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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Donald Trump’s hush money trial set to resume Tuesday as prosecutors | |
continue to keep their plans secret | |
By Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Jeremy Herb, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:30 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The third week of the criminal hush money business fraud trial will | |
resume Tuesday with the Manhattan district attorney’s office | |
continuing to be secretive about it its plan of attack. | |
Prosecutors are expected to pick up questioning of Michael Cohen’s | |
former banker Tuesday morning. | |
It’s unclear what other witnesses will take the stand this week – | |
Prosecutors have been tightlipped on their witness order, blaming Trump | |
for his unpredictable public comments. In court, they said they would | |
not give Trump’s legal team much in an effort to avoid subjecting | |
witnesses to Trump’s social media wrath before they take the stand. | |
Judge Juan Merchan has yet to rule on whether he’ll hold Trump in | |
contempt for violating a gag order that bars him from talking publicly | |
about trial witnesses, the prosecutors, court staff and their families. | |
Prosecutors have asked Merchan to fine Trump $1,000 for each of 14 | |
violations they say he’s committed in his public comments and social | |
media posts – most of which rail against key trial witnesses Michael | |
Cohen and Stormy Daniels. The Manhattan district attorney’s office | |
also wants Merchan to warn Trump that if he keeps it up, he could end | |
up in jail. | |
Merchan heard arguments about 10 of the alleged violations last Tuesday | |
and has scheduled another hearing for Thursday when he’ll address | |
four other alleged violations prosecutors flagged. | |
Cohen’s former banker expected to retake the stand | |
Prosecutors have warned this will in many ways be a despite the | |
colorful allegations against Trump involving a tabloid publisher | |
suppressing torrid affairs for the businessman-turned-politician and | |
the hush money scheme turned cover up by a now-disbarred lawyer | |
(Cohen) to a porn star. | |
Banker Gary Farro’s testimony Tuesday is expected to get into the | |
documents that underly the paper trial tied to the 34 counts of | |
falsifying business records Trump faces. | |
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies the alleged | |
affairs. | |
Farro is expected to walk the jury through the paperwork tied to a home | |
equity line of credit Cohen pulled on his personal property to front | |
the payment to Daniels. | |
On Friday, when , jurors saw the paper trail for a shell company and | |
corresponding bank account Cohen created in Delaware that was meant to | |
be used to pay AMI for the rights to Karen McDougal’s story – a | |
transaction that never transpired. That account was ultimately never | |
funded, according to the banker’s testimony. | |
Farro testified to records that show Cohen changed course about two | |
weeks later in October 2016 to instead open an account for another | |
company – Essential Consultants – an entity ultimately used to pay | |
Daniels in the hush money scheme to suppress her story about an alleged | |
affair with Trump. | |
Former tabloid publisher David Pecker testified for about 10 hours | |
across four days last week, setting the scene for the jury. He | |
described a tabloid media landscape where America Media Inc. ahead of | |
the 2016 election with Cohen as Trump’s liaison. | |
Trump’s longtime assistant Rhona Graff also testified Friday, telling | |
the jury she remembers seeing Daniels at Trump’s office once years | |
before the 2016 election. She said she figured Daniels was there about | |
a potential casting on “Celebrity Apprentice.” | |
During Graff’s testimony, the jury also saw contact entries for | |
Daniels and McDougal in the Trump Organization system. Graff – whose | |
lawyers are paid for by Trump – testified that she input the contact | |
information for Trump. | |
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