NEW YORK — The hush money trial of Donald Trump resumes Tuesday with testimony from the prosecution’s third witness, Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen open accounts.
Cohen used one to buy the silence of porn performer Stormy Daniels. She alleged a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies.
The first week of testimony set the stage for jurors as prosecutors in Manhattan portrayed what they said was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.
The former president and presumptive Republican nominee has, in turn, campaigned outside office hours, but must be in court four days a week during the hearing.
The indictment centers on $130,000 in payments Trump’s company made to Cohen. Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments and falsely recorded them as legal fees.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying company records.
The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president and the first of four prosecutions against Trump to reach a jury.
Currently:
– Key players: who’s who in Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial
– The hush money case is just one of Trump’s lawsuits. Check out the others here
— These people were accused of interfering in the 2020 elections. Some are still active in politics
— The National Enquirer was America’s favorite tabloid for years. Donald Trump has changed that
– Trump and DeSantis meet to make peace and discuss fundraising for the former president’s campaign
Here’s the latest:
Judge Juan M. Merchan could rule this week on prosecutors’ request to fine Trump for what they say are violations of a silence order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others involved in the case are.
The judge also held a hearing Thursday on a new series of alleged violations of the gag order.
In an order first issued in March and later revised, Merchan barred Trump from making public statements about potential trial witnesses “concerning their possible participation in the investigation or in these criminal proceedings.”
Merchan’s order did not provide specific examples of what types of witness statements were prohibited. He noted that the order was not intended to prevent the former president from responding to political attacks.
The silence order also prohibited Trump from making public statements of any kind about jurors, court staff, attorneys on the case or family members of prosecutors or the judge.
Defense attorneys in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Friday delved into the claims of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to shield Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.
The first week of testimony set the stage for jurors as prosecutors in Manhattan portrayed what they said was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories. Now prosecutors are working to fill in the details of how they think Trump and his allies pulled it off.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony last week gave jurors a stunning glimpse into the supermarket tabloid’s catch-and-kill practice of buying the rights to stories so they never see the light of day.
Trump’s former executive assistant, Rhona Graff, told jurors she remembered seeing Stormy Daniels in a Trump Tower reception area, although the date of the visit was not clear.
