him,” Justice Merchan said.
‘Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.’
Prosecutors on Tuesday morning entered into evidence two of Mr. Trump’s books. The move touched on a recurring theme in Mr. Trump’s career — whether he will be held accountable for his words.
From the “Access Hollywood” tape to the conversations recorded by Mr. Cohen to gag order violations, Mr. Trump’s own words are helping to define how jurors view him — whether he testifies or not.
“If someone screws you, screw them back,” were the words displayed for jurors on Tuesday, excerpts from Mr. Trump’s book “How to Get Rich.” “When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”
‘He just wanted to talk about himself.’
Ms. Daniels didn’t want to meet Mr. Trump for dinner when the two were introduced at a 2005 golf competition in Lake Tahoe, Nev., she testified Tuesday.
Once she and Mr. Trump were in his luxury suite, they spoke for nearly two hours, and Ms. Daniels said she grew increasingly impatient. Her companion would cut her off, and at one point produced a magazine with his image on the cover.
“He just wanted to talk about himself,” Daniels testified. “I said, ‘Someone should spank you with that. That’s the only interest I have in that magazine.’”
Shortly after, Ms. Daniels emerged from the bathroom to find Trump stripped to his boxer shorts and T-shirt and lying on a bed.
“That’s the moment where I felt the room spin in slow motion,” Daniels said. “The next thing I know, I was on the bed.”
