Trump’s Former Assistant, Who Was Fired From White House Job, Cries On Witness & Calls Ex-President ‘Amazing’ In Hush-Money Trial Testimony

Donald Trump’s former executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, broke down crying on the witness stand while she was testifying in his New York hush money trial. On Thursday, Westerhout, a Trump loyalist, was called to the stand. 

Westerhout was forced out of the Trump administration for revealing personal information about Trump’s family to the press. 

Westerhout was fired from the White House after allegedly bragged to journalists at an off-the-record dinner that she had a better relationship with Trump than his daughters, Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump Boulos. 

She told journalists that the former president disliked being photographed with Tiffany because he viewed her as overweight. On August 30, 2019, she formally resigned as the former president’s executive assistant.

When the prosecution had asked the former executive assistant about the dinner with reporters,  she began crying while talking about her “youthful indiscretion.”

Westerhout said that she had learned a great deal from that experience before she was asked about the book she wrote, Off the Record: My Dream Job at the White House, How I Lost It, and What I Learned, which was published in August 2020, and discusses Trump in an appreciative light.

The ex-presidential aide started sobbing again. “I thought it was essential to share with the American people the man I got to know,” Westerhout mentioned through tears. “I don’t think he’s treated fairly, and I wanted to tell that story,” she added.

While giving her testimony, she dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles cross-examined Westerhout, during which the latter called Trump “amazing.” “I just found him really enjoyable to work for,” she added.

On Thursday, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin noted in an X post how differently Necheles treated Westerhout than the former adult film actress Stormy Daniels when she was on the witness stand earlier this week.

“I’m not saying the grace Necheles showed the graceful Westerhout, who was 28 when she left the White House, was undeserved. But boy does it stand in marked contrast to her treatment of the then-27-year-old whose sexual encounter with Trump so distressed her that her hands shook as she put her shoes back on,” Rubin wrote on X, referencing Daniel’s testimony.

Earlier, prosecutors relied on testimony from ex-Trump Organization employees to show how checks for his former attorney, Michael Cohen, had been cut and sent from Trump Tower in New York via FedEx to Washington, D.C., where Trump signed them in the Oval Office.

Those checks included monthly installments to Cohen to reimburse him for the $130,000 he gave Daniels’ attorney as part of a nondisclosure agreement which ensured that she remained silent about her sexual encounter with the former president in 2006.

Westerhout also detailed in her testimony how FedEx envelopes were mailed to Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller’s home in Washington, D.C., and then given to her at the White House.

“The checks came in a FedEx envelope, so I opened the envelope and inside was a manila folder with a stack of checks,” she stated.

She then gave those checks to Trump to sign. “I don’t recall how frequently, but it was consistent,” the former executive assistant admitted. “Maybe twice a month.”

She also said that sometimes there was one, and “sometimes a stack half an inch thick.”

While questioned by the prosecution, Westerhout confirmed that she worked closely with Trump and immediately understood his work habits. 

The former assistant stated that since Trump was president, he had spent a great deal of time on the phone, making some calls as early as 6:00 a.m., and usually met with people in a small dining room of the Oval Office.

Westerhout also established that she communicated with Cohen to schedule a February 2017 visit to the White House, a significant event that underpins the 34 felony charges Trump faces for falsifying business records.

Trump’s former attorney recently stated that he met with the former president in the Oval Office in early February 2017 to discuss being reimbursed.

After that meeting, the Trump Organization began sending Cohen checks labeled “legal expenses,” alluding to a retainer agreement. 

However, prosecutors stated that the checks were reimbursements to Cohen and that no retainer agreement existed.

Westerhout stated that she had exchanged emails with the ex-Trump attorney in early 2017 to ensure he could receive entry into the White House for the meeting.

On May 3, the former White House press secretary Hope Hicks gave a testimony in which she went into detail about Trump’s many legal issues. 

Hicks also spoke positively about her career in the White House while also praising the former president’s family. While being cross-examined, she started tearing up at the end of her testimony and ultimately broke down in tears. 

The judge called for a short break, but Hicks already offered her side of the story.