SUMMARIZING THE EVIDENCE IN THE TRUMP “HUSH MONEY” TRIAL

Because the summary chart has now become available, I thought it worthwhile to go back over the importance of this piece of evidence, which I discussed in a prior blog post and incidentally discussed with the audience at last week's Advanced Trial Advocacy course for new trial lawyers at Montana University Law School. 

During the Trump “Hush Money” trial (May 11, 2024), the newspaper headline stated: “Prosecutors introduce key text and call records into evidence”

The newspaper article went on as follows:

“After Westerhout left the stand, prosecutors spent the rest of the day calling a series of custodial witnesses to introduce cell phone records into evidence.  It made for a dry day of testimony, but it also provided key evidence that prosecutors plan to use to try to convince the jury that Trump is guilty of falsifying business records.

“Those records included a summary of the 34 charges against Trump – 11 invoices, 12 vouchers, and 11 checks. Through a Manhattan district attorney’s office paralegal, prosecutors introduced a summary explaining how the charges correlated with the documents in evidence.” (emphasis added)

The exhibit the article refers to is a summary chart. The summary chart admitted into evidence in the Trump case is shown above.

The New York law permitting the use of a summary chart is as follows:

"10.11. Exception for Summary of Voluminous Material The content of voluminous writings, recordings, or photographs may be proved by the use of a summary, chart, or calculation of the contents, provided the writings, recordings, or photographs are accurate, otherwise admissible, and cannot be conveniently examined in court. The party offering such evidence must make the originals available for examination, copying, or both, by other parties at a reasonable time and place. The party against whom the item is being offered must be given an opportunity to challenge its admission. And, the court may order the offering party to produce the underlying originals in court."

New York’s law mirrors Federal Rule of Evidence 1006, which states:

"The contents of voluminous writings, recordings, or photographs which cannot conveniently be examined in court may be presented in the form of a chart, summary, or calculation. The originals, or duplicates, shall be made available for examination or copying, or both, by other parties at reasonable time and place. The court may order that they be produced in court."

These rules authorizing the admissibility of summary charts are commonsensical -allowing the voluminous pile of evidence that can’t be conveniently examined - into evidence in an form that jurors can clearly understand. Jurors don’t need to plow through the papers and photos; they can instead just look at the summary chart. 

Wise trial lawyers should take advantage of this rule when faced with a pile of paper and/or photos.