For decades, few people had access to Donald J. Trump like Rhona Graff. Now, Ms. Graff, his former personal assistant at the Trump Organization, has become the second person to testify against Mr. Trump in his criminal trial in Lower Manhattan.
At Trump Tower, Ms. Graff served as Mr. Trump’s gatekeeper. The Queens native had an office right outside his door, placing her within earshot of Mr. Trump’s requests to get someone on the phone. And when someone wanted to reach Mr. Trump, they first had to go through Ms. Graff, often requiring a secret code to be put through.
“Everybody knows in order to get through to him,” she once said, “they have to go through me.”
Ms. Graff heard about a job opening in 1987 at the Trump Organization and cold-called to get the position. The job appeared to raise her profile. Six years later, Ms. Graff’s wedding announcement was written up in The New York Times. She married Lucius Joseph Riccio, the city’s commissioner of transportation, in a wedding officiated by Mayor David N. Dinkins.
The roles in which she served for Mr. Trump extended far beyond being his assistant, as reflected in her title: senior vice president. She acted as Mr. Trump’s media liaison, scheduler, sometimes spokeswoman, fund-raising planner, co-star on his realty show “The Apprentice” and as a Miss Teen USA judge.
Ms. Graff continued her service during his 2016 presidential campaign and after Mr. Trump moved into the White House.
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