Prosecutors on Tuesday called a seemingly low-profile witness to testify in the Donald J. Trump hush-money trial: Robert Browning, executive director of archives at C-SPAN, the public television network that broadcasts government proceedings. But Mr. Browning’s presence played a key role.
Mr. Browning spent about 20 minutes on the stand, and prosecutors began with a straightforward question: What is C-SPAN? Then, though, they played clips from the network, starting with a Trump campaign rally in October 2016 at which the candidate attacked two women who had accused him of sexual assault.
The decision by prosecutors to introduce the videos through Mr. Browning’s testimony appeared to be a way to work around a ruling that Justice Juan M. Merchan had made at the trial’s start. The judge stopped the prosecution from presenting direct evidence about the many women who had accused Mr. Trump of assault as the campaign neared its end.
But by playing the videos, prosecutors were able to get a flavor of that evidence to the jury through Mr. Trump’s reactions to the allegations — not through statements by the women themselves. Moreover, Mr. Trump’s reactions were delivered on camera, at public events, presumably making it easier for them to introduce the videos as evidence.
The videos appeared to be a way for the prosecution to start building its case that the Trump campaign had become increasingly concerned about its potential vulnerabilities with female voters. That will be important as prosecutors turn to telling their story about how Mr. Trump wanted to silence a tale of sexual scandal that the porn star Stormy Daniels was shopping around out of a fear that it could further alienate women.
