Hush money trial: Trump faces jail threat over gag violations as testimony continues

NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump returns to silence, money test On Tuesday, he faces prison time for additional violations of the silence order as prosecutors prepare to call high-profile witnesses, including porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Daniels’ attorney, Clark Brewster, told The Associated Press that the porn actor, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, would be “likely” to be called as a witness in Tuesday’s trial. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he had “recently been told” who the witness would be on Tuesday and complained that he should have been informed more in advance.

During the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his lawyer and then-personal advisor, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump during a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.

Trump and his campaign were reeling from the October 7, 2016 release of the never-before-seen footage from 2005’s “Access Hollywood” in which he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. He spoke by phone with Cohen and Hope Hicks, his campaign’s press secretary, the next day as they sought to limit the damage caused by the tape and keep his alleged affairs out of the press.

Cohen paid Daniels after her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, indicated she was willing to make on-the-record statements to the National Enquirer or on television confirming a sexual relationship with Trump. National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard alerted Pecker and then, at Pecker’s direction, told Cohen that Daniels was making efforts to make his claims public, prosecutors said. Daniels previously sought to sell her story to another celebrity gossip magazine, Life & Style, in 2011.

The jury heard from two witnesses on Monday, including one former controller of the Trump Organizationwhich provided a mechanical but vital recitation of how the company returned payments that were supposed to prevent the publication of embarrassing stories, then recorded them as legal fees in a way that Manhattan prosecutors said violated the law.

Jeffrey McConney’s testimony was an important building block for prosecutors as they try to pull back the curtain on what they see as a cover-up of company records on transactions designed to protect Trump’s Republican candidacy for office. presidential election during a crucial period in the race. It focused on a $130,000 payment from Cohen to Daniels and the subsequent reimbursement Cohen received.

McConney and another witness said the reimbursement checks were drawn from Trump’s personal account. Yet even though jurors witnessed the checks and other documentary evidence, prosecutors did not obtain testimony Monday showing that Trump had dictated that the payments would be recorded as legal fees, a designation that prosecutors say was intentionally misleading.

McConney acknowledged under cross-examination that Trump never asked him to record the reimbursements as legal expenses or discussed the matter with him. Another witness, Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts payable manager for the Trump Organization, said under questioning that she did not get permission to cut the checks in question from Trump himself.

“You never had any reason to believe that President Trump was hiding anything or anything like that?” asked Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche.

“That’s right,” replied Tarasoff.

The testimony followed a stern warning from Judge Juan M. Merchan that additional violations of a warrant of silence prohibiting Trump from making inflammatory comments outside of court on witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case could result in prison time.

The $1,000 fine imposed Monday marks the second time since the trial began last month that Trump has been sanctioned for violating the silence order. He was fined $9,000 last week$1,000 for each of nine violations.

“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not a deterrent. Therefore, going forward, this court must consider a prison sanction,” Merchan said before jurors were brought into the courtroom. Trump’s statements, the judge added, “threaten to interfere with the just administration of justice and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law.” I cannot allow this to continue.

Trump sat forward in his seat, glaring at the judge as he delivered the ruling. When the judge finished speaking, Trump shook his head twice and crossed his arms.

Yet even as Merchan warned of a prison sentence in his most specific and direct warning, he also made clear his reservations about a measure he described as a “last resort.”

“The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Merchan said. “You are the former president of the United States and perhaps the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for me. Taking this action would disrupt these procedures.

The latest violation stems from an April 22 interview with Real America’s Voice in which Trump criticized the speed with which the jury was chosen and claimed, without evidence, that it was made up of Democrats.

Prosecutors continue to make progress toward their star witness, CohenWHO pleaded guilty to federal charges related to hush money payments. He is expected to face a bruising cross-examination from defense attorneys who will seek to undermine his credibility with jurors.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments, but pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. The trial, the first of his four criminal cases before a jury, is expected to last another month or more.

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Tucker reported from Washington.