NEW YORK — Even by Donald Trump’s standards, this has been a dizzying week.
The first criminal prosecution of a former president began in earnest with opening statements and testimony in a lower Manhattan courtroom. But the effort spread quickly and included more than half a dozen cases in four states and the nation’s capital. Twice a week, Trump’s lawyers appeared simultaneously in different courtrooms.
The collision of so many cases in a span of five days underlines the challenges Trump will face as he campaigns for the White House again as his legal affairs intensify. As the presumptive Republican nominee tried to talk about the economy and other issues, his intended message was repeatedly overshadowed by the latest developments emerging across the country.
Here’s how the week went and what lies ahead:
The week started with a moment for the history books, as prosecutors presented a criminal case against a former U.S. president to a jury for the first time. In opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that hush money payments to an adult film actor were “a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” while Trump’s lawyers argued the case was without merit. The testimony then began with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who gave the audience the most tangible look yet at the allegations.
It also provided the clearest picture yet of Trump’s defense and how he juggles his roles as candidate and criminal defendant. Trump starts and ends the day by appearing before reporters at the courthouse, complaining that he has to be there and commenting on how cold it is in the courtroom or making comments about unrelated national news.
In a separate but nearby courthouse, one of Trump’s lawyers struck a deal with New York state attorneys over a $175 million bond Trump posted to clear a major civil fraud verdict he was appealing in a separate case. to interrupt.
Trump returned to court, where prosecutors first urged the judge to hold Trump in contempt for social media posts that they said violated a gag order that bars him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others involved. The judge did not immediately rule on the request, but appeared skeptical of defense arguments that Trump was merely responding to others’ attacks.
Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s, testified the rest of the day and said he promised to help suppress damaging stories about Trump during the 2016 election.
The trial was not scheduled for Wednesday, so Trump did not move from his namesake penthouse tower to the Manhattan courthouse. But he posted a message at 2 a.m. on Truth Social, his social media platform, criticizing the judge, and did so again later in the day in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, in Florida, more court documents were unsealed in another criminal case in which federal prosecutors charged Trump and two of his employees with mishandling classified documents after he left the White House. Although the case has moved at a slow pace in recent months and seems unlikely to go to trial this year, the documents show, among other things, the warnings Trump received from associates to return the sensitive files he was later accused of that he owned it.
In addition to cases in which Trump is charged as a defendant, Arizona’s attorney general on Wednesday charged 18 of his associates for their role in an effort to overturn Trump’s loss in that state to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Trump was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona case.
In a similar case in Michigan, a state investigator testified that he considers Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in that state’s case against fake voters.
Trump’s hush money case in New York court resumed on Thursday. But prosecutors started the day by arguing in court that Trump had again violated the silence order with social media posts and comments he made early that morning during a campaign stop in the city.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has not yet ruled on whether to hold Trump in contempt. Pecker later resumed his testimony. Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide and one of eighteen indicted in Arizona a day earlier, listened in the courtroom.
At the same time, the US Supreme Court in Washington was weighing whether Trump could be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden. The justices in their questions appeared skeptical of Trump’s claims of absolute immunity from prosecution, but some appeared to signal reservations about the charges, which could delay that trial after the November election.
In New York federal court Thursday, a judge denied Trump’s request for a new trial in a defamation case in which he was ordered to pay an advice columnist $83.3 million for his attacks on social media over her claims that he had sexually assaulted her.
The hush money trial continued in New York on Friday, with Pecker wrapping up his testimony and Trump’s lawyers trying to discredit him. Two other witnesses, Trump’s longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff and Gary Farro, a banker for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Epshteyn was in the courtroom again.
The hush money case in New York is not expected to resume until Tuesday because of a long-planned day off Monday. Testimony is expected to continue Thursday and Friday, giving Trump a chance to make campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday.
The judge has scheduled a morning hearing on Thursday on prosecutors’ latest attempt to punish Trump over the silence order.
And the Arizona case could reveal details about the charges against Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Sixteen of the eighteen people indicted by a grand jury have been charged with conspiracy, fraud, and forgery for their role in submitting a false slate of electors to Congress; the attorney general has yet to confirm charges against the two remaining defendants. The indictment makes it clear that they are Giuliani and Meadows based on their statements and positions, but the charges against them have still not been drawn up.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.