charges are falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments in lead up to 2016 election to #influence electorate
just one Trump supporter at the courthouse draped in a Trump flag.
#StormyDaniels's lawyer, #KeithDavidson, to return to stand. He negotiated the hush-money payment at the center of the case, & is expected to lay out details of the deal.
Redirect is over & #Trump atty #Bove returns to question Daus again to clarify his cross-examination arguments, saying he was asking about “unknowns” — “gaps in the handling of this data that created risks” for tampering.
Prosecutor #Conroy returns to ask Daus another question in a 2nd re-redirect.
This is a lot of questioning & requestioning for a custodial witness.
Justice #Merchan calls a sidebar hopefully to get these folks to tighten up their questioning.
Rebecca #Mangold will question Farro for prosecution. She’s been on the team several yrs, & typically sits w/Chris #Conroy, another prosecutor, behind the main table.
"He's doing what the order tells him not to do," Christopher #Conroy, a prosecutor, about #Trump's alleged additional violations of the #GagOrder.
They described Trump's comments at an event this morning as another violation.
Trump was asked by reporters about David #Pecker's testimony, & Trump called Pecker
"a nice guy." Prosecutors say it was a message to Pecker & others: be "nice," or get attacked. (yeah I don’t know about that one)
Prosecutors in Trump’s #criminal trial say he has violated a #GagOrder barring him from attacking #witnesses, #jurors & others close to the case. Testimony is set to resume later Tuesday morning.
Prosecutor, Chris Conroy, details DA’s #GagOrder argument.
He says 10 #Trump posts violated the order.
8 were on TruthSocial.
2 were on his ofcl campaign website.
#Conroy argues these violations pose a very real#threat to proceedings, & have an "undertow" effect on #witnesses, making them afraid. He says witnesses, "rightly fear being subject to similar vitriol."
Conroy says Trump's attacks on #MichaelCohen in courtroom hallway yesterday again violated the order.
#Conroy is now describing 5 more examples, all versions of essentially the same post, in which Trump shared a NewYorkPost article about #MichaelCohen & quoted its headline: "A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against #Trump in an embarrassment for the NewYork legal system."
#Conroy says #Trump violated the #GagOrder when on Truth Social, he quoted #FauxNews commentator #JesseWatters characterization of prospective jurors as “undercover liberal activists." Prosecutors flagged this as the most serious of the violations & Conroy now says it’s “very troubling."
Conroy points to the timing, last Wed evening. The next morning, Juror2 asked to be excused, upsetting Justice #Merchan. He complimented the #juror after excusing her, saying she would have done a good job. #law
#Conroy says that #Trump “violates the order when he posts about known #witnesses or reasonably forseeable witnesses,” & “violates the order when he posts about a #juror or prospective juror.”
Throwing a "#MAGA" into a post doesn't make it #political, Conroy says, dismissing the idea that Trump's comments fall under the category of protected political speech. It may, in fact, make it more ominous, Conroy adds.
#Conroy is talking about #Trump seeking to use #politics as a defense, saying it "makes no sense," eviscerating the clear language & meaning of the #GagOrder. "There's no indication that his claim that he's responding to attacks is anything more than an after-the-fact justification," Conroy says.
"He knows about the order, he knows what he's not allowed to do, & he does it anyway," Conroy says, adding: "It's #willful."