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The list included media mogul Rupert Murdoch and other Fox News personalities, as well as sports stars such as Tom Brady and Serena Williams.
By Maggie Haberman, Claire Fahy and Wesley Parnell
Court Report
Bret Baier. Jeanine Pirro. Tom Brady. and Michael D. Cohen.
These were among dozens of names — celebrities, politicians, media personalities, family members, and others — that came up in Donald J. ‘s trial. Trump, when prosecutors released a list of the former president’s “close contacts” prepared through his former guard.
The list included other people Trump spoke with or might have tried to reach when he took office after the 2016 election, a former White House staffer testified.
The list presented a clear vision of the kind of celebrity-filled orbit Trump sought to maintain an orbit that included other people Trump had known in many cases for decades, some of whom looked at him after the election.
It’s unclear how any of those specific touches got to Trump, whose former aide prepared the partial list and sent it to White House mother Madeleine Westerhout after he took office in 2017.
But in questioning Ms. Westerhout last week, prosecutors zeroed in on two names on the list, or other people who testified that they were instrumental in arranging the secret payment that is in the middle of the trial: David Pecker, former editor of The National Enquirer. ; and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and star witness for the prosecution.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s first criminal trial is in the running. Take a closer look at the central characters related to the case.
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