Trump in court as David Pecker to resume hush-money testimony
Donald Trump has now taken his seat at the defense table.
The former president spoke to the media outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he mostly focused on the latest economic figures which show US gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized rate last quarter.
“The numbers are very bad,” the former president said. “This is Bidenomics … It’s destroying our country.”
Trump spoke about his “fantastic” meeting with construction workers at the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan this morning, before turning to the hush money case. Trump said:
My constitutional rights have been taken away from me. There is no case here. This is just a political glitch.
He added that he would have “loved to have been” at the supreme court hearing on his immunity claims but that judge Juan Merchan would not allow it and “put himself above the supreme court.”
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The former president spoke to the media outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he mostly focused on the latest economic figures which show US gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized rate last quarter.
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“The numbers are very bad,” the former president said. “This is Bidenomics … It’s destroying our country.”
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Trump spoke about his “fantastic” meeting with construction workers at the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan this morning, before turning to the hush money case. Trump said:
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My constitutional rights have been taken away from me. There is no case here. This is just a political glitch.
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He added that he would have “loved to have been” at the supreme court hearing on his immunity claims but that judge Juan Merchan would not allow it and “put himself above the supreme court.”
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Good morning.
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David Pecker returns to the witness stand today in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump – the first ever criminal trial of a former US president.
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Trump is accused by the prosecution of “orchestrat[ing] a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” in his efforts to cover up an alleged affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
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They call it “election fraud – pure and simple”.
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Trump’s defense says there was no crime committed because paying hush money is not illegal and neither is trying to influence the outcome of an election – “It’s called democracy.”
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Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the alleged affair Daniels just weeks before the election.
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As a reminder (no shame – this stuff is confusing), it’s the first of four (4) criminal cases against the presumptive Republican nominee to reach trial. It hinges on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her story under wraps. Bragg contends that Trump masked the true nature of the payment in business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as lawful legal expenses. Because Trump paid the money to influence the election, Bragg says it’s a campaign expense, so by lying about it he violated federal campaign law – causing the fraud to rise from a misdemeanour to a felony.
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Court is scheduled to resume today after a day off yesterday. We’re at the courthouse, as usual. Stay with us.
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Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
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A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
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The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?
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The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump
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From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
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Key events
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Justice Juan Merchan is on the bench. Court is now in session.
Sam Levine
Donald Trump, dressed in a red tie, has taken his seat at the defense table and the seventh day of his criminal trial in Manhattan is set to begin shortly.
Trump is chatting with Emil Bove and Todd Blanche, two of his lawyers, while we wait for judge Juan Merchan to take the bench.
Trump in court as David Pecker to resume hush-money testimony
Donald Trump has now taken his seat at the defense table.
The former president spoke to the media outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he mostly focused on the latest economic figures which show US gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized rate last quarter.
“The numbers are very bad,” the former president said. “This is Bidenomics … It’s destroying our country.”
Trump spoke about his “fantastic” meeting with construction workers at the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan this morning, before turning to the hush money case. Trump said:
My constitutional rights have been taken away from me. There is no case here. This is just a political glitch.
He added that he would have “loved to have been” at the supreme court hearing on his immunity claims but that judge Juan Merchan would not allow it and “put himself above the supreme court.”
Chris Michael
So who is David Pecker again?
Trump’s longtime ally and former publisher of the National Enquirer, Pecker was allegedly the key figure at the heart of the “catch and kill” schemes, whereby he paid people for their negative stories about Trump in order to keep them from being published anywhere.
On Tuesday, when he took the stand on Tuesday, he the court about being invited to a meeting with Trump and his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, in New York in 2015 after Trump had just declared his candidacy for president and was seeking a friendly and powerful media insider:
I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents, and I said that I would also be the eyes and ears,” Pecker told jurors.
Pecker said he had a “great relationship” with Trump over the years and considered him a “friend”, describing the former president as “very detail-oriented … almost micromanaging”.
Pecker discussed the first of three “catch-and-kill” schemes, involving negative stories for Donald Trump that prosecutors allege he suppressed to help Trump’s campaign. The first involved a former Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, who alleged that Trump fathered an illegitimate child. Pecker testified that he negotiated to pay $30,000 for the story, and that Cohen told him that “the boss”, referring to Trump, was “very pleased”.
Chris Michael
One thing that could be resolved today – though no guarantees in this courtroom – is the matter of the gag order.
Judge Merchan held off on deciding whether Trump should be fined $10,000 for attacking expected trial witnesses, mostly on social media, in direct violation of a gag order designed to protect trial participants from being the target of Trump’s abuse.
Merchan subjected Trump to a gag order before the trial began, covering prosecutors (but not the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg), witnesses, court employees, jurors and their families. Before the trial, Merchan then extended the gag order to cover his own family and Bragg’s family, after Trump posted about Merchan’s daughter, who worked for a company that helped Democratic candidates with digital campaigns.
Trump remains free to criticize Merchan himself, though doing so would be unlikely to win him any favors with the judge, who, let’s remember, would be the one deciding Trump’s sentence if he’s found guilty.
The judge reserved ruling from the bench on Tuesday, but he appeared deeply unconvinced by arguments from Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, that a series of social media posts were just responses to political attacks on Trump and therefore permitted.
“Mr Blanche, you’re losing all credibility,” Merchan said.
David Pecker returns to witness stand in hush-money trial
Chris Michael
Good morning.
David Pecker returns to the witness stand today in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump – the first ever criminal trial of a former US president.
Trump is accused by the prosecution of “orchestrat[ing] a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” in his efforts to cover up an alleged affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
They call it “election fraud – pure and simple”.
Trump’s defense says there was no crime committed because paying hush money is not illegal and neither is trying to influence the outcome of an election – “It’s called democracy.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the alleged affair Daniels just weeks before the election.
As a reminder (no shame – this stuff is confusing), it’s the first of four (4) criminal cases against the presumptive Republican nominee to reach trial. It hinges on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her story under wraps. Bragg contends that Trump masked the true nature of the payment in business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as lawful legal expenses. Because Trump paid the money to influence the election, Bragg says it’s a campaign expense, so by lying about it he violated federal campaign law – causing the fraud to rise from a misdemeanour to a felony.
Court is scheduled to resume today after a day off yesterday. We’re at the courthouse, as usual. Stay with us.
Trump’s criminal hush-money trial: what to know
-
A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
-
The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?
-
The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump
-
From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
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