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☆ Live Updates: Third Week of Trump Criminal Trial to Begin With More Testimony
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Ben Protess | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Mr. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an effort to conceal the payment. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied that he had sex with Ms. Daniels. The week also brought more accusations that Mr. Trump had violated a gag order prohibiting him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and jurors. Credit... Jefferson Siegel for The New York TimesBut Mr. Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche said his client’s actions were “run-of-the-mill” business. Mr. Trump will use the midweek break to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, two battleground states in this year’s election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Donald Trump’s, David Pecker, Trump’s, Pecker, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, Daniels, Juan M, Merchan, Mr, Prosecutors, Todd Blanche, Jefferson Siegel, “ It’s, Blanche, Cohen, ”, Dave Sanders, Karen McDougal, McDougal, Emil Bove, mutter, Merchan’s, Rhona Graff, Gary Farro, Farro, Hope Hicks Organizations: National Enquirer, Mr, Trump Tower, Prosecutors, The New York, Trump Organization, The New York Times, Playboy, Trump, White House, Republican Locations: Donald Trump’s Manhattan, Manhattan, Trump’s, Wisconsin, Michigan

☆ Trump Faces Possible $10,000 Contempt Fine as Trial Resumes
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Ben Protess | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Trump, the first former president to face criminal prosecution, is accused of falsifying records to cover up the hush-money payment, which was made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels. The $130,000 payment — made by Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael D. Cohen — silenced Ms. Daniels’s story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump. The prosecutors requested a $1,000 fine for each of Mr. Trump’s 10 statements that they say ran afoul of the order — including attacks on Ms. Daniels and Mr. Cohen, as well as the jury. Also on Tuesday, prosecutors are expected to wrap up their questioning of Gary Farro, a banker who helped Mr. Cohen open the account that he used to pay Ms. Daniels. Mr. Trump’s lawyers will then cross-examine Mr. Farro.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Michael D, Cohen —, Juan M, Daniels, Cohen, Gary Farro, Farro

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan held him in contempt on Tuesday, fining the former president $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order and warning that he could go to to jail if he continued to attack witnesses and jurors. “The court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders,” the judge, Juan M. Merchan, said as Mr. Trump’s trial reconvened for a third week. He added that while he was “keenly aware of, and protective of, defendant’s First Amendment rights,” he would jail Mr. Trump “if necessary and appropriate.”Justice Merchan determined that Mr. Trump had flouted the gag order by making nine public statements on social media and on his campaign website in which he attacked witnesses and the jury. He ordered Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, to remove the posts by Tuesday afternoon. The judge’s ruling and admonition came one week after a fiery hearing in which prosecutors had argued that Mr. Trump’s statements threatened the trial.

Persons: Donald J, fining, “, ”, Juan M, Merchan, Trump’s, Trump Organizations: Republican Locations: Manhattan

☆ Trump’s Trial Could Bring a Rarity: Consequences for His Words
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Maggie Haberman | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“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

Donald J. Trump is a thrice-married man accused of covering up a sex scandal with a porn star after the world heard him brag about grabbing women by their genitals. But when Mr. Trump’s lawyers introduced him to a jury at his Manhattan criminal trial this week, they dwelt on a different dimension: “He’s a husband. And he’s a person, just like you and just like me.”That half-hour opening statement encapsulated the former president’s influence over his lawyers and their strategy. It reflected specific input from Mr. Trump, people with knowledge of the matter said, and it echoed his absolutist approach to his first criminal trial. And while defendants often offer feedback to their lawyers, this particular hands-on client could hamstring them.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, He’s Organizations: Manhattan

☆ Tabloid Publisher Defiant as Trump Lawyer Tries to Shake His Confidence
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Jesse Mckinley | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Lawyers for Donald J. Trump on Friday grilled the former publisher of The National Enquirer, casting doubt on his explanation for why he suppressed salacious stories about the Republican presidential candidate before the 2016 election. The witness, David Pecker, who has known Mr. Trump for decades, faced a stern cross-examination from one of the former president’s defense lawyers, Emil Bove, who pressed Mr. Pecker about two deals he had reached in 2015 and 2016 with people who were seeking to sell stories about Mr. Trump. Mr. Bove sought to convince the jury of two fundamental points about the stories, which Mr. Pecker bought and then buried: Such arrangements, characterized by prosecutors as “catch and kill,” were standard for the publisher, and that Mr. Pecker had previously misled jurors about the details of the transactions.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, David Pecker, Emil Bove, Pecker, Bove Organizations: National Enquirer, Republican

The criminal trial of Donald J. Trump on Friday will feature the continued cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness, David Pecker, as defense lawyers try to discredit the idea that there had been a plot to protect Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. On Thursday, Mr. Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, described his own involvement in the suppression of the stories of two women who claimed to have had sex with Mr. Trump: Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, and Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose 2016 hush-money payoff is at the root of the prosecution’s case. Mr. Trump, 77, is charged with falsifying 34 business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels, who has said they had a sexual encounter in 2006 and was shopping that story in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump, the first American president to face criminal trial, has denied the accusations and the sexual encounter with Ms. Daniels.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, David Pecker, Trump’s, Pecker, Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels, Daniels Organizations: National Enquirer

Mr. Pecker was also asked whether he believed Mr. Trump was concerned that his wife or family would find out about the affairs. director, and Reince Priebus, who was chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Pecker reassured Mr. Trump that everything was fine. Mr. Trump then told the group that Mr. Pecker probably “knows more than anyone else in this room.”“It was a joke,” Mr. Pecker testified, adding, “They didn’t laugh.”Pecker did a lot for Trump, who could be hard to please. Mr. Pecker variously described Mr. Trump as becoming “very angry” and “very aggravated.”Still, Mr. Pecker said he felt no ill will. Mr. Pecker described a 2002 meeting in which Mr. Schwarzenegger asked Mr. Pecker not to run negative stories about him before his run for governor of California.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, David Pecker, Pecker, Karen McDougal, Daniels, McDougal, Trump’s, Michael D, Cohen, Marion Curtis, “, Mr, McDougal —, —, ” Mr, ”, Ahmed Gaber, James Comey, Reince Priebus, ” Pecker, Emil Bove, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Schwarzenegger Organizations: National Enquirer, AMI, ., Associated, Prosecutors, Trump, White, The New York Times, Republican National Committee, Mr, Republican Locations: Trump’s, California

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

New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned the felony sex crimes conviction of the notorious Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, a staggering reversal of a bedrock case in the #MeToo era that prompted countless victims of sexual harassment and assault to come forward as accusers. In a bitterly contested 4-to-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals found that the judge who had presided over Mr. Weinstein’s case deprived him of a fair trial in 2020 by allowing prosecutors to call witnesses who said Mr. Weinstein had assaulted them — but whose accusations were not the basis for any of the charges against him. Responding on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, announced that he would seek to prosecute Mr. Weinstein again. “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg’s office said. The case was originally prosecuted by his predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

Persons: Harvey Weinstein, Weinstein’s, Weinstein, Alvin L, Bragg, Mr, “, ”, Cyrus R, Vance Jr Organizations: Hollywood, New, Appeals, Mr Locations: Manhattan

Days before Donald J. Trump became president in early 2017, a handful of advisers, officials and allies descended on his office at Trump Tower: the F.B.I. The future president, triumphant, thanked Mr. Pecker for his service. That remarkable scene was private until Thursday, when Mr. Pecker recounted it to jurors in Mr. Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial. He described in vivid detail how Mr. Trump laid bare their effort to buy and bury damaging stories that could have derailed Mr. Trump’s campaign — a plot at the center of the case. “He said, ‘I want to thank you for handling the McDougal situation,’ and then he also said, ‘I wanted to thank you for the doorman situation,’” Mr. Pecker testified Thursday.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, —, David Pecker, Karen McDougal, Mr, Pecker, Trump’s, “, ‘, McDougal, ” Organizations: Trump, National Enquirer

☆ Trump Case Testimony Expected to Turn to Hush-Money Deal With Porn Star
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

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

☆ Live Updates: Harvey Weinstein’s Conviction Is Overturned by New York’s Top Court
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

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

Ms. Daniels, who may testify, says that she and Mr. Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006, a claim the former president denies. Mr. Trump has also denied the 34 felony charges, calling them orchestrated by Democrats; if convicted, the former president could face probation or up to four years in prison. Pool photo by Mark PetersonMr. Blanche also attacked Mr. Cohen, a former lawyer and fixer for Mr. Trump. He called the heart of the prosecution case just “34 pieces of paper” that don’t involve Mr. Trump. During his own side’s opening statement, Mr. Trump sat largely motionless and expressionless watching his lawyer Mr. Blanche.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Daniels, Trump’s, ” doesn’t, Matthew Colangelo, Mr, Todd Blanche, ”, It’s, Mark Peterson Mr, Blanche, Cohen, Letitia James, —, David Pecker, Prosecutors ’, ambled, ” Mr, Pecker, Marion Curtis, We’re, Juan M, Pecker —, Merchan Organizations: Trump, Mr, Trump Tower, New, Prosecutors, National Enquirer, Reuters Locations: Manhattan, Lower Manhattan

Donald J. Trump had a dismal day in court on Tuesday as the judge presiding over his criminal trial told a defense lawyer he was “losing all credibility” and a key witness pulled back the curtain to expose what prosecutors called a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. The witness was David Pecker, longtime publisher of The National Enquirer, and he transported jurors back to a crucial 2015 meeting with Mr. Trump and his fixer at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan. Prosecutors called it the “Trump Tower conspiracy,” arguing that Mr. Pecker, Mr. Trump and Michael D. Cohen, who was then Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, hatched a plot at the meeting to conceal sex scandals looming over Mr. Trump’s campaign. Their effort led Mr. Pecker’s tabloids to buy and bury two damaging stories about Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen also purchased the silence of a porn star, a deal at the heart of the case against the former president.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, David Pecker, Pecker, Michael D, Cohen Organizations: National Enquirer, Prosecutors Locations: Midtown Manhattan

☆ Trump Will Fight Attempts to Silence Him Before Key Witness Testifies
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Manhattan prosecutors are poised to push their case against Donald J. Trump into a critical new phase on Tuesday, as they prepare to question a key witness and urge the judge to hold the former president in contempt for attacking witnesses and jurors in the landmark trial. The case, the first criminal trial of an American president, debuted to a newly seated jury on Monday, as both sides delivered opening statements that offered dueling visions of Mr. Trump and the evidence against him. While a prosecutor accused the former president of orchestrating a “criminal conspiracy and a coverup,” Mr. Trump’s lawyer proclaimed that “President Trump is innocent.”The prosecution also began questioning its first witness, David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who buried damaging stories about Mr. Trump as he mounted his first campaign for president. Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star that could have derailed his campaign. The flurry of activity set the stage for a weekslong trial that will continue to captivate the political and legal worlds and test the limits of the justice system as Mr. Trump attacks judge and jury alike.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Mr, Trump’s, David Pecker Organizations: “, National Enquirer Locations: Manhattan

☆ An Unprecedented Trial Opens With Two Visions of Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Manhattan prosecutors delivered a raw recounting of Donald J. Trump’s seamy past on Monday as they debuted their case against him to jurors, the nation and the world, reducing the former president to a co-conspirator in a plot to cover up three sex scandals that threatened his 2016 election win. Their opening statement was a pivotal moment in the first prosecution of an American president, a sweeping synopsis of the case against Mr. Trump, who watched from the defense table, occasionally shaking his head. Moments later, Mr. Trump’s lawyer delivered his own opening, beginning with the simple claim that “President Trump is innocent,” then noting that he is once again the presumptive Republican nominee and concluding with an exhortation for jurors to “use your common sense.”The jury of 12 New Yorkers who will weigh Mr. Trump’s legal fate before millions of voters decide his political future also heard brief testimony from the prosecution’s leadoff witness, David Pecker, a former tabloid publisher who was close with Mr. Trump. Mr. Pecker, who ran The National Enquirer, testified that his supermarket tabloids practiced “checkbook journalism.” In this case, prosecutors say, he bought and buried stories that could have imperiled Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, ”, Yorkers, David Pecker, Pecker Organizations: Republican, Mr, National Enquirer

☆ Opening Statements in Trump’s Criminal Trial to Begin Monday
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

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

☆ Will a Mountain of Evidence Be Enough to Convict Trump?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Ben Protess | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the official record, the case is known as the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, and, for now, the people have the stronger hand: They have insider witnesses, a favorable jury pool and a lurid set of facts about a presidential candidate, a payoff and a porn star. On Monday, the prosecutors will formally introduce the case to 12 all-important jurors, embarking on the first prosecution of an American president. The trial, which could brand Mr. Trump a felon as he mounts another White House run, will reverberate throughout the nation and test the durability of the justice system that Mr. Trump attacks as no other defendant could. Though the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, has assembled a mountain of evidence, a conviction is hardly assured. Over the next six weeks, Mr. Trump’s lawyers will seize on three apparent weak points: a key witness’s credibility, a president’s culpability and the case’s legal complexity.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Alvin L, Bragg Locations: New York

☆ Live Updates: Trump Trial Enters Fourth Day With Opening Arguments Next Week
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

Have you, a relative, or a close friend ever been employed in the accounting or finance field? Have you, a relative, or a close friend ever been accused or convicted of committing a crime? Do you, a relative, or a close friend have a pending criminal case? Are you signed up for or have you ever been signed up for, subscribed to, or followed any newsletter or email lists run by or on behalf of Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization? The United States Constitution provides that a defendant has no burden to introduce any evidence or to testify in a criminal case.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, Mark Pomerantz, Donald Trump ” Organizations: Prosecutors, New Yorker, Civil, New York Times, New York Daily, Huffington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Google, Street, The New, The New York Post, Newsday, Washington Post, Fox News, MSN, Yahoo, FBI, Attorney’s, Department of Correction, Trump, Mr, Trump Organization, Boogaloo, United, United States Constitution Locations: American, Manhattan, Side, Inwood, New, USA, The New York, New York, United States

☆ Outside Court, Trump is the Center of Attention. Inside, He Has a Rival.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Everywhere in our universe, a basic physical law applies: the greater the mass of an object, the stronger its gravitational field. The accumulated mass of fame and political status places Donald J. Trump at the center of most rooms he finds himself in. If he were to storm out of court suddenly, as he has in other proceedings, it would be the biggest news of the day. But in court, unlike almost everywhere else, Mr. Trump has competition: The judge, Juan M. Merchan, exudes his own gravity and has power Mr. Trump does not. And on Thursday, after a new pool of 96 prospective jurors walked into the high-ceilinged room, their attention slid from the former president seated at the defense table to the judge.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M, Justice Merchan Organizations: Secret Service Locations: York

☆ Prosecutors Want to Ask Trump About Attacks on Women
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | Matthew Haag | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

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

☆ Final Members of Trump Jury Chosen as Trial Races Ahead
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Jesse Mckinley | Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The final jurors for Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial were selected on Friday, with lawyers preparing to offer opening statements on Monday in a landmark proceeding that was suddenly overshadowed at midday by the spectacle of a man setting himself aflame outside the courthouse. The day was marked by an intensity of emotion from the start. Several prospective jurors asked to be excused, and some became upset, with one saying she had become too nervous to continue the process. Then word quietly began to spread about the man who had set himself on fire in a park across the street from the courthouse. The courtroom proceedings continued, but the stir was noticeable, and reporters ran from the room.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Locations: Manhattan

Twelve New Yorkers have been selected to decide Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, the first for an American president, and alternates are expected to be chosen on Friday should any of the first dozen have to drop out of the trial unexpectedly. Opening statements, where prosecutors and defense lawyers will introduce their dueling cases to the newly empaneled jury, are expected to begin as early as Monday. One alternate juror was also picked before court adjourned for the day, and the selection of alternates was set to resume on Friday morning. The $130,000 payment came from Mr. Trump’s former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who has said he acted at Mr. Trump’s direction. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, charged Mr. Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, accusing him of having disguised reimbursements of Mr. Cohen to keep the sex scandal under wraps.

Persons: Donald J, Stormy Daniels, Trump, Trump’s, Michael D, Cohen, Alvin L, Bragg Organizations: Mr Locations: Manhattan

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