Donald Trump shut up money test In a Manhattan courtroom Thursday, prosecutors must find the judge overseeing the trial to re-indict the former president for breaking the law. congestion order.
The hearing will discuss Trump’s remarks in interviews with reporters and two news outlets in the courthouse hallway last week. Trump referred to his former lawyer in his speech Michael Cohen — a key figure in the trial and a likely witness — as a “convicted liar.” Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 He’s lying to Congress About the Trump Tower construction project in Moscow.
Trump complained last week that the overwhelming majority of his peers’ juries were Democrats. During the selection, the jurors were not asked about their party affiliation.
Provincial Judge Juan Merchan was held this week Trump hates it for nine violations of an April 1 order barring criticism of witnesses and jurors. All of the violations related to posts on Trump’s social media account and campaign website. merchant Trump was fined $9,000 — the maximum allowed by law — and warned that any future violations could result in jail time.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche defended Trump’s online comments at a hearing last week, saying he was responding to “political” attacks against him. Trump argued that he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and should be able to speak his mind because the gag order is “unconstitutional.”
Narrowly tailored congestion order It prohibits Trump from “making or directing public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses regarding their potential involvement in an investigation or criminal proceeding” and “making public statements about any prospective juror or juror.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s office did not seek a specific penalty for what it claims are more traffic violations. Trump’s “decision to once again specifically target individuals and the judicial process protected by this Court’s decision is a willful violation of this Court’s directives providing for sanctions,” the lawsuit says.
Thursday morning’s hearing is expected to last 30 minutes. This will be followed by a lawyer Keith Davidson‘s return to the witness stand.
Davidson represented Stormi Daniels and Karen McDougal, both of whom claimed they had affairs with Trump in 2006 and were paid to remain silent about those allegations when Trump ran for president in 2016. Trump denied their claims.
The parent company of the National Enquirer paid McDougal, a former Playboy model, $150,000 as part of a “catch-and-kill” scheme by prosecutors to suppress negative stories and benefit Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time, paid adult movie star Daniels $130,000 in the final weeks of the campaign.
Trump eventually returned the payments to Cohen, which prosecutors said were mislabeled as legal fees in his company’s records. Trump is accused of falsifying 34 job documents he pleaded not guilty.
Davidson said on the stand Tuesday that he and Daniels Cohen nearly walked away from the deal after missing the deadline. to pay “I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road after the election,” Davidson said.
Trump is expected to learn the details of the payment and its implications before his lawyers cross-examine him.
Court was not in session on Wednesday.