All posts tagged: Michael Cohen

Jurors ask to rehear testimony from key witnesses in Trump hush money trial

Jurors ask to rehear testimony from key witnesses in Trump hush money trial

Published by Sam

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial ended its first day of deliberations without a verdict Wednesday but asked to rehear testimony from key witnesses about the alleged hush money scheme at the heart of the history-making case. The 12-person jury was sent home around 4 p.m. after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations. The process is to resume Thursday, when jurors are expected to rehear the requested testimony and at least part of the judge’s legal instructions meant to guide them on the law. The notes sent to the judge with the requests were the first burst of communication with the court after the panel of seven men and five women was sent to a private room just before 11:30 a.m. to begin weighing a verdict. “It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. It is yours,” Judge Juan M. Merchan told jurors before dispatching them to begin deliberations, reminding them of their vow during the selection process to judge the case fairly and impartially. It’s unclear how long the deliberations …

Stormy Daniels Put on a Show in Second Day of Trump Testimony

Stormy Daniels Put on a Show in Second Day of Trump Testimony

Published by skeptic

Since Donald Trump’s trial began in Manhattan last month, there have been several slow days. When an accountant or executive assistant has testified in a case that, at its core, revolves around the minutiae of business records, the lines outside the courthouse have not stretched as far as they did when lawyers delivered their opening statements. Even David Pecker, the colorful former National Enquirer publisher who testified in the first days of the proceedings about hush money payments, is not quite a household name. But Stormy Daniels is a household name. The news that she would take the witness stand on Tuesday came only a few hours before she began testifying—not enough notice to summon the crowd that might arrive to see the porn star elaborate on her claim to a 2006 tryst with Trump. On Thursday morning, with Daniels’s testimony set to continue, Jake Tapper and Jeanine Pirro were among the group, the largest and most feverish so far, waiting to get into Manhattan Criminal Court. Trump, whose entourage has varied in size and …

Stormy Daniels Goes Into Detail, Great Detail, at Donald Trump’s Trial

Stormy Daniels Goes Into Detail, Great Detail, at Donald Trump’s Trial

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump whispered to his lawyers as Stormy Daniels walked to the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday morning. The porn star was dressed in all black. She moved her glasses from atop her head onto her face. She turned toward the jury and started to explain how it came to be that she was at the center of the scandal leading to the first-ever criminal trial of a US president. Daniels and Trump met at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. She has claimed that they had sex shortly after meeting—and then never again, though they kept in touch for a time. Ten years later, this account figured prominently and improbably into the lead-up to the 2016 election, when Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels for her silence. The story eventually came out anyway, once Trump had already won, and Daniels became one of the defining figures of the early Trump White House. He called her “horseface”; she acquired global fame. Nearly 20 years since the alleged sexual encounter that Trump denies …

Trump Is Warned About Jail Time For Further Gag Order Violations In Hush Money Trial

Trump Is Warned About Jail Time For Further Gag Order Violations In Hush Money Trial

Published by skeptic

Former President Donald Trump has been found in contempt of court for violating his gag order once again, as his criminal hush money trial entered its fourth week. He was also warned that, going forward, overstepping the bounds of the order could land him behind bars. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in order to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan fined the former president $1,000 for attacking the trial’s jurors and the process of selecting them while speaking in the courthouse hallway after opening statements last month. “You know [the judge is] rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody’s ever seen a thing go like this,” Trump said in the offending comments, on April 22. “That jury was picked so fast — 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat… just a purely Democrat area. It’s a very unfair situation, that I can tell you.” Merchan, writing in his order, found that Trump had “again …

Donald Trump supporters wear nappies

Donald Trump supporters wear nappies

Published by Sam

Donald Trump supporters have started wearing nappies. They also have a new slogan: Real Men Wear Diapers. The peculiar new craze began after Mr Trump was described as “Von ShitzInPantz”. Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, said in a post on X last month: “Hey Von ShitzInPantz…your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defence.” He added, a couple of days later: “Oh… Von ShitzInPantz. Keep whining, crying and violating the gag order you petulant defendant!” On Thursday, during Mr Trump’s hush money trial, the prosecution alleged he had further violated a gag order connected to the case. On Tuesday, he was fined $9,000 (£7,100) and held in contempt by the judge for breaches of the same order. But Mr Trump’s defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, said his client was the victim of attacks by both Mr Cohen and the media. Mr Blanche also referred to comments from President Joe Biden, referring to Donald Trump experiencing “stormy weather”. Read more:Former Trump aide cries during testimonyJoe Biden ‘happy …

Hope Hicks Takes the Stand and Walks a Line at Trump’s Hush Money Trial

Hope Hicks Takes the Stand and Walks a Line at Trump’s Hush Money Trial

Published by skeptic

The last time Hope Hicks spoke to Donald Trump, she said in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, was in 2022. That year, text messages from the former president’s longtime aide—and one of the most visible faces associated with his early grip on political power—emerged during a House investigation into his role in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Her boss, Hicks wrote to Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, had “in one day” “ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boys chapter.” It was a different story in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. Trump hired Hicks, who had previously worked for his daughter’s fashion brand, to serve on his campaign the year prior, and she rose through the ranks, eventually becoming White House communications director. Hicks was working closely with the future president when the Access Hollywood tape, during which Trump bragged about groping women with impunity, was released in the final stage of the campaign. During the last few weeks, Manhattan prosecutors have made the case …

Trump Trial: David Pecker’s Testimony and the Long Life of a Media Bromance

Trump Trial: David Pecker’s Testimony and the Long Life of a Media Bromance

Published by skeptic

David Pecker appeared to be in a breezy mood this week. The former National Enquirer publisher was describing the inner workings of his trade—“checkbook journalism,” he called it on Monday—without needing much prompting from the district attorney who was questioning him. Pecker, a longtime friend and ally of Donald Trump’s, was the state’s first witness in the former president’s Manhattan trial that began last week, and while he was on the stand, he often turned to the jury to gesticulate. “The only thing that’s important,” Pecker said with a proud air of authority, “is the cover of the magazine.” Trump is accused of falsifying business records, charges which he has pleaded not guilty to and which, in the strict sense that his lead lawyer Todd Blanche invoked in his opening statement earlier that day, amount to a matter of paperwork. But the prosecution is seeking to paint a broader picture of how these records were used to cover up an alleged affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels (which Trump has denied) and related interference …

The porn star at the centre of Trump’s indictment

The porn star at the centre of Trump’s indictment

Published by skeptic

Ms Daniels signed her copy on the trunk of a car near a porn set in California. Mr Cohen signed on Mr Trump’s behalf. After some delay, Mr Cohen eventually used his own money to pay her, an act that would later land him in jail. But Mr Trump is alleged to have both instructed the payoff and signed checks to reimburse Mr Cohen after he was in the White House. In the end, the money was wasted. The story came out anyway two years later in 2018 when Ms Daniels sued Mr Trump in an attempt to overturn the NDA and In Touch Weekly published the kiss-and-tell article. Reality star  Since then, the porn actress has not shied away from capitalising on the publicity. She launched a perfume called Truth with the tagline: “It’s the bomb! Sensual living. Stormy Daniels Embrace your Truth.” In July 2018, she was arrested by undercover police officers during an undercover vice operation at a strip club in Columbus, Ohio. She was accused of illegally touching a guest at …

Trump Trial Opening Statements: It’s Just-the-Facts vs. an Emotional Appeal

Trump Trial Opening Statements: It’s Just-the-Facts vs. an Emotional Appeal

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump walked into a full courtroom on Monday morning with a stoic expression. It was the commencement of the first criminal trial of a former US president in the country’s history, an event that has been covered as deeply as any in recent media memory. The reality of the proceedings was still something to behold for some in the gallery. “I’m the only guy with a notepad,” one reporter, amid rows of peers’ laptops, observed. “What the fuck is this?” Five press photographers followed the former president’s path down the center of the room. They walked up to the defense table where he was seated in front of several Secret Service agents and brought their cameras up close to his face. From behind, he didn’t seem to move. The defendant’s attorney, Todd Blanche, always referred to his client as “President Trump.” Justice Juan Merchan greeted him as “Mr. Trump.” When the jury walked in through a side door, they were in a room with a full press pool for the first time, having spent the prior week during jury …

Trump trial set to begin opening statements, first witness testimony

Trump trial set to begin opening statements, first witness testimony

Published by skeptic

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 continues, at Manhattan state court in New York City, U.S., April 22, 2024.  Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters This is developing news. Check back for updates. Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the New York hush money trial of Donald Trump are set Monday to deliver opening statements and start calling witnesses to testify. The prosecution is expected to call David Pecker, the former CEO of National Enquirer publisher American Media, as its first witness, a source with direct knowledge told NBC News. Pecker was deeply involved in alleged efforts ahead of the 2016 presidential election to “catch and kill” negative information about Trump, the Republican nominee in that contest. Pecker allegedly warned Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen in late 2016 about porn star Stormy Daniels’ claim that she had sex with Trump years earlier while he was married. Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels …