Judge threatens Trump with jail for further gag order violations

It’s notable that the judge decided to allow Trump to attend Barron’s graduation on May 17, since Trump and his campaign had earlier been claiming that the judge had barred him from doing so.

During the first week of trial, Trump told reporters: “My son is graduating high school, and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation.”

His campaign also sent out a text that read: “THEY ARE FORCING ME TO SKIP MY SON’S GRADUATION. I’LL BE IN COURT.”

That text was wrong. The judge had not yet made a decision.

Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Mangold asked Farro whether the bank’s process for opening the account would be different if Cohen indicated he was paying an adult film stare.

Farro replied, “Yes, we would certainly ask additional questions.

Asked whether there was anything indicating that the account was made for paying an adult film star, Farro denied that was the case and that more questions would’ve been asked if he had known.

Speaking to reporters outside of the courtroom, Trump touted his new exclusive interview with Time Magazine, in which he discussed his agenda if he wins a second term in office, saying that the story is “at least 60% correct.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also criticized the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses nationwide, describing them as “Biden protests” in colleges that are “overrun.”

Trump argued that the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right Rally,” which Biden has said is what led him to launch his presidential campaign, is “peanuts” compared to the protests happening at college campuses across the country.

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Gary Farro, the banker that worked with Michael Cohen, is back on the stand.

Merchan, in his decision finding that Trump had violated his gag order, wrote that he understands a $1,000 fine is unlikely to make much of a difference for someone with wealth, but that he cannot levy a larger fine.

“Because this Court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment,” Merchan wrote.

Merchan began proceedings Friday by addressing Trump’s request at the beginning of the trial that he be able to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation on May 17.

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

Judge Merchan has ruled that Trump is in criminal contempt for nine violations of the gag order. The punishment is $1,000 per violation. Merchan didn’t elaborate on anything else.

Under the judge’s ruling, Trump is fined $9,000.

Eric Trump has joined his father in the courtroom today, becoming the first of Trump’s family members to be present at the trial.

Susie Wiles, a senior Trump campaign adviser, Dan Scavino, former White House deputy chief of staff for communications, and Jason Miller, longtime Trump adviser, are also in the courtroom today.

Merchan has taken the bench and the trial has resumed.

As the criminal hush money trial against former President Donald Trump enters its third week, NBC News’ Gary Grumbach previews who will be taking the stand and what to expect regarding the judge’s upcoming gag order decision.

The criminal trial of Donald Trump resumes in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday with a focus on the hush money transaction that’s at the center of the allegations against the former president.

The first witness of the day will be Gary Farro, a banker who worked with then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen when Cohen, Trump’s self-described “fixer,” paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about her allegation that she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies her claim.

Farro, who in 2016 was an executive at First Republic Bank, testified Friday that Cohen reached out to him in mid-October of that year to set up a bank account for a company he was forming called Essential Consultants LLC.

Cohen described the company to the bank “as a real estate consulting company to collect fees for investment consulting work he does for real estate deals,” Farro told jurors. Prosecutors characterized it as a shell company that was set up to mask the source of the payment, which was made shortly before Election Day.

Read the full story here.

As the trial resumes today with Farro’s testimony, we await a decision from Judge Juan Merchan on the prosecution’s request to hold Trump in contempt for 10 alleged violations of the gag order against him. There will be a hearing Thursday at 9:30 a.m. for the remaining four alleged violations and any others that might be added by the prosecution team.

One America News Network retracted an article Monday that said former President Donald Trump’s onetime attorney Michael Cohen had had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The March 27 article from the conservative news outlet quoted a post on X from a user who falsely claimed to have obtained information in 2018 from Daniels’ then-attorney, Michael Avenatti. Citing Avenatti, the post claimed that Cohen and Daniels had been having an affair since 2006 and that Cohen “cooked up” the hush money scheme to extort the Trump Organization ahead of the 2016 election.

“To be clear, no evidence suggests that Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels were having an affair and no evidence suggests that Mr. Cohen ‘cooked up’ the scheme to extort the Trump Organization before the 2016 election,” OAN said in a statement Monday.

The network said it was taking the story down “from all sites,” as well as “all social media.”

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The former president has left Trump Tower and is headed to the courthouse.

A small crowd of Trump supporters gather outside Manhattan criminal court this morning in a planned protest at the invitation of the New York Young Republican Club, waving flags and wearing trademark MAGA hats.

Gary Farro, who testified on Friday that he was assigned as Michael Cohen’s banker at First Republic Bank in 2015, is scheduled to take the stand again today after the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Farro has said he helped Cohen set up a bank account for the shell company that was used to pay Daniels. Farro also said he was assigned Cohen because of his “ability to handle individuals who might be a little … challenging.”

It’s not immediately clear who might take the stand if Farro’s testimony concludes today.

Trump’s longtime executive assistant testified, along with a banker who helped Michael Cohen facilitate a payment to Stormy Daniels. Defense lawyers also completed their cross-examination of David Pecker, attempting to discredit the former publisher of the National Enquirer who testified about how he tried to bury negative stories about Donald Trump before the 2016 election. NBC News’ Laura Jarrett reports

There were no court proceedings yesterday, so Friday was the most recent day of trial testimony. That’s when former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker took the stand for a fourth day and was questioned by a Trump attorney who sought to reshape the narrative painted by prosecutors about the norms of Pecker’s publication, particularly the practice of buying stories.

His cross-examination was followed by testimony from longtime Trump assistant Rhona Graff, who testified that she believed she had created contact information pages for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels — displayed by the prosecution in court — that were saved in the Trump Organization’s computer system. An attorney for Trump suggested that Trump had Daniels’ contact information because he had indicated she might be an interesting candidate for “The Celebrity Apprentice,” a reality TV show.

The last witness to take the stand on Friday was Gary Farro, who was Michael Cohen’s banker and allegedly helped set up the bank account for the shell company that was used to pay Daniels. Farro was asked about bank documents and communications, including paperwork for an account Cohen opened for an LLC.