Donald Trump’s hush money trial got back underway on Tuesday with Judge Juan Merchan ruling that he found the former president in contempt of court on nine of the first ten violations of the gag order, fining him $1,000 for each.
Further violations may result in “an incarceratory punishment”, he warned.
The judge did say he would give the court a day off to allow Mr Trump to attend his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation on 17 May, apparently happy with the pace of the trial.
In the morning, the court heard further testimony from Gary Farro, the banker for former Trump fixer Michael Cohen who took the stand at the end of last week. Cohen was instrumental in making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair with Mr Trump.
Tying much of the story together was Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for Ms Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who negotiated the sale of their stories to guarantee their silence — something that became urgent in October 2016 after the release of the Access Hollywood tape.
The Independent’s Alex Woodward is covering the trial at Manhattan Criminal Court.
Trump will leave decision to prosecute women for having abortions up to the states
Mr Trump has proudly claimed responsibility for ending the constitutional right to an abortion.
Oliver O’Connell1 May 2024 02:30
Feature: Florida’s Democrats were in chaos. Then the abortion bans came along
At the beginning of April, Joe Biden’s campaign manager made a bold proclamation: the state of Florida was winnable for the president in 2024.
Julie Chávez Rodríguez’s claim raised eyebrows for a few reasons: for one, the former president and Biden’s opponent, Donald Trump, is now a permanent resident of the Sunshine State. Then there’s the voter deficit – between 2020 and 2022, the number of voters registered as Democrats in Florida dropped by 331,810. Over that same period, the number of Republican voter registrations in the state increased slightly. Currently, Republicans hold an advantage among active registered voters to the tune of 892,034 registrations.
Oliver O’Connell1 May 2024 01:30
Feature: Stuck in court, Trump turns his criminal trial into his campaign
The last place Donald Trump wants to be is seated at a defence table, muted, in a courtroom in New York City, surrounded by reporters, for six to eight weeks.
A man who is used to spending his days golfing, surrounded by loyalists at his Florida resort, raging at network news, and travelling to makeshift arenas for rallies where his name is everywhere, is instead entering the second week of witness testimony in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.
Oliver O’Connell1 May 2024 00:30
Trump loses latest bid to delay hush money trial
The former president had sought a delay for several reasons, including that presiding Judge Juan Merchan had refused to recuse himself from the case, and that he had not been permitted to invoke a presidential immunity defense.
Oliver O’Connell1 May 2024 00:00
Trump has been told he can attend his son’s graduation after all. So what do we know about Barron?
On the very first day of his criminal trial on Monday 15 April, the Republican presidential candidate emerged from the courtroom to complain to reporters that Judge Juan Merchan would not allow him to be present for the milestone event in his son’s life.
His fury was echoed by members of the conservative media, with Fox News guest Piers Morgan urging the former president to risk jail time rather than miss such an important occasion.
But the judge actually hadn’t said anything of the sort, saying he would rule on whether or not Mr Trump could attend at a later date.
Oliver O’Connell30 April 2024 23:30
Trump insider says Noem destroyed her VP chances with dog execution story
In her upcoming book, No Going Back, the Republican governor details how she shot her 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket because it was poorly behaved. She then disposed of the dog in a nearby gravel pit.
It is perhaps the only thing that has brought Americans together, as Graig Graziosi reports:
Oliver O’Connell30 April 2024 22:30
Trump loses another appeal to delay hush money trial
An appeals court has denied Donald Trump’s request to delay the hush money trial… as another day ends.
Trump sought a delay because Judge Juan Merchan refused to recuse, because he couldn’t invoke an immunity defence, and because the judge made his team file motions with a delay to allow for redactions.
Oliver O’Connell30 April 2024 21:51
Watch: Trump ends say in court with rants about gag order and judges
He’s still not letting go of the civil fraud trial ruling…
And E Jean Carroll’s lawyers are likely paying close attention to this:
Oliver O’Connell30 April 2024 21:46
That brings us back to Farro’s testimony from this morning.
Once again we see a confirmation email from Farro’s assistant that funds were deposited into Cohen’s LLC account.
“It meant nothing to me,” Davidson says, “because he had my wiring instructions. All he had to do was wire funds. But he didn’t wire funds. He sent me an email that he had the money, not that he sent the money to me.”
Cohen was a “highly excitable, pants-on-fire kind of guy” at the time, Davidson says.
He compares him to the dog from Up: “Squirrel, squirrel!”
And court concludes for the day.
Alex Woodward30 April 2024 21:32
Howard: Push for the cash. [David Pecker] and I just told him he has to pay the 150K.
Davidson: He says you’re paying
“It was very frustrating,” Davidson says. “The entire matter was very frustrating, that it was on again, off again, delays in funding, cancellations, disengaging from clients, re-engaging with clients, Stormy and Gina, and Dylan as sort of a peacemaker brought me back into the fold and he said he reached out to Pecker, he said everything was teed up, he tells me push for the cash, and basically tells me to call Cohen.”
On 26 October, Davidson emailed Cohen for a “fourth or a fifth” time with wiring instructions.
Cohen called and told him that he sorted everything out, Davidson says. “I said I don’t believe him.”
Later that afternoon, Cohen forwarded him details about his First Republic Bank transfer.
Alex Woodward30 April 2024 21:24