Ex-president rails against ban on attacking key people connected to the trial; longtime Trump assistant asked whether boss distracted while signing checks
Trump defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of Pecker.
“We were talking about Hope Hicks, right?” Bove asked, referring to the former campaign and White House aide to Trump. Pecker answered in the affirmative.
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“He said she was a 12 out of 10,” David Pecker says the former editor in chief of the National Enquirer, Dylan Howard, told him about Karen McDougal after meeting with her.
Pecker says McDougal told Howard she didn’t want her story about Trump to be published. He says:
She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky … She wanted to restart her career.
Dylan came to me in early June of 2016 and said that he received a call from one of his major sources, in California, that there’s a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.
Continue reading...Former National Enquirer publisher says he helped Trump to suppress negative stories that threatened 2016 election campaign
The former tabloid publisher David Pecker will continue testimony at Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday, following his testimony earlier in the week.
Pecker, the former chief executive of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer, testified that he used his position to help Trump kill negative stories that threatened his campaign.
Continue reading...Trump to fight court order preventing him from abusing wide range of people connected to trial; former CEO of National Enquirer returns
Then it was the defense’s turn for opening statements.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche started by making an effort to humanize Trump, while also repeatedly calling him “President Trump”. “He’s, in some ways, larger than life. But he’s also here in this courtroom doing what any of us would do – defending himself,” Blanche said.
Donald Trump was a very frugal businessman. He believed in pinching pennies … He believed in negotiating every bill.
… Donald Trump’s willingness to [overpay] here shows just how important it was to hide the true nature of Cohen’s [payment] to Ms Daniels and the overall election conspiracy they had launched in August of 2015.
Continue reading...Florida resident in critical condition in hospital after images of incident carried live on television
A man was in critical condition in a New York hospital on Friday after setting himself on fire outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in a hush-money case.
Pictures of the incident were carried live on television and spread on X, formerly Twitter.
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Judge Merchan, in directing the press not to use physical descriptors to describe jurors, complained specifically about mentioning one of the jurors had an Irish accent.
“We just lost” what would have been a good juror for the case, Merchan said, after one of the jurors was excused after she told the court that she had concerns about her ability to be impartial. Merchan added:
She said she was afraid and intimidated by the press, all the press.
I would recommend the press simply apply common sense and refrain from anything that has to do, for example, with physical descriptions. It’s just not necessary, it serves no purpose.
Continue reading...Juan Merchan admonishes ex-president for ‘gesturing and speaking in the direction of the juror’ as jury selection continues
Donald Trump met a stern rebuke on Tuesday from the jurist presiding over his criminal hush-money trial, with the judge warning: “I won’t have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom.”
Trump’s apparent misbehavior did not derail the trial’s progress; seven jurors were picked by day’s end.
A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump
From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
Continue reading...Ex-president dozed off during calm day of proceedings in trial over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, with some potential jurors chosen. This blog is now closed.
Shortly, we should have the first set of potential jurors enter the courtroom where they will give their responses verbally to a 42-point questionnaire.
There are several categories of questions, including: in which New York neighborhood they live, their educational background, whether they’ve engaged in political activism or previously served on a jury.
Continue reading...Police were made aware of unlicensed gun after Carroll testified in court she kept a revolver by her bed
New York writer E Jean Carroll has handed over a gun to police that she was keeping, but without a license, during her long legal battles with Donald Trump after she sued him over sexual abuse, according to a new report.
Police in Warwick, New York, “took possession” of the firearm after discussing the matter with the former Elle magazine columnist, NBC News reported, citing a police report the TV network had obtained.
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