Why Keith Schiller, Trump’s Bodyguard, Hasn’t Testified In Trump’s Trial – The New York Times
Trump Hush-Money Trial
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Stormy Daniels said that the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, got her phone number and invited her to dinner with Donald J. Trump. He has not testified in Mr. Trump’s criminal trial.
Over two days of testimony in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who said she had a brief sexual encounter with him, repeatedly mentioned the name of his bodyguard at the time: Keith Schiller.
Mr. Schiller was the person who got her phone number for Mr. Trump after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 in Lake Tahoe, Nev., Ms. Daniels testified this week. Mr. Schiller also invited Ms. Daniels to meet Mr. Trump for dinner that night, she said, and let her into Mr. Trump’s hotel suite when she showed up.
In that hotel room, Mr. Trump and Ms. Daniels drank bottled water, talked about their lives and careers and, as the sun set near Lake Tahoe, had sex, she testified.
The witness who took the stand after Ms. Daniels also brought up Mr. Schiller. The witness, Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, said that when Mr. Trump became president, she sent personal checks that required his signature to Mr. Schiller. And Mr. Schiller returned the signed checks to her via FedEx.
But where is Mr. Schiller? Prosecutors have not called him to testify, and there has been no sign that they will before testimony concludes. Mr. Schiller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The prosecutors appear to have tailored their case to the witnesses who they believe will be more or less forthcoming about what they saw. Mr. Schiller was close to Trump for many years, raising the possibility that prosecutors may have deemed him unlikely to be productive for them on the stand.
Mr. Schiller is a former officer with the New York Police Department who has worked for Mr. Trump since the early 2000s, when he was hired as the head of security at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
He traveled with Mr. Trump on business trips and, later, on cross-country trips during the 2016 presidential campaign. He then joined Mr. Trump in the White House, serving as the director of Oval Office operations.
Matthew Haag writes about the intersection of real estate and politics in the New York region. He has been a journalist for two decades. More about Matthew Haag
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