A former White House Oval Office aide praised Donald Trump as a “really good boss” while testifying during the former president’s hush money trial in New York on Thursday.
Prosecutors called Madeleine Westerhout as a witness to testify about how detail-oriented Trump was and to confirm certain emails and meetings, but her testimony served largely as the third positive review to come from a female Trump employee on the stand.
Westerhout characterized Trump as hardworking, saying he talked to “a lot” of people every day and took calls from 6 a.m. until well into the evening, according to courtroom reports from CNN.
Westerhout highlighted how concerned Trump was with his wife Melania’s opinion. Defense attorneys have argued that Trump’s wife was one reason he was motivated to make a lawful hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, has alleged that Trump was driven by the election to conceal the payment and that he therefore violated election laws.
“There was really no one else that could put him in his place too,” Westerhout said of Melania Trump. “He was my boss, but she was definitely the one in charge. I just remember that … thinking that their relationship was really special. They laughed a lot when she came into the Oval Office.”
Westerhout, who worked as Trump’s Oval Office assistant for more than two years, also became tearful at one point when she spoke about her sudden exit from the White House in 2019, attributing it to a “youthful indiscretion” that she regretted.
Westerhout was forced to resign after she divulged unflattering details about Trump’s children to reporters at an off-the-record dinner. She later wrote a book about her experience called Off the Record: My Dream Job at the White House, How I Lost It, and What I Learned.
“I thought it was real important to share with the American people the man that I got to know,” Westerhout testified, again tearing up. “I don’t think he’s treated fairly, and I wanted to tell that story.”
Westerhout said she found Trump “very enjoyable to work for.”
“He never once made me feel that I didn’t deserve that job and that I didn’t belong there. Especially in an office filled with older men, he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there,” she said. “He was a really good boss.”
Westerhout’s appearance came after two other women, Hope Hicks and Rhona Graff, testified during the past three weeks of the trial about their positive experiences working for Trump.
Hicks, who worked as Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary before joining the White House, gave a glowing review of Trump, saying she enjoyed working with him and his family and that Trump was a “very good multitasker and a very hard worker.”
Graff, who has worked as a top assistant to Trump for more than 30 years, said her job was “exciting” and that Trump was a “fair” boss.
Prosecutors asked Graff if she felt Trump respected her, and Graff replied, “I don’t think I would have been there 34 years if he didn’t.”
Prosecutors have sought to paint a visual of Trump and his campaign scrambling to course-correct his image with women ahead of the 2016 election, especially in the wake of the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape. They have argued that Trump was concerned with his election prospects and that this was the driving force behind his desire to keep Daniels silent about her allegation that she had a sexual encounter with Trump 10 years prior.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney in 2016, paid Daniels $130,000 right before the election, and Trump paid Cohen back through a payment plan that began in 2017. Bragg has alleged the payment plan was illegal, though evidence has shown the structure of the plan was the brainchild of Trump’s ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Prosecutors steered Westerhout to explain how Trump was detail-oriented and how he generally carefully read over documents he signed. Bragg has yet to establish conclusively that Trump had knowledge of alleged illegalities when he signed checks for Cohen that included a reimbursement for the Daniels payment.
“My understanding is that he was attentive to things that were brought to his attention,” even in busy moments, Westerhout said.
She testified that she regularly brought Trump stacks of checks to sign, he would sign them, and she would FedEx them to Trump’s accounting team.
Westerhout also confirmed that she helped arrange a meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and Cohen in February 2017. Prosecutors have alleged that Cohen and Trump discussed his reimbursement payment plan at the meeting, though Westerhout said she did not recall the purpose of the meeting.
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Westerhout’s testimony came after a drama-filled two days of testimony from Stormy Daniels, the former porn star who provided vivid details of her alleged affair with Trump and who spoke about how the publicity has affected her life.
Prosecutors expect to spend just under two more weeks questioning witnesses before the trial turns to Trump’s defense team to present their side of the case.
