Some records of phone calls related to the criminal prosecution of former President Donald Trump were deleted from case files, Manhattan District Attorney Office paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider admitted during the trial.
The acknowledgment is important because the defense may not have all of the evidence necessary.
Jarmel-Schneider’s testimony involved a key recording that the prosecution played earlier in the trial. The prosecutors played the recording in order to allegedly show Trump and Cohen speaking about “catch and kill” or hush money payments.
Trump’s attorneys believe Cohen doctored the recording. They point to the the fact that it abruptly ends, the Associated Press reported:
Records show Cohen received a phone call about 22 seconds after the recording was cut off, according to Jarmel-Schneider’s testimony. Prosecutors seem to be eliciting the testimony to back up their claim that the recording wasn’t edited, but was cut short after Cohen received an incoming call.
While Trump defense attorney Emil Bove challenged evidence put forward by prosecutors on Friday, he asked Jarmel-Schneider about the “deletion of some toll records between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen after the defense submitted recordings between the two from 2018,” CNN reported.
The paralegal admitted Bragg’s office deleted some call records from the Trump case files. Some of the call records related to a three page exhibit of calls between Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard, Jarmel-Schneider confirmed.
JUST IN: One of Alvin Bragg’s paralegals, Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, admitted on the stand that the prosecutors deleted call records between Michael Cohen and Keith Davidson.
— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_4_Trump) May 10, 2024
The prosecution submitted the records into evidence, but didn’t mention that they deleted some records.… pic.twitter.com/xjBcXfAWol
“At this trial, you’re sort of the guardian of the toll records?” Bove asked Bragg’s paralegal.
“I don’t know if I’d say that, but if you say so,” he said.
Bove showed Jarmel-Schneider a text message shown about Hope Hicks calling the former CEO of American Media, David Pecker.
Bove demanded Jarmel-Schneider confirm that no such records of the call existed.
Jarmel-Schneider could not recall off the top of his head.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
