Trump trial live updates: Day 13 of hush money trial – The Associated Press
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
AP is live at a courthouse in New York as Donald Trump returns to his hush money trial, facing a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations. Prosecutors are gearing up to summon big-name witnesses in the final weeks of the case.
Donald Trump’s hush money trial continues today in a Manhattan courthouse and Stormy Daniels is taking the stand. Trump faces a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations as prosecutors gear up to summon big-name witnesses in the final weeks of the case.
Here’s what to know:
“The people call Stormy Daniels,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.
The porn actor was paid $130,000 in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.
At the time of the payment, Trump and his campaign were reeling from the Oct. 7, 2016, publication of the never-before-seen 2005 “Access Hollywood” footage — in which he boasted about grabbing women without their permission.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, paid Daniels through a shell corporation he created, and the deal was finalized on Nov. 1, 2016, just a week before Election Day.
Prosecutors say payments from Trump reimbursing Cohen were falsely — and illegally — logged as legal fees in order to cover up their actual purpose. Trump’s lawyers contend the payments were legitimate legal expenses.
Trump sits at the defense table, lawyer Emil Bove in his ear, while the rest of the defense team are at the bench conferring with prosecutors and the judge.
Over the objections of defense attorneys, prosecutors are introducing additional excerpts from one of Trump’s books, “How to Get Rich,” including an epigraph from Trump’s mom and a page thanking the book’s co-writer, Meredith McIver.
The line of questioning seems designed to undercut the defense’s suggestion, made on cross-examination, that the books were written by a ghostwriter, with little involvement from Trump.
“Are quotes attributed to an author’s mother typically written by a ghost writer or the author?” Mangold asked.
“The author,” Franklin replied.
Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump posted on X about the case while sitting in court with his father, calling it “unbelievable” that a former president and candidate “is being tried for 34 felonies (based on a bookkeepers entry who never spoke with the President and sat in New York while he was in the Oval Office 240 miles away from Washington DC).”
Testimony moved on to excerpts from Trump’s 2005 “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire,” including sections in praise of penny-pinching (“I call it financial smarts”) and keeping a close eye on bills.
When Trump lawyer Todd Blanche got his chance to cross-examine Franklin, he underscored that Trump worked with a writer on the manuscripts.
Prosecutor Becky Mangold is having Franklin read excerpts from the 2004 volume “Trump: How to Get Rich” that get at Trump’s approach to business. The readings appear to be designed to show that Trump was hands-on at his company and willing to retaliate against those he perceives have done him wrong. Among the excerpts: “If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwanted surprises,” and, “For many years, I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back.”
Franklin is an executive at Penguin Random House. One of its imprints published a couple of Trump’s books, “Trump: How to Get Rich” and “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire.”
The judge agreed with the prosecution that the details will be necessary because of the porn actor’s credibility concerns and past denials. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said that prosecutors intend to establish that Daniels and Trump did have intercourse but that the testimony “will not involve descriptions of genitalia” or other seamy details.
After court got underway, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked that Daniels — who is expected to appear as a witness today — be barred from testifying about “the details” of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Necheles said it’s irrelevant to “a case about books and records.”
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger countered that the details are important to buttress Daniels’ credibility, which the defense has questioned. Hoffinger assured Judge Merchan that the description of the alleged sexual act would be “really basic” and would not “involve any details of genitalia.”
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
Trump had a tight-faced expression as he stepped into the courtroom. He peered at the reporters sitting in the gallery as he made his way to the defense table. He then turned and looked at his entourage, including son Eric and lawyer/spokesperson Alina Habba, as they filed into the gallery rows behind him.
Shortly after, Judge Juan M. Merchan took the bench.
He read from a piece of paper that he said had statements of people commenting about the case’s weakness on television.
He then started defending the action at the heart of the case, the contested “legal expense.”
“We didn’t put it down as construction costs,” he said. “The legal expense that we paid was put down as legal expense. There’s nothing else you could say.”
Monday’s testimony, from Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, had focused on whether money paid to Michael Cohen — reimbursing him for payments to Stormy Daniels — was correctly logged as a legal expense.
In this courtroom sketch, former Trump organization employee Jeffrey McConney testifies regarding payments made to Michael Cohen. Monday, May 6, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
The jury on Monday heard from two witnesses, including a former Trump Organization controller who provided a mechanical but vital recitation of how the company reimbursed payments that were allegedly meant to suppress embarrassing stories from surfacing and then logged them as legal expenses in a manner that Manhattan prosecutors say broke the law.
Donald Trump is diving back into local New York City news, posting on his social media network a complaint about a plan to charge a $15 toll to most drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district. “What office tenant or business would want to be here with this tax,” Trump said.
The former president waved to onlookers across the road as he entered his motorcade, headed to the courthouse.
FILE – Adult film actress Stormy Daniels arrives at the adult entertainment fair “Venus” in Berlin, Oct. 11, 2018. Convicted California lawyer Michael Avenatti wants leniency at sentencing for defrauding former client Stormy Daniels of hundreds of thousands of dollars, his lawyers say, citing a letter in which he told Daniels: “I am truly sorry.” (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Clark Brewster tells The Associated Press that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is “likely” to be called as a witness in the trial Tuesday.
Trump said earlier Tuesday that he was “recently told” who the witness would be on Tuesday and complained he should’ve been given more notice.
Looking to understand the different cases faced by Donald Trump? Read the AP’s guide.
Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial is full of terms you don’t typically hear in a courtroom.
Centering on allegations Trump falsified his company’s records to conceal the nature of hush money reimbursements, it’s the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of Trump’s four indictments to go to trial. It also has some unique terminology.
Here are some examples.
FILE – Michael Cohen arrives at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen says he unwittingly passed along to his attorney bogus artificial intelligence-generated legal case citations he got online before they were submitted to a New York judge. Cohen made the admission in a court filing unsealed Friday, Dec. 29, in Manhattan federal court as a judge decides whether to punish one of Cohen’s lawyers, who cited the fake cases in a submission to the judge. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Prosecutors are continuing to build toward their star witness, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments. He is expected to undergo a bruising cross-examination from defense attorneys seeking to undermine his credibility with jurors.
Judge Juan M. Merchan warns Trump of possible jail time if gag order violations in the hush money case continue
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after exiting court for the day from his hush money trial in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. (Peter Foley/Pool Photo via AP)
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial fined him $1,000 on Monday and, in his sternest warning yet, told the former president that future gag order violations could send him to jail. The reprimand opened a revelatory day of testimony, as jurors for the first time heard the details of the financial transactions at the center of the case and saw payment checks bearing Trump’s signature.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.