Donald Trump: former President threatened with jail time by judge in hush-money case

Donald Trump has been warned by a judge than any further violation of his gag order, during the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, could lead to jail time

The former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments made to the porn star, to stifle potentially embarrassing stories about alleged sexual encounters. Trump has been fined twice by Judge Juan M Merchan for violating a gag order, which was made after he made inflammatory comments about witnesses.

The judge warned Trump on Monday that additional gag order violations could potentially result in jail time, though he said that was “the last thing I want to do”. So far, jurors have heard from witnesses including a tabloid magazine publisher and Trump friend who bought the rights to several sordid tales about Trump to prevent them from coming out and a Los Angeles lawyer who negotiated hush money deals on behalf of both Ms Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump’s lawyers have tried to chip away at the prosecution’s theory of the case and the credibility of some witnesses. The case is one of four Trump prosecutions and possibly the only one that will reach trial before the November election. Other felony indictments charge him with plotting to subvert the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and illegally hoarding classified documents after he left the White House.

Trump’s hush money trial

Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money trial are moving deeper into his orbit following an inside-the-room account about the former president’s reaction to a politically damaging recording that surfaced in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. Hope Hicks, a former White House official and for years a top aide, is by far the closest Trump associate to have given evidence in the Manhattan trial.

Her testimony on Friday was designed to give jurors an insider’s view of a chaotic and pivotal stretch in the campaign, when a 2005 recording showing Trump talking about grabbing women without their permission was made public and when he and his allies sought to prevent the release of other potentially embarrassing stories.

That effort, prosecutors say, included hush money payments to a porn actor and Playboy model who both have said they had sexual encounters with Trump before he entered politics.

Hicks said of the Access Hollywood recording, first revealed in an October 2016 Washington Post story: “I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days. This was a damaging development.”

Michael Cohen is trial’s key witness

The trial enters its third week of testimony on Monday with prosecutors building toward their star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments.

Mr Cohen is expected to undergo a bruising cross-examination from defence attorneys seeking to undermine his credibility with jurors.

Prosecutors say Trump’s company, the Trump Organisation, reimbursed Mr Cohen for payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels and gave Cohen bonuses and extra payments. Prosecutors allege that those transactions were falsely logged in company records as legal expenses.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied sexual encounters with any of the women, as well as any wrongdoing.

Reporting by AP.