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Madeleine Westerhout, former assistant to ex-President Donald Trump, suddenly began to cry on the witness stand while testifying in Trump’s hush money trial in New York City on Thursday.
The Context
Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during the former president’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about an affair she had with Trump in 2006, which the former president denies. Trump is accused of reimbursing Cohen and concealing the payment as legal expenses.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims the case is politically motivated. This case is the first of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial. Trump also maintains his innocence in the three other cases against him.
Angela Weiss-Pool/Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images
What We Know
On the 14th day of the Trump trial, Westerhout, who served as director of Oval Office operations in 2019 and remains a Trump loyalist, was called to the stand.
Westerhout was fired from the Trump White House after she reportedly bragged to journalists at an off-the-record dinner that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Boulos (then-Trump). It was also reported that she told journalists that Trump did not like being photographed with Tiffany because he perceived her to be overweight.
When asked about the dinner with reporters by the prosecution, “she begins crying while talking about her regret for her ‘youthful indiscretion,’ Newsweek reporter Katherine Fung, who was inside the courtroom, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Westerhout is asked about the dinner where she gave comments to reporters that cost her her job. She begins crying while talking about her regret for her “youthful indiscretion.”
— Katherine Fung (@katherinekfung) May 9, 2024
Westerhout said that she had learned a lot from that experience, before being asked about the 2020 book she wrote, Off the Record: My Dream Job at the White House, How I Lost It, and What I Learned, which describes Trump in a favorable light.
Fung reported that she began to sob again.
“I thought it was really important to share with the American people the man I got to know,” she said through tears. “I don’t think he’s treated fairly.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
