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Judge Juan Merchan is speaking about whether or not to restrict the testimony of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) expert, who the defense wanted to call.
Judge Juan Merchan says he expects closing arguments to be next Tuesday. “It’s become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,” Merchan says.
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Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and the court is in session.
Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for day 18 of his criminal trial.
Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican representative
Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican congresswoman
Eric Trump
Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide
Continue reading...Barrett Blade says wife, who testified in hush-money trial, ‘wants to move past this’ but admits ‘I don’t see people fighting for her’
The husband of Stormy Daniels said there is a “good chance” that the couple will leave the US if Donald Trump is acquitted in his criminal trial over paying hush-money payments to the adult film star.
“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,” Barrett Blade told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Todd Blanche seemed to be looking for a ‘gotcha’ – instead there was laughter in the viewing room and one irked judge
“Mr Trump, is Todd doing a good job?”
So shouted a pool reporter outside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon shortly after Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, started cross examining former fixer turned prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, in his criminal hush-money trial.
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Donald Trump is entering the courtroom. He was carrying papers, which he dropped on to the defense table before sitting.
Trump is joined by Florida congressman Cory Mills, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Eric Trump and Lara Trump.
Continue reading...Former Trump lawyer tells trial that ex-president said, ‘Just do it. Go meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out’
More people here this morning in support of Donald Trump, per poolers:
JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is being floated as a potential Republican running mate to Trump
Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator of Alabama
Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery in Arizona
Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser
Continue reading...Former fixer tells hush-money trial Trump was ‘really angry’ after account of alleged sexual liaison with adult film star emerged
Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”, according to trial testimony in Manhattan court on Monday.
“This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen, after he took the stand, recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”
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Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse.
Court proceedings are scheduled to begin at about 9.30am ET.
Continue reading...Adult film star, whose brief alleged affair with Trump has been subject of much salacious questioning from prosecutors, faces further cross-examination
Trump’s New York criminal case is the first of four such cases to reach a jury, while the other three have been hit by serious delays that could prevent them from starting before November’s presidential election.
Also on Tuesday, the federal judge in the case alleging Trump retained classified documents at this Mar-a-Lago club in Florida indefinitely delayed setting a trial date after ruling the case was nowhere near ready to face a jury.
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Trump attorney Susan Necheles reveals that Stormy Daniels is expected to be the prosecution’s second witness for the day.
She’s fighting to keep details about the alleged sex act between Daniels and Donald Trump under wraps.
Continue reading...Jury hears from adult film star on 13th day of ex-president’s criminal trial in New York
Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, an adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal, who told jurors that they had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed.
“My hands were shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed,” said Daniels, who told jurors that she had gone to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there.
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Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.
Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:
I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right?
I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.
I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.
That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.
Continue reading...Ex-president’s former communications director says Access Hollywood tape ‘was a crisis’ for his campaign
Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president’s New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.
Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers’ panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. “This was a crisis” for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.
Continue reading...Court hears that Keith Davidson texted National Enquirer editor on night of Trump’s 2016 victory to say ‘What have we done?’
Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial enters its 11th day following raucous testimony about his increasingly unhinged underling and the tawdry business of celebrity sex scandals.
Keith Davidson, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, returned to the witness stand on Thursday. Davidson was grilled on his communications with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard around the 2016 election and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then fixer.
Continue reading...Keith Davidson gives colorful testimony at former president’s hush-money trial about how agreements came together in 2016
As Donald Trump’s presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate’s alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: “What have we done?”
So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson – who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – in the ex-president’s criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.
This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to correct the amount of money that Davidson said in testimony that Michael Cohen sent to Stormy Daniels.
Continue reading...Keith Davidson is expected back on stand on Thursday; judge Juan Merchan will hold hearing on further claims Trump violated gag order
We’re still waiting for proceedings to kick off.
As defense lawyer Todd Blanche and Donald Trump are chatting at the defense table, the ex-president appears to be more animated, more engaged, than he has generally been.
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Right now, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is continuing to question banker Gary Farro about documents associated with Michael Cohen’s LLC, Essential Consultants, for which he opened a bank account.
Remember: prosecutors said that Cohen used Essential Consultants to funnel money to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, to bury her account for an extramarital sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Ex-president held in contempt of court while private banker Gary Farro to resume testimony
Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial enters its third week on Tuesday morning with additional testimony from a private banker, Gary Farro, who last week described financial maneuvering related to the ex-president’s alleged catch-and-kill scheme.
First, however, the ex-president was held in contempt of court and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order. Judge Juan Merchan wrote in an order released moments after he announced the fine that Trump was found “in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate of this court … on nine separate occasions”.
Continue reading...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.
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