The Latest | New York appeals court denies Trump’s bid to halt the hush money trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Witness testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial advanced on Tuesday with no fewer than three people taking the stand, including Gary Farro, who began testifying in the case last week.

Among those called to the stand after defense attorneys concluded their cross-examination of Farro were the executive director of the C-SPAN archives and Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels in hush money negotiations.

The resumption of witness testimony followed a ruling from Judge Juan M. Merchan on prosecutors' prior request to hold the former president in contempt of court over alleged violations of a gag order that bars him from speaking publicly about witnesses and jurors in the case.

Merchan ruled that Trump violated the gag order nine times and fined him $9,000. Another hearing will be held Thursday on four more alleged violations brought forth by prosecutors.

The first week of testimony was the scene-setter for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors portrayed what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.

For his part, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been campaigning in his off-hours, but is required to be in court when it is in session, four days a week.

The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to Cohen. Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments and falsely recorded them as legal expenses.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.

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Here's the latest:

Before a brief afternoon break in Donald Trump's hush money trial, lawyer Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that Michael Cohen missed an agreed upon deadline for sending a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.

At first, Cohen offered a litany of explanations for the delay, at turns blaming broken computers, Secret Service “firewalls,” and the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. “The things he was saying didn’t really make sense,” Davidson said of Cohen.

As the excuses piled up, Davidson said he understood that Cohen “didn’t have the authority to actually spend money.” He eventually sent an email informing Cohen that the deal involving Daniel's story about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump was off.

“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the round until after the election,” Davidson said.

As testimony continued in Donald Trump's hush money trial on Tuesday, a five-judge panel in New York state’s mid-level appellate court rejected the former president's request for a stay of the proceedings while he appeals several pretrial rulings, including the trial judge’s refusal to recuse himself.

Trump had sought the stay prior to the start of jury selection. A lone judge in the appeals court had previously rejected a request for an emergency stay halting the trial.

In drawing up the deal with the National Enquirer involving Stormy Daniels' story about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump, Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that he used pseudonyms to disguise the parties involved.

Stormy Daniels became Peggy Peterson and Donald Trump became David Dennison, according to Davidson.

The alliterative code names were picked, in part, because Daniels was the plaintiff and Trump was the defendant, the lawyer testified.

Asked by prosecutors in Trump's hush money case if David Dennison was a real person, Davidson said that he played on his high school hockey team.

“And how does he feel about you now?” asked prosecutor Josh Steinglass.

Davidson stifled a laugh, then answered: “He’s very upset.”

Stormy Daniels' agent reached a six-figure deal with then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard for the tabloid to acquire the rights to her story about a sexual encounter with Donald Trump after his “Access Hollywood” tape leaked, Keith Davidson testified Tuesday.

But then, according to Davidson, Howard backed out.

The editor instead told Daniels’ agent, Gina Rodriguez, to call Michael Cohen and complete the deal directly with him -- but she refused to speak with Cohen after an uncomfortable prior interaction.

Rodriguez asked Davidson to step in and negotiate the deal with Cohen, the lawyer testified.

Davidson added that he had numerous interactions with Howard over the years regarding stories. Asked if it was unusual for Howard to direct him to make a deal with a third party like Cohen, Davidson responded: “This is the only time that ever happened.”

“In essence, Michael Cohen stepped into AMI’s shoes,” Davidson said, referring to the name of the Enquirer’s parent company at the time, American Media Inc.

Davidson testified that in negotiating with Cohen, he hiked the price to $130,000 — building in his fee for his work on the deal.

Stormy Daniels’ story about a sexual encounter with Donald Trump became more marketable after the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape was leaked, Keith Davidson testified on Tuesday.

Davidson, who previously represented Daniels, told prosecutors that Daniels’ agent, Gina Rodriguez, had been trying to drum up interest in her story earlier in the 2016 election cycle but found there wasn’t much.

Asked to describe the “Access Hollywood” tape, which can’t be shown in court, Davidson testified that it involved Trump and the show’s then-host Billy Bush being recorded on a “hot mic” and “some statements by both men that were troublesome.”

Keith Davidson on Tuesday testified that his first interaction with Michael Cohen related to a 2011 post on a gossip blog that stated that porn actor Stormy Daniels and Trump had “some sort of physical or romantic interaction.”

After the blog post was published, Davidson said, Daniels’ agent Gina Rodriguez called him and said, “some jerk called me and was very, very aggressive and threatened to sue me.”

Asked who the “jerk” was, Davidson said: “Michael Cohen.”

Davidson testified that when he called Cohen, the ex-Trump lawyer greeted him “with a hostile barrage of insults and insinuations that went on for quite a while.”

“I don’t think he was accusing us of anything, he was just screaming,” Davidson continued. “Finally, after he finished, I explained to him that I was calling because my client, Stormy Daniels, did not want the story up. I wanted to see if he had done anything” to try to get the story taken down.

Davidson said he eventually sent a cease-and-desist letter to the blog after the dust up with Cohen and the story was removed.

Lawyer Keith Davidson testified on Tuesday that back-and-forth haggling took place in the selling of former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story to the National Enquirer.

In one text message shown to jurors, Davidson told Enquirer editor Dylan Howard that “they are asking me to go back for another 25,” meaning another $25,000. Howard responds with an expletive, adding, “Not my money. I’ll ask.”

But even as they reached a basic framework for the deal, Davidson described his “growing frustration with the process.” At one point, Davidson said he was pushed to call Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen directly, something he said he had been trying to avoid.

“I thought it was odd, certainly,” Davidson said about being asked to call Cohen. “I didn’t particularly like dealing with him and that’s why I was trying like hell to avoid talking to him,” he added.

Davidson testified that he understood McDougal’s story would never be published and acknowledged that “there was an unspoken understanding that there was an affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump and that AMI wouldn’t run this story, any story related to Karen, because it would hurt Donald Trump.”

Donald Trump's online posts that on Tuesday were found to violate a gag order barring him from speaking publicly about jurors and witnesses in his criminal hush money trial were removed ahead of an afternoon deadline.

The posts in question were deleted while the court was in recess for lunch.

Links to the old Truth Social posts redirected to a “Not found” message, while those on Trump’s website redirected to a 404 error page.

Earlier Tuesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan fined the former president $9,000 for the nine posts for violating the order.

Court in Donald Trump's criminal trial resumed Tuesday after an early afternoon lunch break.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walked into the courtroom with Trump and his entourage after posting on social media earlier in the day that he was there to support the former president. The Republican sat down in the first row of the courtroom gallery directly behind the defense table.

Paxton sat just a few seats away from Trump's son Eric, who sat near the aisle alongside Susie Wiles, a Trump political operative.

Keith Davidson, a lawyer who previously represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels in hush money negotiations, was expected to returned to the witness stand.

Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that after tipping off a National Enquirer editor about “a blockbuster Trump story,” he soon arranged a meeting with that editor, former Playboy model Karen McDougal and others to see whether the Enquirer's then-parent company was interested.

After flying back to New York, Howard told him the Enquirer wasn’t keen “because Karen McDougal lacked documentary evidence of the interaction,” Davidson testified.

McDougal had alleged that she had a year-long affair with Donald Trump years earlier.

A month later, Enquirer editor Dylan Howard reached out again to Davidson, suggesting they resume discussions.

At the time, Davidson warned that the Enquirer's parent company would need to move quickly, writing in one text: “Time is of the essence. The girl is being cornered by the estrogen mafia”

Davidson testified that McDougal was “teetering” at the time he sent the message and on the verge of signing a deal to tell her story to ABC News.

Davidson also testified that he played the National Enquirer and ABC News against each other to get the best deal for his client. McDougal didn’t want to tell her story publicly, which would’ve been required if she went to ABC, he said.

In his court testimony on Tuesday, attorney Keith Davidson described representing Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, in her allegations of a year-long affair with Donald Trump.

As questioning turned toward Davidson’s involvement in some of the hush money deals at the heart of the former president's criminal trial, he said he met McDougal 25 years ago through a friend. He said he started representing in 2016 “to provide advice and counsel as to what her rights and obligations would be regarding a personal interaction that she had.”

“With whom?” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

“Donald Trump.”

Shortly after Davidson began representing McDougal, he said, he reached out to Dylan Howard, the editor in chief of the National Enquirer, promising a “blockbuster Trump story.”

Howard replied soon after: “I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why.”

As the text messages were displayed on screens to the jury, Davidson testified that he didn’t know exactly what Howard meant at the time. But, he noted, “I knew that Dylan’s boss David Pecker and Mr. Trump were longtime friends and had a former business relationship,” he said, adding the tabloid had effectively “endorsed Mr. Trump’s candidacy.”

A lawyer who previously represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels was the next witness called to the stand in Donald Trump's hush money trial.

Keith Davidson took the stand shortly after noon Tuesday and is known for representing people trying to sell celebrity sex tapes or other embarrassing information.

He represented McDougal and Daniels in hush money negotiations with the National Enquirer and Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016.

McDougal claimed she had had a yearlong affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. Daniels claimed she had a one-time sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump has denied both allegations.

An executive at a company that provides stenographers and videographers for depositions — sworn, out-of-court statements under oath — was the next witness called to the stand in Donald Trump's criminal trial on Tuesday.

Phillip Thompson was called to authenticate a transcript and video of a deposition the former president gave in one of writer E. Jean Carroll’s federal defamation lawsuits against him.

The portions included Carroll’s lawyer asking Trump about his Truth Social platform, the dates of his marriage to wife Melania Trump and whether he was aware of the “Access Hollywood” tape.

The former longtime Elle magazine advice columnist had alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then defamed her after she came forward publicly in 2019. He has said nothing happened between the two of them and called her a “wack job” who engineered a “hoax” to sell a book.

After two federal trials last year and this winter, juries awarded Carroll over $88 million. Trump is appealing.

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money case played C-SPAN clips on Tuesday of the then-presidential candidate on the campaign trail in the final weeks leading up to the 2016 election. In the videos, Trump forcefully denied allegations made by several women after his infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape was made public.

“The stories are total fiction. They’re 100% made up, they never happened, they never would happen,” Trump said in video from an Oct. 14, 2016 rally in North Carolina.

Another clip played for the jury, from January 2017, showed Trump praising Michael Cohen as as good lawyer and friend.

Trump did not appear to react in court to the clips, which were played on monitors throughout the courtroom, including directly in front of him on the defense table.

After confirming the veracity of the clips, Robert Browning — the executive director of C-SPAN's archives — was dismissed from the witness stand. Trump’s attorneys declined to question him.

The next witness called to the stand Tuesday in Donald Trump's hush money trial was Robert Browning, the executive director of the C-SPAN archives.

Browning, who manages the network’s video collection, was called to verify the authenticity of video of a Trump campaign event.

Prosecutors are calling people who are regarded as “records custodians” to verify evidence in the former president's criminal case.

Donald Trump's hush money trial will get an extra day off for the Memorial Day weekend next month.

Court won’t be in session on Friday, May 24, to accommodate a juror who has a flight that morning, Judge Juan M. Merchan said on Tuesday.

That means the trial will be off for four straight days for the holiday weekend, resuming on Tuesday, May 28. Merchan also informed jurors there will not be court on May 17, though he didn’t give them a reason.

That’s the day Donald Trump will be attending his son Barron’s high school graduation.

Ahead of a midday break in Donald Trump's hush money case, prosecutors asked the judge to let them question the former president about his gag order violations should he choose to testify.

The request came after Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled Tuesday morning that Trump had on nine occasions violated a court mandate barring him from speaking publicly about witnesses and jurors in the case. He ultimately fined Trump $9,000 and will hold another hearing Thursday on four more alleged gag order violations.

Prosecutors also requested permission to introduce evidence they said shows Trump orchestrated a “pressure campaign and intimidation effort” against Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Colangelo said Trump’s attorney opened the door to that evidence by seeking to undermine the credibility of the two witnesses in opening statements.

Merchan did not immediately rule, but said, “the door has been opened.”

He previously ruled to allow prosecutors to challenge Trump’s credibility by questioning him about a limited number of his recent legal setbacks if he ends up taking the witness stand.

Trump has said he wants to testify, but is under no obligation to do so.

In his cross examination of banker Gary Farro on Tuesday, defense attorney Todd Blanche underscored that Michael Cohen made no mention that the accounts he opened in October 2016 had anything to do with deals involving then-presidential candidate Donald Trump or his company.

If Cohen had done so, “I would have asked questions,” Farro said.

Farro noted that he might not have opened a bank account for Cohen if he’d been told it was for what’s known as a shell corporation — one that receives and sends out money but doesn’t have an underlying business.

But Cohen, the banker said, told him the account was for a real estate consulting business.

Nothing about it raised “any red flags to you?” Blanche asked.

“Not based upon the answers I was given to the questions I asked,” Farro said.

Farro's testimony shed light on his role in helping Cohen open a bank account that was later used to process a $130,000 wire transfer to a lawyer for Stormy Daniels.

Defense attorneys began their cross-examination of Gary Farro, the prosecution's third witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial, by asking the banker to describe his relationship with Michael Cohen.

Farro said he first met Cohen — then serving as the former president's personal lawyer — in person at a meeting in Trump Tower, but primarily communicated over the phone. Pushed by Todd Blanche, Farro acknowledged that Cohen wasn’t always easy to work with.

“He was a challenging client because of his desire to get things done so quickly,” Farro said. “Ninety percent of the time it was an urgent matter.”

Prosecutors have wrapped up questioning of Gary Farro, their third witness in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial.

Farro told prosecutors on Tuesday that Michael Cohen had indicated that a 2016 $130,000 wire payment now at the heart of the case was related to a real estate transaction — not a political candidate, an adult film performer or buying up a potential media story.

“We might consider something like that a reputational risk,” Farro said.

Within a day of opening the Essential Consultants LLC bank account on Oct. 26, 2016 — and funding it with about $130,000 from his own home equity loan — Cohen wired out $130,000 to Keith Davidson, then a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, documents showed.

The 2016 presidential election was on Nov. 8.

Donald Trump's son Eric joined his father in court on Tuesday, marking the first time any of the former president's family members have attended his criminal hush money trial.

Prior to court proceedings resuming, Trump turned from the defense table and walked over to his son in the first row of the gallery. Trump put his hand on Eric's arm as they chatted.

Trump had railed about the trial, as well as his other legal cases, to reporters on his way into the courtroom earlier in the morning.

Testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial resumed with Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts. Cohen used one such account to buy the silence of porn performer Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.

Cohen indicated the account, opened in late October 2016 in the name of Essential Consultants LLC, would be used for real estate consulting, according to testimony and documents shown at the trial.

In response to prosecutor Becky Mangold’s questions, Farro said the bank would have asked more questions if there had been any mention of a connection to a political candidate, buying a story that was being pitched to the media or paying a porn performer.

The additional scrutiny would have delayed or even nixed opening the account, which Cohen had wanted to open right away. In particular, the adult film world “is an industry we don’t work with,” he said.

With only real estate in the picture, the account was opened within a day — “very quick,” Farro said.

Judge Juan M. Merchan found that one of Donald Trump's online posts about his former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels did not violate a gag order barring him from speaking publicly about jurors and witnesses in his hush money case.

Merchan wrote that he was finding Trump “in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate” of the court on nine separate occasions for posts made on Truth Social and his campaign website.

Merchan ruled that Trump’s April 10 post referring to Cohen and Daniels as “sleaze bags” was not a gag order violation. He said Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen “is sufficient to give” him pause “as to whether the People have met their burden” as to that post.

However, the other nine “attack the credibility of arguably two of the more high-profile witnesses in this case.”

“To allow such attacks upon protected witnesses with blanket assertions that they are all responses to ‘political attacks’ would be an exception that swallowed the rule. The Expanded Order does not contain such an exception,” Merchan wrote.

Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled Tuesday morning that Donald Trump violated a gag order barring him from making public statements about witnesses and jurors in his hush money trial nine times. He fined the former president $9,000 for the violations.

Prosecutors had alleged the former president had violated the order 10 times, and Merchan concurred in all but one of those instances. The judge will hold a hearing Thursday on four more alleged violations.

The former president stared down at the table in front of him as Merchan read the ruling, frowning slightly but otherwise showing no expression.

Merchan wrote in his ruling that Trump “is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders” and raised the possibility of jail time if “necessary and appropriate under the circumstances.”

Judge Juan M. Merchan said Tuesday morning that Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial will not be held on May 17 so that the former president can attend his son's graduation.

“I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem, so Mr. Trump can certainly attend that date, attend his son’s graduation,” Merchan said.

Trump had previously requested the day off from court to accommodate his son Barron's high school graduation.

Donald Trump's motorcade arrived Tuesday morning at the courthouse in lower Manhattan just before 9 a.m., kicking off the second week of witness testimony in the former president's hush money trial.

A crowd of around 60 Trump supporters had gathered across the street from the building, waving Trump and American flags on tall poles.

Donald Trump entered his motorcade outside Trump Tower in midtown, headed to the courthouse in lower Manhattan for the second week of trial testimony.

The former president on Tuesday will be in court for testimony from the third prosecution witness, Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts.

Cohen used one to buy the silence of porn performer Stormy Daniels. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.

Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom after a break at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York.(Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump returns to court after a break in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP)

Eric Trump enters Manhattan criminal court after a break in former President Donald Trump's trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Gary Farro, a private client adviser who previously worked at First Republic Bank, testifies on the witness stand in Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, exits the courtroom during his trial at Manhattan criminal court , Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York. (Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, April 26, 2024. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's hush money trial entered its final stretch as the prosecution's star witness Michael Cohen returned to the stand Monday.

In his testimony last week, Cohen placed the former president directly at the center of the alleged scheme to stifle negative stories to fend off damage to his White House bid. Among other things, Cohen told jurors that Trump promised to reimburse him for the money he fronted and was constantly updated about efforts to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Trump denies the women’s claims.

Defense attorneys resumed cross-examination of Cohen with a series of questions about his business dealings and other activities in the lead-up to the payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. They further dug into Cohen's sources of income in the years since Trump originally took office, as well as income he has earned criticizing the former president.

Prosecutors have said they will rest their case once Cohen's testimony concludes, though they could call rebuttal witnesses. The defense said Monday it will call at least one witness, but it remains unclear whether Trump will testify.

Merchan said earlier in the day that closing arguments could take place the Tuesday after Memorial Day.

The trial is in its 19th day.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.

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Here's the latest:

Back on the witness stand Monday afternoon, Michael Cohen testified that he has “no doubt” that Donald Trump gave him a final sign-off to make the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. In total, he said he spoke with Trump more than 20 times about the matter in October 2016. Some conversations were brief, while others were longer, he said, adding that they happened both by phone and in person.

Prosecutors appear to be eliciting testimony from Cohen aimed at diminishing the importance of a single phone call, which defense attorneys contend was not about the Daniels payments, but about a teenage prank caller who had been harassing Cohen.

After initially objecting, Donald Trump’s lawyers have agreed to let prosecutors show the jury in his hush money trial a still image taken from a C-SPAN video of Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event at 7:57 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2016.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said he agreed to what’s known as a stipulation, allowing prosecutors to introduce the image without the need for extra steps — such as summoning a C-SPAN representative back to the witness stand to authenticate the image.

The defense made the compromise after prosecutors said they would seek to have the C-SPAN representative testify Tuesday morning, likely after the prosecution rests its case and the defense starts calling witnesses.

Blanche conferred with prosecutor Joshua Steinglass and reached the deal during a short break in the trial after conferring with Trump and other members of his defense team about how to proceed.

The judge in the case previously ruled against showing the image on grounds that the photo would amount to hearsay without being authenticated by a representative of the TV network.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche on Monday objected to having a C-SPAN representative return to court after prosecutors floated it in their request to show a screenshot of an October 2016 video from the network.

Blanche argued that doing so will unnecessarily prolong Donald Trump's hush money trial. He added that prosecutors are on the verge of resting their case and that the defense may rest its case Monday, too.

The defense plans to call a campaign finance expert, a lawyer who offered to represent Cohen after the FBI raided his property in 2018, and a paralegal.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he hopes to have Robert Browning, the executive director of the C-SPAN archives, back on the witness stand on Tuesday.

Chuck Zito, the former president of the Hells Angels' New York chapter, was among those in court Monday to support Donald Trump during his hush money trial.

Zito, who helped found the biker club’s local branch in the 1980s before setting his sights on Hollywood, was part of Trump’s entourage Monday, and was sitting in the back row of the courtroom before lunch.

Also known for his role as “Chucky The Enforcer” on the HBO prison drama “Oz,” Zito served real prison time on a drug charge in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

He’s not the only Trump ally in the courtroom who was previously convicted of a criminal charge: Bernard Kerik served three years behind bars after pleading guilty to federal tax fraud and other charges before his release in 2013. Trump pardoned him in 2020.

Before the jury returned from the lunch break, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled that prosecutors can’t show the jury screenshots of a C-SPAN video of Donald Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event the evening of Oct. 24, 2016 — about five minutes before Michael Cohen called Schiller’s cell phone.

The judge said the photo amounts to hearsay without being authenticated by a representative of the TV network. Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said prosecutors are arranging to have the executive director of the C-SPAN archives, Robert Browning, return to the witness stand. Browning testified earlier in the trial to authenticate videos of Trump campaign speeches in 2016.

Steinglass had said they wanted to show the image to blunt any suggestion by the defense that Trump and Schiller might not have been together at the time in question.

During a bench conference before the resumption of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, defense lawyers said they would call attorney Robert Costello to the witness stand during their defense case.

In addition to Costello, defense lawyer Todd Blanche said potentially they would also call Bradley A. Smith and a paralegal.

Costello, whose well-publicized split from Michael Cohen was chronicled in testimony last week, was invited last year to appear before the grand jury that indicted Trump after asserting that he had information that undermined Cohen’s credibility.

In a news conference after his grand jury appearance, he told reporters that he came forward to provide exculpatory information about Trump and to make clear that he did not believe Cohen — who pleaded guilty to federal crimes and served time in prison — could be trusted.

The move to call Costello is risky for the defense because it could open the door to additional testimony about what Cohen alleged was a strong-armed effort by the lawyer to keep him in line during the federal hush money investigation and to deter Cohen from cooperating with prosecutors after his home, office and hotel room were raided by the FBI in 2018.

After the jury was excused for lunch on Monday, prosecutors said they’re seeking to show them a screenshot from a C-SPAN video of Donald Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event on Oct. 24, 2016, just minutes before Cohen called Schiller’s cell phone.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told Judge Juan M. Merchan they wanted to show the image to blunt any suggestion by the defense that Trump and Schiller might not have been together at the time in question. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said he never suggested, nor would he suggest, they were apart.

Cohen previously testified that he needed to speak with Trump “to discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it” and he knew that Schiller would be with him. Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels’ lawyer two days after the call in question.

Citing text messages and telephone records, Blanche pressed Cohen last week on the subject matter of the call, eliciting testimony that the witness was also dealing with harassing phone calls from a person who’d identified himself as a 14-year-old boy.

Donald Trump’s entourage of political supporters spoke to news reporters Monday in the park across from the Manhattan courthouse where his criminal trial is currently taking place.

The group sought to attack the case, the judge, the judge’s daughter and President Joe Biden.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Michael Cohen — who is currently on the witness stand — lied to Congress, the media and the court.

“You’d have trouble finding a single person he has actually told the truth to,” Wilson said.

Kash Patel, who served in Trump’s administration, said that Monday’s proceedings marked the first time in six weeks of trial that “we finally have a crime,” because Cohen admitted to stealing money from the Trump Organization.

“We also have a victim. That victim is Donald J. Trump,” Patel said.

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia called for the U.S. government to withhold any federal money from being used in New York’s court system and Illinois Rep. Mary Miller said “any normal judge would have dismissed this case by now.”

As she questioned Michael Cohen again on redirect, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger took a dig at the defense’s exacting cross-examination of him during Donald Trump's hush money trial.

“I know you might feel like you’re on trial here after cross-examination, but are you actually on trial here?,” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” Cohen replied after a defense objection was overruled.

Asked to describe the difference between testifying in court against Trump and the 2018 federal case in which he pleaded guilty to various crimes, Cohen said: “My life was on the line. My liberty. I was the defendant in that case. Here, I’m just a non-party subpoenaed witness.”

Michael Cohen’s admitted theft from the Trump Organization came after his annual holiday bonus was slashed to $50,000 from the $150,000 he usually received, he testified on Monday.

Cohen said that Donald Trump owed technology firm Red Finch $50,000 for its work artificially boosting his standing in a CNBC online poll about famous businessmen.

Cohen said he’d paid the company’s owner $20,000 in cash “to placate him for the time being” after Trump had gone months without paying the bill.

Cohen said he later sought reimbursement for the full amount at the same time he was seeking payment for the money he paid Stormy Daniels. He said he kept the difference instead of paying Red Finch as a way of making up for his reduced bonus.

“I was angered because of the reduction in the bonus and so I just felt like it was self-help,” Cohen said.

Michael Cohen testified on Monday that he shelled out money to a tech firm to help boost Donald Trump’s performance in an online CNBC poll about the most famous businessmen of the last half-century.

At first, Trump was polling near the bottom “and it upset him,” Cohen said during redirect. So Cohen reached out to Red Finch, who said they could create an algorithm that would get Trump’s name “to rise and rise significantly” in the poll by acquiring IP addresses to cast phony votes.

He said Trump initially wanted to finish first, but the two decided that would be suspicious. Instead, they decided to settle for ninth. But Trump refused to pay the firm after CNBC decided to nix a second round of the poll featuring the top 10 names. Trump, Cohen testified, didn’t feel he’d gotten his money’s worth.

When he was later reimbursed by Allen Weisselberg to pay back Red Finch, Cohen kept the proceeds for himself — an act of deception that, Cohen admitted earlier in the day, amounted to stealing from the Trump Organization.

But describing his actions to the prosecutor, Cohen defended the move. “I felt it was almost like self-help,” he said.

As prosecutor Susan Hoffinger began questioning Michael Cohen during redirect on Monday, she took aim at a point that Donald Trump’s defense made during their questioning: that Cohen helped Trump and his family with some legal matters in 2017, when Cohen received $420,000 from the then-president.

The sum included reimbursement for the $130,000 that Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels, according to testimony and evidence at the hush money trial.

Prosecutors say the $420,000 in payments was deceptively logged as legal expenses to disguise the Daniels deal. Trump’s defense says Cohen was indeed paid for legal work, so there was no cover-up.

Cohen testified that he never billed for the work he did for Trump and his family in 2017. When Hoffinger asked whether the $420,000 was related at all to those 2017 legal endeavors, Cohen answered, “No, ma’am.”

The defense's cross-examination of Michael Cohen in Donald Trump's hush money trial ended with Cohen reiterating that he discussed the Stormy Daniels deal with the former president.

“Notwithstanding everything you’ve said over the years, you have specific recollection of having conversations with then-candidate Donald J. Trump about the Stormy Daniels matter?” defense lawyer Todd Blanche asked.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen answered.

“No doubt in your mind?”

No doubt, Cohen averred, and Blanche said he had no more questions.

Pushed before the morning break in Donald Trump's hush money case to describe his lucrative Trump-related side businesses, Michael Cohen told defense attorney Todd Blanche “there is a television show” in the works.

Tentatively titled “The Fixer,” the show is based on Cohen’s own life and career. A producer on his podcast is currently shopping the show to studios, but it hasn’t been picked up yet, Cohen testified.

Later asked about his recent claim that he might run for Congress because he has “the best name recognition out there,” Cohen insisted he hasn’t built his profile on Trump’s back.

“My name recognition is because of the journey that I’ve been on. Is it affiliated to Mr. Trump? Yes. Not because of Mr. Trump,” he testified.

“Well, the journey that you’ve been on,” Blanche noted, “has included near-daily attacks on President Trump.”

“My journey is to tell my story, yes, sir,” Cohen said, eventually acknowledging his frequent criticisms of Trump.

Cohen also testified he’d be better off financially if Trump isn’t convicted because it would give him more fodder for the podcasts that provide a sizeable chunk of his livelihood.

Cohen was responding to questions asking if he’d benefit financially from a conviction in the hush money case.

As he spoke, Trump looked directly at the witness box, his arm draped over his chair.

Before a morning break in Donald Trump's criminal trial, defense lawyer Todd Blanche probed Michael Cohen’s profitable new career as a media-forward Trump critic.

The ex-lawyer said he’s made about $4.4 million from his books and podcasts since 2020, the year he was released from prison to home confinement. He was freed from home confinement in 2021.

Cohen also noted that he makes some income from a real estate rental property.

Before pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other charges, Cohen made about $4 million in 18 months, he testified. That money came largely from corporate consulting deals, plus the $420,000 he got from Trump to reimburse the Stormy Daniels payout and a technology expense, cover taxes and provide a bonus.

Jurors in Donald Trump's hush money trial remained largely engaged with Michael Cohen’s testimony on Monday, though some appeared to be dragging as his testimony stretched into a fourth day.

Several jurors stifled yawns while peering at the witness and looking at monitors in front of them as emails and other evidence were displayed. A few continued to take notes. Others sat back and took in the testimony, occasionally peering at the gallery of reporters and public observers.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche grilled Michael Cohen on Monday about his initial public denials that Donald Trump knew about the Stormy Daniels payoff.

After The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2018 that Cohen had arranged the payout to the porn actor more than a year earlier, Cohen told journalists, friends and others that Trump had been in the dark about the arrangement.

So until April 2018, “you had told anybody who asked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment at the time?” Blanche asked.

“That’s what I said, yes,” Cohen acknowledged.

In April 2018, federal authorities searched Cohen’s home, office and other locations tied to him. Four months later, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other charges and told a court that Trump had directed him to arrange the Daniels payment.

Michael Cohen testified on Monday he made $4 million from six clients — including AT&T, which was attempting to acquire Time Warner at the time — for which he was working as a consultant after Donald Trump won the 2016 election.

Another client was Columbus Nova, an investment management that paid him $80,000 a month. Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, also paid him $100,000 a month for a year.

Cohen was among a long list of former Trump aides and confidantes who raked in large sums of money as consultants after Trump won the White House as companies and countries scrambled to understand and influence the new reality star-turned-president.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen on Monday about legal matters he helped Donald Trump handle — including by finding outside lawyers — in early 2017 when he began receiving $35,000-a-month payments that reimbursed him for the payment to Stormy Daniels and some other things.

It’s a point the defense wants to hammer home to counter prosecutors’ argument that those monthly payments were deceptively logged as legal expenses to disguise the Daniels deal.

The defense, and Trump himself, have argued that the checks to Cohen were properly categorized because he was indeed working as a lawyer for Trump.

Cohen said he also did legal work for former first lady Melania Trump as part of his job — including reviewing an agreement with Madame Tussauds, the famous chain of wax museums, and working with her on a trademark issue.

Michael Cohen on Monday admitted that he stole from Donald Trump’s company when he pocketed tens of thousands of dollars that was earmarked as a reimbursement for money he said he shelled out to a technology firm.

The Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen for the costs under the same arrangement as his repayment for the hush money payment he made to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Cohen had claimed he shelled out $50,000 to the tech firm, Red Finch, but during cross-examination in Trump's criminal trial he testified that he gave a company executive just $20,000 in cash and never forked over the other $30,000 that was owed.

The Trump Organization repaid Cohen $50,000 and then doubled that payment in a practice known as “grossing up” to cover taxes he’d incur by declaring the money as income rather than a tax-free reimbursement.

“Have you paid back the Trump Organization the money you stole from them?”

“No, sir,” Cohen responded.

Trump, who had been slouched back in his seat with his eyes closed for much of the testimony, looked directly at the witness stand as Cohen made the admission about stealing.

Eric Trump, Trump’s son, who is in court, posted on X: “This just got interesting: Michael Cohen is now admitting to stealing money from our company.”

After walking Michael Cohen through the personal business dealings and Donald Trump-related responsibilities he was juggling in the leadup to the Stormy Daniels payment, defense lawyer Todd Blanche pointedly asked about two key phone calls Cohen said he had with Trump.

“You do have a specific recollection that, on those two phone calls, you just talked about the Stormy Daniels deal — that’s it?” Blanche asked.

Yes, Cohen said, because it was personally important to him. He was about to shell out $130,000 from his own account to keep Daniels from selling her story publicly.

“My recollection is that I was speaking to him about Stormy Daniels because that is what he tasked me to take care of and that’s what I had been working on,” Cohen added.

The charges against Trump — falsifying business records — center on the way he ultimately reimbursed Cohen for the Daniels payment. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen a series of questions on Monday about personal business deals and other Donald Trump-related tasks that Cohen was juggling in the weeks before the Stormy Daniels payout.

Cohen testified that his attention was divided at the time by several other matters, including a real estate transaction involving an investment property he owned with his brother, a restructuring of his taxi medallion investments, securing an endorsement for Trump from one of Dr. Martin Luther King’s relatives, unrelated litigation and an issue involving photographs and a potential extortion attempt of one of Trump’s children.

The questions seem aimed at showing that he wasn’t solely focused on the Daniels matter, despite its urgency at the time.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche resumed his questioning of prosecutorial witness Michael Cohen by asking how many reporters he’s spoken to since Thursday when he was last on the witness stand.

After a brief pause, Cohen replied: “I didn’t speak to reporters about what happened last week.”

Pressed again by Blanche, Cohen clarified that he had spoken to reporters, just not about the details of last week’s testimony.

“I’ve spoken to reporters who called to say hello, to see how I’m doing, check in, but I didn’t talk about this case,” he said.

The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial declined Monday to broaden the scope of testimony that the defense can elicit from a potential expert witness, Bradley A. Smith, a former Bill Clinton-appointed Republican Federal Election Commission member.

Judge Juan M. Merchan echoed his pretrial ruling that, if called, Smith can give general background on the Federal Election Commission — its purpose, background and the laws it enforces — and the definitions of such terms as “campaign contribution.”

Merchan rejected the defense’s renewed efforts to have Smith define three terms in federal election law, saying it would breach rules preventing expert witnesses from interpreting the law. Nor can Smith opine on whether the former president’s alleged actions violate those laws, Merchan said.

If Smith were to testify about those issues, Merchan said, the prosecution would then be permitted to call an expert of its own. That would result in a “battle of the experts,” the judge said, “which would only serve to confuse and not assist the jury.”

Smith is a law professor, and there often are guardrails around expert testimony on legal matters, on the basis that it’s up to a judge — not an expert hired by one side or the other — to instruct jurors on applicable laws in a case.

American lawyer Alan Dershowitz returns to the courtroom for the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump after a short break at the municipal criminal court in Monday May 20, 2024 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

American actor Chuck Zito returns to the courtroom for the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump after a short break at the municipal criminal court in Monday May 20, 2024 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump walks with attorney Todd Blanche after a break during his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before entering the courtroom with his attorney Todd Blanche at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump sits in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court in New York, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court in New York, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Former President Donald Trump closes his eyes, during his trial at Manhattan criminal court Thursday, May 16, 2024, in New York. (Mike Segar/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump, center, walks by Rep. Matt Gaetz, left, R-Fla., outside the courtroom after the day's proceedings in his trial Thursday, May 16, 2024, in New York. Trump's adviser Boris Epshteyn, and attorney Emil Bove, right, follow behind him. (Mike Segar/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court, May 13, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump's hush money trial is heading into the final stretch. The landmark trial will kick back off Monday, May 20, in Manhattan with more defense cross-examination of former Trump attorney Cohen. Cohen's pivotal testimony directly tied Trump to the alleged hush money scheme. Defense lawyers are trying to paint Cohen as a serial fabulist who is on a revenge campaign against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

Former President Donald Trump walks over to addresses reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)