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CNN —A Pennsylvania district attorney intends to appeal a judge’s decision last month to overturn the murder convictions of the so-called “Chester Trio” – three men who have spent nearly 25 years in prison for a crime they say they did not commit. In late March – over the objections of prosecutors who fought to have the convictions upheld – Delaware County Judge Mary Alice Brennan vacated the trio’s convictions and granted their request for a new trial. On Tuesday, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said he had, in fact, decided to appeal. Attorneys for at least two of the men said the district attorney’s announcement was disappointing. “There could be nothing further than justice than the decision to appeal the judge’s order,” said Vanessa Potkin of the Innocence Project, who represents Johnson.
Persons: Derrick Chappell, Morton Johnson, Samuel Grasty, Henrietta Nickens, They’ve, , Mary Alice Brennan, Chappell, Johnson, Grasty, Jack Stollsteimer, Stollsteimer, , Judge Brennan, ” Stollsteimer, , Vanessa Potkin, Nilam Sanghvi, ” Sanghvi, Paul Casteleiro, Stollsteimer “, ” Nickens, Chester, CNN’s Dakin Andone Organizations: CNN, Prosecutors, Pennsylvania Innocence Locations: Pennsylvania, Chester , Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, – Delaware County, Delaware County
CNN —New York Judge Juan Merchan has fined former President Donald Trump for repeatedly violating the gag order in the hush money trial. Merchan ruled Trump violated the gag order nine times for criticizing expected trial witnesses in posts on social media and his campaign page. Reposts are endorsements, judge saysIn last week’s hearing on gag order violations, Trump’s defense argued that reposts of other people’s words do not violate the gag order and that the posts represent protected political speech in response to attacks. Second, Merchan acknowledged that the gag order does allow Trump to respond to political attacks, but said criticisms of key witnesses were not allowed. This is the first sanction against Trump for violating the gag order in this case.
Persons: Juan Merchan, Donald Trump, Merchan, Trump, , ” Trump, ” Merchan, , , Prosecutors, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Todd Blanche, Cohen, David Pecker Organizations: CNN, New, Trump, Truth, Prosecutors, AMI, New York Locations: New York, New York State
CNN —The third week of the Donald Trump 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. 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. He described a tabloid media landscape where America Media Inc. did Trump’s bidding 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. Graff – whose lawyers are paid for by Trump – testified that she input the contact information for Trump.
Persons: Donald Trump, Michael Cohen’s, Trump, Juan Merchan, he’s, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Merchan, Cohen, Gary Farro’s, Farro, Daniels, Karen McDougal’s, David Pecker, Trump’s, Rhona Graff, McDougal, Graff –, Trump – Organizations: CNN, Prosecutors, Trump, AMI, America Media Inc, Trump Organization Locations: Manhattan, Delaware
Now that the lawyers are laying out their respective theories of the case in the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump in New York, it would be understandable if people’s heads are spinning. On the one hand, some legal experts claim that the conduct charged in New York was the original election interference. On the other hand, some critics think the criminal case is a witch hunt, and others claim it is trivial at best and at worst the product of selective prosecution. As someone who worked in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and enforced the laws that Mr. Trump is accused of violating, I stand firmly in neither camp. In time, after the smoke created by lawyers has cleared, it will be easy to see why the prosecution is both solid and legitimate.
Persons: Donald Trump, It’s, Trump Locations: New York, Manhattan
Prosecutors in Arizona said on Monday that they would not retry a rancher who was charged with murdering an unarmed migrant on his property last year after a mistrial was declared last week. Judge Thomas Fink of Santa Cruz County Superior Court declared a mistrial on April 22. The Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office said in a statement on Monday that “because of the unique circumstances and challenges surrounding” the case, Mr. Kelly would not be retried. “However, our office’s decision in this case should not be construed as a position on future cases of this type,” the office said. “Our office is mandated by statute to prosecute criminal acts, and we take that statutory mandate seriously.”
Persons: George Kelly, Gabriel Cuen, Cuen, Buitimea, Judge Thomas Fink, Kelly, , Organizations: Santa, Superior Court, Attorney’s Locations: Arizona, Kino Springs, Ariz, Mexico, Santa Cruz
“So that’s not true? That’s not true?”The judge in control of Donald J. Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial had just cut off the former president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche. Mr. Blanche had been in the midst of defending a social media post in which his client wrote that a statement that had been public for years “WAS JUST FOUND!”Mr. Blanche had already acknowledged during the Tuesday hearing that Mr. Trump’s post was false. But the judge, Juan M. Merchan, wasn’t satisfied. But this particular defendant, accused by the Manhattan district attorney’s office of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal, has spent five decades spewing thousands and thousands of words, sometimes contradicting himself within minutes, sometimes within the same breath, with little concern for the consequences of what he said.
Persons: Donald J, Todd Blanche, Mr, Blanche, Trump’s, Juan M, wasn’t, Merchan Locations: Manhattan
Here’s a fact check of four of the claims he made about the trial. (For this particular article, we’ll leave aside the false claims he made in the courthouse about a variety of other subjects.) It is an armed camp to keep people away.” And he said in comments inside the courthouse on Thursday: “This courthouse is locked down; there’s not a person within five blocks.”Facts First: Trump’s claims are all false. Facts First: As he has before, Trump made Merchan’s gag order sound far broader than it is. The gag order does not prohibit Trump from declaring the case a sham or from sharing others’ claims that the case is a sham.
Persons: Donald Trump, Here’s, we’ll, Trump, it’s, Michael Cohen’s, Michael Cohen “, ” Cohen, , , Cohen, Trump’s, ” Trump, Judge Juan Merchan’s, Merchan, you’re, “ I’m, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Bragg, Biden, Alvin Bragg’s, Matthew Colangelo, Colangelo Organizations: Washington CNN, New York Times, Trump, CNN, Monday, Republican, Intelligence, Manhattan, Attorney, Biden, Justice Department Locations: Lower Manhattan, Moscow, Russia, , Manhattan, York’s
Mr. Trump’s top lawyer said in response that Mr. Trump was simply defending himself from political attacks. The tabloid discovered that the story was apparently false, but paid $30,000 anyway, “because of the potential embarrassment” it could have caused Mr. Trump, Mr. Pecker said. When he proposed the magazine, Mr. Pecker said, Mr. Trump’s biggest question was, “Who’s going to pay for it?”Trump’s short leash could get shorter. For their part, prosecutors said they were not seeking to jail Mr. Trump, but wanted him to be fined. When Mr. Blanche finished his argument, Mr. Trump immediately beckoned him over before he snatched a piece of paper off the defense table.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M, Merchan, Trump’s, , Justice Merchan, Todd Blanche, “ you’re, David Pecker, Mr, Stormy Daniels, Daniels, , Pecker, Michael D, Cohen, Marion Curtis, Pecker’s, Trump “ Donald, “ Who’s, Christopher Conroy, Michael Cohen, , ” Mr, Conroy, Blanche, Mark Peterson Organizations: National Enquirer, ” Prosecutors, Republican, Trump, Credit, Associated, Trump Mr Locations: Manhattan, York, Washington, New York
The Harvey Weinstein Appeal Ruling, AnnotatedThe 2020 conviction of Harvey Weinstein on felony sex crime charges in Manhattan was overturned on Thursday by New York’s top court. The ruling by the New York Court of Appeals said the trial judge in Mr. Weinstein’s case, Justice James M. Burke, erred in letting prosecutors call some women as witnesses who said Mr. Weinstein had assaulted them, but whose accusations were not included as charges. The appeals court found that Mr. Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer whose case ignited the #MeToo movement, had not received a fair trial. The New York Times is annotating the ruling. Download the original PDF.
Persons: Harvey Weinstein, James M, Burke, Weinstein, , Mr Organizations: New, Appeals, Hollywood, New York Times Locations: Manhattan, California
Mr. Pecker, whose magazine had previously bought and buried two other salacious stories on Mr. Trump’s behalf, decided not to pay Ms. Daniels for her account of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump. Instead, Mr. Pecker is expected to explain how he and a top editor brought the story to Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who then paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Mr. Trump, who later reimbursed Mr. Cohen, denies that he and Ms. Daniels had sex. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, has said that Mr. Pecker was one member of a conspiracy that also involved Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen. Mr. Pecker has supported that story, saying that the three men reached a secret agreement in 2015 in which The National Enquirer would promote positive stories about Mr. Trump and, importantly for the prosecution’s case, suppress negative ones.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, David Pecker, Stormy Daniels, Pecker, Trump’s, Daniels, Michael D, Cohen Organizations: Manhattan, National Enquirer, National Locations: Manhattan
PinnedNew York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges, a stunning reversal in the foundational case of the #MeToo era. Citing that decision and others it identified as errors, the appeals court determined that Mr. Weinstein, who as a movie producer had been one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, had not received a fair trial. The four judges in the majority wrote that Mr. Weinstein was not tried solely on the crimes he was charged with, but instead for much of his past behavior. It was not immediately clear on Thursday morning how the decision would affect Mr. Weinstein, 71, who is being held in an upstate prison in Rome, N.Y. Mr. Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct by more than 100 women; in New York he was convicted of assaulting two of them.
Persons: Harvey Weinstein’s, Weinstein’s, Weinstein, Alvin L, Bragg —, Donald J, Trump Organizations: New, Appeals, Mr, Beverly Hills Locations: Hollywood, Manhattan, Rome, California, Beverly, New York
CNN —The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the sex crimes conviction against Harvey Weinstein, the powerful Hollywood producer whose downfall stood as a symbol of the #MeToo movement. Douglas H. Wigdor, an attorney who has represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers, including two of the “prior bad acts” witnesses at his New York criminal trial, criticized the ruling. In addition, three other women testified during the trial as “prior bad acts” witnesses as prosecutors sought to show Weinstein had a pattern of abuse. The use of “prior bad acts” witnesses has increased in recent years with the rise of the #MeToo movement. “Prior bad acts” evidence is one exception to this rule.
Persons: Harvey Weinstein, , uncharged, Jenny Rivera, ” Weinstein, Weinstein, ” Donna Rotunno, , Emily Tuttle, Douglas H, Weinstein’s, MeToo, Bill Cosby, Miriam Haley, Jessica Mann, Haley, Mann Organizations: CNN, The New, Hollywood, Correctional Facility, of Corrections, Attorney’s, Manhattan, The New York Times, Yorker Locations: The New York, Rome , New York, Los Angeles, New York, Manhattan, York, Hollywood, Love, Pennsylvania
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday said it was returning an ancient bronze head to Turkey that it had purchased in 1971 from an antiquities dealer who sold other items to museums that were later found to have been looted. The museum said the decision was made “in light of new information” provided by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which asserts that the object was stolen in the 1960s from a heavily plundered Roman-era settlement in Turkey known as Bubon. Neither the museum nor investigators would describe the new information, but the office’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has in recent years been investigating the looting of artifacts from Bubon and has pursued the return of a number of bronze objects that were held by American museums or private collectors. In one case, investigators seized a statue of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in another, a statue of the emperor Lucius Verus from the home of a philanthropist and Met trustee, Shelby White.
Persons: Septimius Severus, Lucius Verus, Shelby White Organizations: Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art Locations: Los Angeles, Turkey, Manhattan
The Art Institute of Chicago has rebuffed an attempt by New York investigators to seize an Egon Schiele drawing in its collection, asserting in a strongly-worded 132-page court filing that the investigators have produced no evidence that the artwork was looted by the Nazis as they claim. The drawing, “Russian War Prisoner,” was purchased by the Art Institute in 1966. It is one of a number of works by Schiele that ended up in the hands of museums and collectors and have been sought by the heirs of the collector Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret entertainer from Vienna who was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp in 1941. In a court filing in February, the Manhattan district attorney’s office accused the museum of ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been stolen by the Nazis on the eve of World War II. But the museum in its filing on Tuesday argued that the drawing had legitimately passed from Grünbaum to his sister-in-law, who had sold it to a Swiss dealer after the war in 1956.
Persons: Egon Schiele, , Schiele, Fritz Grünbaum Organizations: Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute Locations: New York, Vienna, Manhattan, Grünbaum, Swiss
The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to settle investigations and lawsuits across the United States related to the firm’s work with opioid makers, principally Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. McKinsey recommended that Purdue “turbocharge” its sales of the drug in the midst of the opioid crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. News of the criminal investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Last year another opioid maker, Mallinckrodt, said it received a grand jury subpoena from the same U.S. attorney’s office but did not mention any connection to McKinsey.
Persons: Endo, Mallinckrodt Organizations: McKinsey & Company, U.S, Western, of, McKinsey, Purdue Pharma, Purdue “ turbocharge, Wall, The New York Times Locations: Massachusetts, of Virginia, Washington, United States
Xiaolei Wu, 26, who attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, was convicted in January of one count of cyberstalking and one count of interstate transmissions of threatening communication, prosecutors said. Wu is no longer enrolled as a student at Berklee College of Music, the school told CNN Wednesday. CNN previously reported that Wu allegedly sent threatening messages to a person who posted a flier on or near the college campus supporting Chinese democracy, according to the complaint. “Post more, I will chop your bastard hands off,” Wu reportedly said on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app. Charging documents allege Wu reported the person to the Chinese government and told them its representatives would “greet” their family members.
Persons: Xiaolei Wu, Wu, ” Wu, Joshua S, Levy, Wu’s, ” Levy, “ Mr, Organizations: CNN, US, Berklee College of Music, Federal Public, Office, , United, People’s, Berklee, Department, Justice Locations: China, Massachusetts, Boston, People’s Republic of China
A North Carolina man who failed to show up in court after being found guilty last year of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said. The man, David Joseph Gietzen, of Sanford, N.C., was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after being found guilty by a jury in August of five felonies and three misdemeanors. On Jan. 6, according to prosecutors, he appeared to grab a U.S. Capitol Police officer “by the throat or face mask” and to strike another with a pole. The sentence was confirmed by Patty Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Mr. Gietzen, a former programming engineer, traveled to Washington, D.C., with his brother from North Carolina on Jan. 5, 2021, to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election, court documents show.
Persons: David Joseph Gietzen, , Patty Hartman, Gietzen Organizations: Capitol, Justice Department, District of Columbia, U.S . Capitol Police, U.S, Attorney’s, Washington , D.C Locations: Carolina, Sanford, N.C, U.S, Washington ,, North Carolina
CNN —Judge Juan Merchan will consider whether to fine Donald Trump for repeatedly violating the gag order barring the former president from publicly discussing witnesses or jurors in the criminal hush money case. Trump nevertheless went after Cohen in remarks on camera after leaving court on Monday. Trump’s lawyers have argued that his social media posts do not actually violate the gag order. The jury will not hear the argument on the gag order violations. Merchan said if arguments over the gag order were not finished by 11 a.m., they would pick up the hearing later.
Persons: Juan Merchan, Donald Trump, Trump, Michael Cohen, , Chris Conroy, Michael Cohen Trump, Cohen, he’s, ” Trump, Hey Von ShitzInPantz, ” Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Emil Bove, Todd Blanche, Trump’s, ” Blanche, , ’ Jesse Watters, ” Merchan, Merchan Organizations: CNN, Prosecutors, Trump, Twitter, Truth, New, Liberal Locations: Manhattan, Trump, New York
The judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s trial in Manhattan held a fiery hearing on Tuesday about whether to find Mr. Trump in criminal contempt for repeatedly violating the provisions of a gag order. While the judge, Juan M. Merchan, did not issue an immediate ruling, he engaged in a heated back-and-forth with one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, scolding him for his failure to offer any facts in his defense of the former president. “You’ve presented nothing,” Justice Merchan told the lawyer, Todd Blanche, adding soon after: “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”Justice Merchan’s rebuke came moments after prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office had complained that Mr. Trump willfully violated the gag order by making 10 public statements on social media and on his campaign website that attacked two likely witnesses and the jury.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M, Merchan, “ You’ve, Todd Blanche, “ You’re, Merchan’s Locations: Manhattan
The first criminal trial of an American president will debut on Monday for a jury of 12 New Yorkers, as prosecutors and defense lawyers deliver opening statements that provide dueling interpretations of the evidence against Donald J. Trump. The unprecedented case, which centers on Mr. Trump’s efforts to cover up a sex scandal involving a hush-money payment to a porn star, could reshape America’s political landscape and test the limits of the nation’s justice system. Opening statements at a trial are like overtures: Both sides present a preview of what the jurors will hear from witnesses and what they will see in documentary evidence. Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are expected to say that Mr. Trump orchestrated a scheme to suppress stories that could have damaged his 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump’s former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, was involved in suppressing some of those stories, including when he paid $130,000 to a porn star who said she had sex with Mr. Trump a decade earlier.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Michael D, Cohen Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Manhattan
Mr. Cohen has said he acted at Mr. Trump’s direction, but the former president is not charged over the payment itself. If Mr. Trump testifies in his own defense, that could pit Mr. Cohen’s word against Mr. Trump’s — a he-said, he-said story, with two questionable narrators. Mr. Trump’s lawyers will seek to emphasize Mr. Cohen’s checkered past at every turn. And, on cross-examination, Mr. Trump’s lawyers are likely to portray Mr. Cohen as a serial liar with a grudge against his former boss. Mr. Pecker can support at least some of Mr. Cohen’s testimony about Mr. Trump’s involvement in the hush-money deals.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Alvin L, Bragg, Michael D, Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Daniel J . Horwitz, Michael Cohen, ” Mr, Horwitz, Mary Altaffer, Daniels, Trump’s, Joshua Steinglass, Donald Trump, Mr, Steinglass’s, David Pecker, Hope Hicks, Pecker, Bragg’s, Karen McDougal, Marion Curtis, reimbursements, Allen H, Weisselberg, Steinglass, McDougal, Dave Sanders, The New York Times Susan Necheles, Cohen’s, President Trump, Madeleine Westerhout, , , ” William K, Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Michael Rothfeld Organizations: Prosecutors, Mr, fixer, National Enquirer, Trump, Trump . Credit, The New York Times, American Media, Associated, Locations: New York, Manhattan, Trump ., America, Russia
CNN —The first criminal trial of Donald Trump is officially underway. Prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys delivered opening statements and the first witness – a former National Enquirer publisher – was called Monday in the historic and unprecedented criminal trial of a former president. “The defendant Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” said prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors. At the hearing, Trump’s attorneys came to an agreement with the New York attorney general’s office on the terms of that $175 million bond. Trump’s attorneys representing him in the civil matter later stopped by the criminal trial and spoke to cameras in the hallway outside the courtroom where Trump sat at the defense table.
Persons: Donald Trump, , Stormy Daniels, Trump, ” Trump, Judge Juan Merchan, , Matthew Colangelo, , ” Colangelo, Cohen, David Pecker, Colangelo, it’s, Todd Blanche, “ Donald Trump, ” Blanche, he’s, Blanche didn’t, It’s, Blanche, Cohen’s, Trump ”, Trump’s, Michael Cohen, President Trump, He’s, Pecker, Karen McDougal –, Letitia James, James ’, ” Alina Habba, Merchan, Chris Conroy, Emil Bove Organizations: CNN, Prosecutors, National Enquirer, Trump, American Media Inc, Defense, AMI, Pecker’s AMI, New, Specialty Insurance Locations: New York
But on Monday, his diminished reality as a criminal defendant will become clear in humbling fashion during opening statements in his first criminal trial. The process, known as a Sandoval hearing, offered the ex-president a glimpse of personal and unflattering revelations that the trial could dredge up. The political case against the prosecutions was laid out by South Dakota Gov. But Noem rehearsed a political argument that Trump and his associates will be seeking to land as the trial goes ahead. But the deeply consequential political and personal stakes for the former president will become even clearer when the first trial begins for real on Monday.
Persons: Donald Trump, he’s, Trump, Joe Biden, , victimhood, He’s, , ” Trump, president’s, haggled, Sandoval, Stacey Schneider, Jean Carroll, ” Schneider, it’s, Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, Pecker, Joshua Steinglass, , Juan Merchan, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Bragg, Biden, There’s, Kristi Noem, ” Noem, CNN’s Dana, Noem, Cohen Organizations: CNN, White, Republican, Trump, American Media Inc, National Enquirer, Prosecutors, Manhattan, Attorney, Democratic, Mar, South Dakota Gov, New York Times Locations: Manhattan, North Carolina, New York, United States, “ State, Siena, Dakota
Appearing in Greensboro, North Carolina ahead of the state’s primary last month, Trump remarked on his legal peril at length. Nikki Haley managed to win support from 23% of Republican primary voters in North Carolina, with many in Trump’s party saying they could not overlook the vast legal challenges he faces. “Polling shows the American people see right through the Stalinist tactics employed by Crooked Joe and his allies,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement. Without cameras inside the courtroom, Trump has also challenged the narratives that have emerged from those watching the proceedings. I’m supposed to be in North Carolina, South Carolina.
Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Michael Cohen, baselessly, , ” Trump, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, don’t, Crooked Joe, Karoline Leavitt, Judge Juan Merchan, “ I’m, I’m, I’ve, Joe Biden’s, Trump’s, ” Leavitt Organizations: CNN, Trump, Manhattan, Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice, South Carolina Gov, Republican, GOP Locations: Manhattan, North Carolina, Wilmington, Charlotte, New York, York, Greensboro , North Carolina, New Hampshire, Georgia, South Carolina
If Donald J. Trump takes the stand at his criminal trial in Manhattan, prosecutors want to cross-examine him about recent lawsuits he’s lost, attacks he’s made on women and a judge’s opinion that his sworn statements in a civil case rang “hollow and untrue.”In hearing on Friday afternoon, the prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office who want to ask those questions will seek permission from Justice Juan M. Merchan, the state judge presiding over Mr. Trump’s trial on charges that he falsified business records to cover up reimbursements for a hush-money payment made to a keep a sex scandal quiet. The proceeding, known as a Sandoval hearing, is a high-stakes affair for all the parties: the prosecutors, the defense team, Mr. Trump and Justice Merchan himself. Whatever the judge decides will inform whether the former president decides to testify and, if he does, what prosecutors can ask him. Though Mr. Trump has said he would testify in his own defense, there have been plenty of signs that he is not fully committed to doing so. This week, his lawyers asked prospective jurors to assure them that they wouldn’t hold a failure to testify against Mr. Trump.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, he’s, Juan M, Trump’s, Sandoval, Justice Merchan Organizations: Justice, Mr Locations: Manhattan
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