The Latest | Trump’s hush money trial set to resume with 3rd day of witness testimony
NEW YORK — Donald Trump was expected to return to court Thursday morning as testimony in his hush money trial enters a third day.
The trial resumes at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington hears arguments over whether he should be immune from prosecution for actions he took during his time as president.
At his trial in Manhattan earlier this week, veteran tabloid publisher David Pecker took the stand and testified about his longtime friendship with the former president and a promise he made to be the “eyes and ears” of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, said the pledge culminated in an agreement to alert Trump’s personal lawyer to potentially damaging stories and help quash them. Pecker said the tabloid eventually published negative stories about Trump’s political opponents and even paid $30,000 for a doorman’s silence.
Pecker was expected to return to the stand on Thursday.
The testimony was sought to substantiate prosecutors’ premise that Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 election through a catch-and-kill strategy to buy and then fuel negative stories. Key to that premise are so-called hush money payments paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, along with the doorman.
Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments and falsely recorded them as legal fees.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying company records.
The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president and the first of four prosecutions against Trump to reach a jury.
Currently:
– No one is above the law. The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump is included while he was president
– Trump Trial Highlights Day 6: David Pecker Testifies on Catch-and-Kill Scheme
– Key players: who’s who in Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial
– The hush money case is just one of Trump’s lawsuits. Check out the others here
Here’s the latest:
David Pecker, formerly the publisher of the National Enquirer, took the stand both Monday and Tuesday, testifying about how his longtime friendship with the former president culminated in an agreement to alert Donald Trump’s personal attorney about stories that helped the campaign could hurt White House hopefuls in 2016. and help destroy them.
Pecker told the court the agreement followed an August 2015 meeting with Trump, Michael Cohen and Hope Hicks. He further testified that he told National Enquirer bureau chiefs to be on the lookout for stories about Trump and said he wanted them to verify the stories before alerting Cohen.
“I told him we’re going to try to help the campaign and to do that I want to keep this as quiet as possible,” Pecker testified. “I didn’t want anyone else to know what agreement I had and what I wanted to do.”
Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying company records — a charge that carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison — though it is not clear whether the judge would seek to put him behind bars.
A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for president again, but because it is a matter of state, he would not be able to pardon himself if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied all allegations.
Judge Juan M. Merchan has yet to decide whether Donald Trump has violated a gag order banning him from making public statements about witnesses in his hush money case.
Merchan held a hearing Tuesday on prosecutors’ earlier request to hold Trump in contempt of court and fine him at least $3,000 for allegedly violating his gag order.
Prosecutors cited 10 posts on Trump’s social media account and campaign website that they said violated the order, which prevents him from making public statements about witnesses in the case.
They called the posts a “willful violation” of the court’s order.
In one post, dated April 10, Trump described his former lawyer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels as “two sleaze bags who, with their lies and misrepresentations, have cost our country dearly!”
Prosecutors are seeking a $1,000 fine – the maximum allowed by law – for each of the first three alleged violations.