Summary
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
The prosecution started off by pointing to Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order. “The order was issued because of the defendant’s persistent and escalating rhetoric aimed at participants in this hearing … He’s already been found by the court to have violated the order nine times and has done it again here,” Christopher Conroy said of Donald Trump.
Chris Conroy referred to Donald Trump’s recent comments on Michael Cohen, his one-time consigliere-turned-star prosecution witness. “Michael Cohen is not a political opponent, defendant’s comments about Michael Cohen relate to issues at the heart of the proceeding,” he said, adding, “Defendant is doing everything he can to make this case about his politics – it’s not it’s about his criminal conduct.”
Juan Merchan was not buying Todd Blanche’s “Donald Trump is a victim to media” narrative. “Whats happening in this trial is no surprise to anyone,” the judge said. “It wasn’t the press that went to him, he went to the press,” Merchan said, adding, “You’re telling me that the scrutiny is outrageous. Nobody forced your client to go stand where he did that day.”
Joshua Steinglass asked Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win. “There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand. Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote, “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are likely to seize on Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’s lawyer, insisting that he would never characterize the $130,000 payment to Daniels as “hush money” but as “consideration for a settlement agreement” – which sounds legal-related. Recall that the Manhattan DA’s underlying case is that Trump falsified business records because the $130,000 to Daniels was recorded as legal expenses or legal retainers to Michael Cohen. It is likely that Trump’s lawyers will try to argue “consideration” is a legal expense.
There was a lot of tension between Donald Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove and Keith Davidson. Davidson was clearly uninterested in talking about past less-than-flattering deals in which he has gotten payments for clients from Charlie Sheen. Bove kept saying Davidson “extracted” money from Sheen. “If you’re not here to play legal games, don’t say extract,” Davidson said.
Prosecution played Michael Cohen’s recording of conversation with Donald Trump. “I need to open up a company for the transfer...regarding our friend David [Pecker]... I’m going to do that right away, and I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” said Cohen.
Juan Merchan said he refuses to review things, including media articles, in advance that Trump wants to post to his Truth Social platform to warn him if they would violate his gag order. “I’m not going to be in the position of looking at posts and determining in advance whether he should or should not post these on Truth Social,” Merchan said.
Keith Davidson took the stand as a witness for the prosecution. Defence lawyer Emil Bove, representing Donald Trump, cross-examined him, asking him a 2011 blogpost on a gossip site called The Dirty, which was the first time he had interacted with Michael Cohen.
Bove pointed to connections between Daniels, her handler at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and The Dirty’s publisher, as reason for their ability to get the story taken down. “Isn’t it a fact that the reason Ms Daniels and Ms Rodriguez wanted that blogpost taken down is because they were trying to negotiate a better deal with In Touch magazine?” Bove asked. Davidson said he learned that later. “They were using my efforts to create an exclusive opportunity with a different publication,” he said on cross.
That’s it as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
Updated
Court is now over for the day.
It will be back in session tomorrow and will end at about 3:45pm.
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Donald Trump looked incredibly bored as Emil Bove cross examined the expert witness, slouching in his chair.
Emil Bove cross-examined Douglas Daus.
He tried to use Daus’s past experience – he was an intelligence analyst in Iraq, looking at data on devices over there – to discredit him.
For example, he asked, “In Iraq, you were doing that more or less in a battlefield?”
Daus responded, “In a lab.”
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Prosecution plays Michael Cohen’s recording of conversation with Donald Trump
Right now, the prosecution is playing a recording that Michael Cohen took in conversation with Donald Trump.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer...regarding our friend David... I’m going to do that right away, and I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” said Cohen.
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Douglas Daus has also been shown a photo of Michael Cohen behind the lectern in the White House press conference room.
He said that the person in the photo was Cohen. Daus said he had not met Cohen before.
“How do you know that’s him?” the prosecution asked.
“Uh, I watch a lot of news,” Daus said. The showing of this photo helped Daus explain what metadata might tell one about an image.
Right now, Douglas Daus’s testimony is basically just describing the type of data extracted from Michael Cohen’s phones, such as contacts and text messages.
An example shown on screen includes a text Cohen sent to Hope Hicks that read “call me”.
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There was a brief redirect from the prosecution to Keith Davidson that briefly touched on a conversation between him and Michael Cohen in which Cohen moans about how his staunch loyalty to Donald Trump during all of the hush money, Stormy Daniels shenanigans goes unreturned by his then-boss.
“Who else would do that for somebody? Who else? I did. Because I care about the guy. And I wasn’t going to play pennywise pound foolish, and I’m sitting there and I’m saying to myself, what about me?” Cohen told Davidson in a conversation that Davidson recorded, the court heard.
Davidson then told Cohen in that it was a “tough” situation, because even if he wanted to “strike out” somehow, Trump “controls the privilege”.
Davidson said to Cohen: “Even if you want to go write a book, you probably couldn’t.”
“Uhm, nah I could ,” Cohen said, the nonchalant defiance in his voice prompting some chuckles in court.
Now Davidson is excused and we’re on to the next witness, Douglas Daus, who works in the office of district attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting the case against Trump.
Daus works in the digital evidence department of the DA’s office in Manhattan.
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Emil Bove, for Trump, pointed to connections between Daniels, her handler at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and The Dirty’s publisher, as reason for their ability to get the story taken down.
“Isn’t it a fact that the reason Ms Daniels and Ms Rodriguez wanted that blogpost taken down is because they were trying to negotiate a better deal with In Touch magazine?” Bove asked.
Davidson said he learned that later. “They were using my efforts to create an exclusive opportunity with a different publication,” he said on cross. Bove also brought up how the late pornographer Larry Flynt had offered to indemnify Daniels if she were to come forward about Trump – that is, pay her legal bills that could stem from flouting a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed as part of a hush-money deal.
Cross-examination is over and redirect is about to begin.
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Keith Davidson, previously an attorney for Stormy Daniels, the porn star and producer at the center of the whole hush-money scheme, is back on the stand as a witness for the prosecution.
Defence lawyer Emil Bove, representing Donald Trump, continues the cross-examination that he began before the lunch break.
Bove is now asking Davidson about a 2011 blogpost on a gossip site called The Dirty, which was the first time he had interacted with the man who became Donald Trump’s lawyer, fixer and then foe, Michael Cohen.
The Dirty posted a claim that Stormy Daniels and Trump had a sexual encounter in the past (before Trump was running for president). Cohen was irate, thinking that Daniels was behind the post. Davidson explained that wasn’t the case and sent a successful cease-and-desist demand to the site, prompting the post’s removal.
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Judge Juan Merchan has said he refuses to review things, including media articles, in advance that Trump wants to post to his Truth Social platform to warn him if they would violate his gag order.
“I’m not going to be in the position of looking at posts and determining in advance whether he should or should not post these on Truth Social,” Merchan said. “There is no ambiguity.”
The judge suggested: “I think the best advice you can give your client is when in doubt, steer clear.”
In court for the Guardian, Victoria Bekiempis noted that, not surprisingly, the kinds of articles that Trump wants to post have described the criminal case against him as a “political hit”.
After that exchange, between Necheles and Merchan, the jury was brought back in.
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Susan Necheles, Trump’s defense lawyer, is asking the judge whether he would review articles or posts in advance that the defendant would like to post on his social media platform but may not be sure they would comply with the court’s gag order.
Under the order, Trump cannot make, or direct others to make, public statements about trial witnesses concerning their roles in the investigation and at trial, prosecutors, and members of the court staff or the district attorney’s staff. Judge Juan Merchan and the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, are not covered by the gag order, which was expanded at the beginning of April.
“These articles are all articles which President Trump would like to post on his Truth [his social media platform that he set up after being tossed from Twitter, Truth Social, which is what he uses even though Elon Musk lifted his Twitter/X ban]. But they all discuss this case, they discuss witnesses who have testified they discuss what the aspects of this case are,” Necheles said.
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Court resumes
Donald Trump has walked back into the courtroom and sat down with his team, and now court has started.
Defense lawyer Susan Necheles, is asking the judge, Juan Merchan, for some clarification on the gag order.
There are articles from legal scholars, Necheles said, that Trump would like to post on his social media platform – but he doesn’t know if he can post articles if doing so would go astray of the court’s ruling.
This discussion is taking place before the jury has been called back in.
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There are some choice pictures from the court artists from this morning. Apart from photographs of the defendant at the top of proceedings each morning, there are no cameras allowed in the court room and no public audio feed.
So the professional sketch artists are having a field day. Here’s a selection of the latest.
Witness:
Huddle:
Updated
Interim Summary
The court is now on lunch break. Here is a look at where things stand:
The prosecution started off by pointing to Juan Merchan’s gag order. “The order was issued because of the defendant’s persistent and escalating rhetoric aimed at participants in this hearing … He’s already been found by the court to have violated the order nine times and has done it again here,” Christopher Conroy said of Donald Trump.
Chris Conroy referred to Donald Trump’s recent comments on Michael Cohen, his one-time consigliere-turned-star prosecution witness. “Michael Cohen is not a political opponent, defendant’s comments about Michael Cohen relate to issues at the heart of the proceeding,” he said, adding, “Defendant is doing everything he can to make this case about his politics – it’s not it’s about his criminal conduct.”
Juan Merchan was not buying Todd Blanche’s “Donald Trump is a victim to media” narrative. “Whats happening in this trial is no surprise to anyone,” the judge said. “It wasn’t the press that went to him, he went to the press,” Merchan said, adding, “You’re telling me that the scrutiny is outrageous. Nobody forced your client to go stand where he did that day.”
Joshua Steinglass asked Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win. “There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand. Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are likely to seize on Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, insisting that he would never characterize the $130,000 payment to Daniels as “hush money” but as “consideration for a settlement agreement” – which sounds legal-related. Recall that the Manhattan DA’s underlying case is that Trump falsified business records because the $130,000 to Daniels was recorded as legal expenses or legal retainers to Michael Cohen. It is likely that Trump’s lawyers will try to argue “consideration” is a legal expense.
There was a lot of tension between Donald Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove and Keith Davidson. Davidson was clearly uninterested in talking about past less-than-flattering deals in which he has gotten payments for clients from Charlie Sheen. Bove kept saying Davidson “extracted” money from Sheen. “If you’re not here to play legal games, don’t say extract,” Davidson said.
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Emil Bove is walking through Keith Davidson’s original retaining of Karen McDougal and how he was already pumping her up to the National Enquirer as he tried to sign her as a client.
Tensions are high between Trump lawyer and Stormy Daniels' lawyer during cross examination
There is a lot of tension between Emil Bove and Keith Davidson right now.
Davidson clearly is uninterested in talking about past less-than-flattering deals in which he has gotten payments for clients from Charlie Sheen.
Bove keeps saying Davidson “extracted” money from Sheen. “If you’re not here to play legal games, don’t say extract,” Davidson said.
Updated
Emil Bove is going through past unsavory deals that Keith Davidson has been linked to.
Those include the leaking of Lindsay Lohan’s rehab file, a Tila Tequila sex tape, and payments from Charlie Sheen.
Emil Bove asked Keith Davidson if he was “pretty well versed in getting right up to the line without committing extortion, right?”
Bove raises that Davidson was previously investigated by federal authorities for extorting Hulk Hogan. Davidson confirms that he was. By 2016, Bove says, Davidson must have been familiar with extortion defenses.
Emil Bove, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, is cross-examining Keith Davidson.
Davidson is offering more details about his conversation with Michael Cohen’s state of mind in December 2016.
“I thought he was gonna kill himself,” Davidson says. Davidson says Cohen believed he would be chief of staff or the US attorney general but was dismayed Trump was not taking him to Washington.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires:
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Prosecutors just had a bit of a stumble with Keith Davidson, as they questioned him about why he told CNN in 2018 that he believed Michael Cohen paid for the deal with Stormy Daniels.
Davidson had previously testified that he believed Trump would ultimately pay, but as election day neared and the deal was not going through, Cohen said “Fuck it, I’ll do it myself.”
After the election, Cohen spoke to Davidson and bemoaned that he had not been paid back. This is an obstacle for prosecutors because Davidson is not linking Trump to the payments.
Updated
Keith Davidson’s direct testimony ends for now with one last query from Joshua Steinglass. “Mr Davidson, do you have any stake in the outcome of this trial?”
“No, not at all,” Davidson said.
Joshua Steinglass is now walking Keith Davidson through texts with Michael Cohen on 31 January 2018 where Trump’s then consigliere was frenetic.
“She just denied the letter,” Cohen said. “Claiming it’s not her signature.”
“You said she did it in front of you,” Cohen also texted.
“She did. Impossible – she posted it on her own Twitter page,” Davidson said.
Cohen then pointed to Stormy Daniels’ appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.
“They showed her signature and she claimed it was not hers on Kimmel.”
Steinglass asked Davidson: “How did you respond?”
“WTF.”
“I hate to ask, but what does that mean?“ Steinglass asked of the acronym.
“Sort of a signal of exasperation, ‘what the fuck,’” Davidson said.
Updated
Trump lawyers likely to use Stormy Daniels' lawyer's hush money testimony to their advantage
Donald Trump’s lawyers are likely to seize on Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, insisting that he would never characterize the $130,000 payment to Daniels as “hush money” but as “consideration for a settlement agreement” – which sounds legal-related.
Recall that the Manhattan DA’s underlying case is that Trump falsified business records because the $130,000 to Daniels was recorded as legal expenses or legal retainers to Michael Cohen. It is likely that Trump’s lawyers will try to argue “consideration” is a legal expense.
Updated
The statement read, “Over the past few weeks, I have been asked countless times to comment on reports of an alleged sexual relationship I had with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago.”
“I’m not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money,’” the statement read, adding, “I’m denying this affair because it never happened.”
“I will have no further comment on this matter. Please feel free to check me out on Instagram at @thestormydaniels.”
Again, asked about whether this statement was accurate, Davidson focused on linguistic intricacies. “I think it’s technically true.”
How was this technically true, Joshua Steinglass pressed.
“It’s out,” Michael Cohen texted Keith Davidson on 30 January 2018.
“Apparently there was a news article that had been published. I was receiving hundreds of phone calls at my office,” Davidson said of an account of Stormy Daniels’ and Donald Trump’s affair.
That night, Daniels was supposed to go on Jimmy Kimmel.
He described the drafting of a Daniels’ denial before that appearance. He was in the Marilyn Monroe suite at the Roosevelt Hotel, in Hollywood. “There were makeup artists,” he recalled.
Updated
Stormy Daniels' lawyer says denial of hush money 'technically correct'
Keith Davidson insisted that her denial was “technically correct.”
“I think you’d have to hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual, and affair,” Davidson said.
“Well, I don’t think that anyone had ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr Trump was romantic.”
“OK...” Steinglass said with a laugh.
“How about sexual?”
“Well that would be a sexual and/or romantic [affair],” Davidson said.
Steinglass asked about Daniels’ statement that “rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.”
“How is that technically true,” Steinglass said, later asking, “Would you use the phrase hush money?”
“I would never use that word.”
“And what would be the word that you would use to describe it?”
“Consideration” in a civil settlement, Davidson said.
Updated
Keith Davidson is walking through the January 2018 statement Stormy Daniels gave, denying an affair and is making a tortured argument that if you read it in a highly technical way you could construe the statement to be accurate.
For example, the statement says “I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump”. Davidson is telling the court no one would consider the interaction to be romantic, prompting loud laughter in the overflow room.
Updated
Right now, Joshua Steinglass is questioning Keith Davidson on Stormy Daniels’ 2018 denial of an alleged affair with Donald Trump, after news surfaced about the alleged hush money scheme.
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Keith Davidson is describing a December 2016 phone call with Michael Cohen in which Cohen was despondent.
He said something to the effect of “Jesus christ, can you fucking believe I’m not going to Washington? After everything I’ve done for that fucking guy. I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s ass so many times you don’t even know.”
“He said I never even got paid. That fucking guy is not even paying me the $130,000 back.”
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“What have we done?” Keith Davidson wrote to Dylan Howard.
He called the phrasing “gallows humor”.
“You refer to [it] as gallows humor, can you explain that a little bit more, what do you mean when you say, ‘what have we done?’”
“I think there was an understanding that this was a text between Dylan Howard and I, and that there was an understanding that ... our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”
“And how did Dylan Howard respond to your text?”
“Oh my god.”
“I should ask you the obvious question, who won the election?”
“Donald Trump.”
Updated
Davidson texted Howard 'what have we done' as 2016 election went Trump's way
Joshua Steinglass is now asking Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win.
“There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand.
Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
Updated
Keith Davidson continues testimony in hush-money trial
Right now, on continued direct examination, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is asking Keith Davidson questions about Michael Cohen’s transfer of money to him for the Stormy Daniels payoff.
Recall: Davidson said that Daniels had been growing impatient in early October 2016 when Cohen had not paid up. But, toward the end of the month – several weeks after a hot mic recording emerged where Trump bragged about groping women – Cohen came through.
Steinglass asked Davidson about texts he exchanged with then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about the payment. “Money wired I am told,” Howard said in a 27 October 2016 text to Davidson. Several hours later, Davidson said, “Funds received.”
Steinglass asked whether the funds were wired to Davidson’s escrow account from Essential Consultants (Cohen’s hastily incorporated LLC). He said “Yes.”
Later, Steinglass asked Davidson about more texts he exchanged with Howard after the deal was done. “Unbelievable,” Howard said in one text. To which Davidson replied, “was never really sure...”
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“Can I ask you to address the comments that were made about the jury?” Juan Merchan asked shortly thereafter.
“We very much believe this is a political persecution, a political trial,” Todd Blanche said.
As he continued to try making this argument, the judge said, “Did he violate the gag order, that’s all I want to know.”
“I’m making an argument that he didn’t,” Blanche said. Merchan said he was not buying it, and that is why he was asking.
“He spoke about the jury, right?” Merchan asked, adding, “He said the jury was 95% Democrats and the jury had been rushed through.”
Updated
Todd Blanche raised the bogeyman of Michael Cohen’s TikTok account.
“As has been reported, because it’s true, Michael Cohen has been going on TikTok, nightly, – literally making money… He actively encourages folks to give him money… His TikTok repeatedly criticizes President Trump,” Blanche said.
“This is not a man who needs protection from the gag order,” he added.
Updated
Donald Trump is sitting passively as his lawyer, Todd Blanche, reads out Michael Cohen’s tweets attacking him on Twitter, including Cohen calling him “Von Schitzenpants” and a “petulant defendant” and that he will not donate to Trump’s jail commissary.
Hey Von ShitzInPantz…your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense. pic.twitter.com/FVsWbRnNkB
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) April 22, 2024
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Judge Juan Merchan does not seem particularly impressed by Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche’s contention that the gag order is unfair to Trump because he cannot respond to attacks against Trump by people like Michael Cohen, an expected trial witness protected by the gag order, and media coverage of other trial witnesses’ testimony.
“They’re not defendants in the case. They’re not subject to the gag order,” Merchan says flatly.
Judge skeptical of defense lawyer's argument that gag order blocks Trump's free-speech rights
Juan Merchan is not buying Todd Blanche’s “Donald Trump is a victim to media” narrative.
“Whats happening in this trial is no surprise to anyone,” the judge said.
“The former president of the United States is on trial. He’s the leading candidate for the Republican party right now. Everybody came into this knew that this would happen – we all expected it. There’s no surprises here, so I don’t know how it reflects on Mr Trump if 10 outlets are talking about Mr Pecker.”
“Everybody can say whatever they want, except President Trump,” Blanche said.
“They’re not defendants in this case,” Mechan said.
Merchan referred to one of the alleged gag order violations in the courthouse hallway, before a press gaggle.
“It wasn’t the press that went to him, he went to the press,” Merchan said, adding, “You’re telling me that the scrutiny is outrageous. Nobody forced your client to go stand where he did that day.”
“Nobody’s forcing him, but he’s running for president,” Blanche said, adding, “He has to be able to speak.”
Updated
Donald Trump seemed caught off guard when Todd Blanche said he agreed with the judge, Juan Merchan, that no one is forcing Trump to speak to the press every day.
He quickly looked back from the defense table at Blanche.
Updated
Todd Blanche argued that Donald Trump did not even say anything bad about Dave Pecker - if anything, it was neutral to positive.
Merchan is not buying it. “It’s not just about Mr Pecker, it’s about what all of the other witnesses who may come here,” he said.
“It affects those witnesses as well. I understand your concerns about Mr [Michael] Cohen. I expressed concerns about Mr Cohen and Ms [Stormy] Daniels in my decision,” Merchan said, referring to Cohen’s commentary about his ex-boss.
“It’s not just about those individuals, its about everybody else… That’s a concern that does go to the integrity of the proceedings,” he added.
Blanche complained that Trump is not able to speak freely despite “what’s happening behind us”.
“I’m talking about the press,” Blanche said, adding, “There’s 24-7 overage of everything that’s happening in the courtroom – every time we whisper to our client, it’s livestreamed over all sorts of social media outlets.”
“He can’t just say no comment repeatedly, he’s running for president!” he continued.
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“Judge, last weekend, President Trump’s rival, President Biden, said in a public forum – he talked about this trial, and he talked about a witness that’s going to be in this trial. He mocked President Trump. He said Donald has had a few tough days lately, you might call it stormy weather,” said Todd Blanche.
“President Trump can’t respond like he wants to because of this gag order,” Blanche said, adding, “Stormy weather was an obvious reference to Stormy Daniels.”
Juan Merchan asked whether Trump was saying he cannot respond to Biden, noting that he is not barred from responding but rather, just from invoking the name of a foreseeable witness.
“President Biden is not limited,” Blanche said, but Trump is.
Updated
Todd Blanche is again making the argument that Donald Trump’s comments are political and not related to his trial.
“Part of the campaign takes place outside this courtroom, part of this campaign takes place in interviews,” Blanche said.
He is also complaining about Joe Biden, implying he has an unfair advantage in being able to talk about the case when his client cannot.
Updated
Prosecutor says 'we are not seeking jail' in order not to delay trial
Chris Conroy is now referring to Donald Trump’s recent comments on Michael Cohen, his one-time consigliere-turned-star prosecution witness.
“Michael Cohen is not a political opponent, defendant’s comments about Michael Cohen relate to issues at the heart of the proceeding,” he said, adding, “Defendant is doing everything he can to make this case about his politics – it’s not it’s about his criminal conduct.”
Conroy said they are asking for financial penalties again. “To minimise disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail,” he said.
Updated
Prosecutor tells gag order hearing Trump 'knows what he's doing'
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy is now moving on to the second alleged violation – Donald Trump’s comments about David Pecker outside court.
“The defendant knows what he’s doing, He talks about the testifying witness, says nice things, in front of the cameras,” Conroy said.
He argued that this is intentional – not Trump just blathering in response to a barrage of reporters’ questions.
“He selectively responded to this question and not others,” Conroy argued, noting that even though his comments on Pecker were positive, they are nonetheless “deliberate shots across the bow [for] anyone who comes to this courtroom to talk about the defendant and what he did.”
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Judge hears arguments on further alleged gag order violations
The prosecution started off by pointing to Juan Merchan’s order.
“The order was issued because of the defendant’s persistent and escalating rhetoric aimed at participants in this hearing … He’s already been found by the court to have violated the order nine times and has done it again here,” Christopher Conroy said of Donald Trump.
“He was on the media and he used that platform there to criticized the seated jury in the case,” the prosecutor said.
“By talking about the jury at all, he places this process and this proceeding here in jeopardy – this is what the order forbids, and he did it anyway,” Conroy continued.
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Court has started for the day.
“I looked at the exhibits that were provided by both the people and the defense,” Juan Merchan says of the prosecution’s most recent push for contempt.
The judge is now asking prosecutors to go through each of the alleged violations.
Updated
Prior to heading inside the courtroom, Donald Trump stopped and addressed the press.
He bragged about his rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, saying, “We had tremendous rallies, sold-out rallies that were packed and the enthusiasm’s never been better.”
Trump also spoke about inflation, saying, “Interest rates are obviously not going to be able to be reduced prior to the election because inflation is roaring back.”
He went on to praise the police crackdowns on the Palestinian solidarity student encampments at UCLA and Columbia and blamed the “radical left lunatics”.
“The right is not your problem, despite what law enforcement likes to say,” he added.
Updated
We’re still waiting for proceedings to kick off.
As Donald Trump and Todd Blanche, his defense lawyer, are chatting at the table, the ex-president appears to be more animated, more engaged, than he has generally been.
Updated
As Donald Trump walked down the aisle to the defense table, he looked around at the gallery.
His expression hadn’t changed much since his last appearance in court.
Trump arrives in courtroom
Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.
His suit is navy and his satiny tie is marigold-toned – a step away from his normal blue-on-blue or blue-and-red attire.
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Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the courthouse, according to pool reports.
Here are some images coming through the newswires:
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Earlier this week Trump was fined $9,000 for violating a gag order imposed by Juan Merchan, the trial judge. And on Thursday, prosecutors will seek another $4,000 fine for four more alleged violations.
Merchan said on Tuesday that he might jail Trump if he continues to defy the gag order, saying the fines allowed by New York law – $1,000 per violation – might not be enough to serve as a deterrent for someone of Trump’s wealth.
The gag order aims to prevent the former president from intimidating witnesses, jurors and other participants in his first criminal trial. It does not prevent Trump from criticizing prosecutors or the judge himself.
Trump says the gag order restricts his free-speech rights and prevents him from responding to political attacks. Merchan will consider whether Trump violated the gag order on four separate occasions last week, by referring to Michael Cohen as a “liar” and to David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and another witness, as a “nice guy” in statements to news media.
Prosecutors say Trump also violated the gag order by saying in a television interview that “that jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”
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The Guardian’s David Smith was on the campaign trail with Trump and reports the former president ran through his familiar litany of falsehoods and complaints.
David has this dispatch:
At a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise’s film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane’s side – “TRUMP” – and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue “TRUMP” lectern.
A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call “central casting” made their way down the stairs. “Trump! Trump!” the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.
How different the warm embrace from Trump’s recent experience as a defendant on criminal trial in a chilly, dingy courtroom in New York. On those days, threatened with prison, he looks old, vulnerable and small. Back on the election campaign trail, it is all about hypermasculine energy and bigness – big plane, big crowds, big promises and big lies.
During his brief break from court, Trump returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday – and used a campaign stop to repeat his attacks on the trial judge as “crooked”.
The AP writes:
Trump’s remarks at events in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan were being closely watched after he received a $9,000 fine for making public statements about people connected to the criminal case.
“There is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He’s a totally conflicted judge,” Trump claimed as he spoke to supporters at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, claiming again that this and other cases against him are led by the White House to undermine his campaign.
Later at a rally in Freeland, Michigan, he said he was being forced to spend days in a “kangaroo court room”, and claimed without evidence the district attorney was taking orders from the Biden administration.
Donald Trump was confronted with the details of how the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor, secured the $130,000 in hush money at the heart of his criminal trial in New York, after being found to be in criminal contempt of a gag order prohibiting attacks on witnesses.
The direct examination of the lawyer, Keith Davidson, is expected to continue on Thursday when the trial resumes. Here are the key takeaways from day nine of the trial, People of the State of New York v Donald J Trump:
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Trump trial to hear further testimony from Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson
Donald Trump’s hush-money trial will pick up again today after the trial took a break on Wednesday – and jurors are due to hear again from the lawyer who negotiated deals on behalf of two women alleged to have had affairs with the former US president.
Keith Davidson has already given colorful testimony about how deals to pay Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels came together in 2016. Prosecutors are using his testimony to help jurors understand the mechanics of Trump’s efforts to pay off women and convince jurors that it was done in service of his campaign.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, will also hold a hearing on four more instances where Trump is alleged to have violated the gag order that bars him from attacking a number of people linked to the trial. Merchan has already fined Trump $9,000 for nine violations of the order.
Here’s a quick recap of what happened in court on Tuesday:
Davidson testified that he began representing McDougal in 2016 “to provide advice and counsel … regarding a personal interaction that she had” with Trump. Davidson reached out to Dylan Howard, the editor of the National Enquirer, promising a “blockbuster Trump story”. Howard replied by text message: “I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why.”
Davidson was questioned by prosecutors about texts in which he was asked whether Trump had cheated on his wife. In those texts, Howard asked Davidson: “Did he cheat on Melania?” “‘I really cannot say yet, sorry,’” Davidson said, reading his text to Howard aloud.
Davidson testified that the leak of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape had “tremendous influence” on the interest in Stormy Daniels’s story. He said that Daniels’s agent, Gina Rodriguez, had reached a deal with Howard for the tabloid to acquire the rights to her story for $120,000, but Howard backed out of the deal.
Howard told Rodriguez to call Cohen and complete the deal directly with him, but she refused to negotiate with him following a previous interaction after which she described Cohen as a “jerk” and “very, very aggressive”. Rodriguez asked Davidson to step in and negotiate the deal with Cohen, he testified.
Davidson said he used a pair of pseudonyms: Stormy Daniels became Peggy Peterson; Donald Trump became David Dennison.
Davidson testified that the payment to Daniels did not come even after both parties had reached a deal. Cohen made a series of excuses for the delay, Davidson said, noting that he “thought he was trying to kick the can down the round until after the election”.
Davidson was asked if Cohen ever told him whom he was representing in the Daniels negotiations. He said the implication was clear and that Cohen “leaned on his close affiliation with Donald Trump … He let me know it at every opportunity he could that he was working for Donald Trump.”
Court is expected to resume at 9.30am ET. We’ll bring you the latest updates from the Manhattan courthouse as we get them.
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