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Judge warned Trump he could face jail over inflammatory comments as the $1,000 fines did not seem to be deterring him
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s criminal trial over his hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The trial reopened yesterday after a pause over the weekend. It was another lively day with a stern warning from Judge Juan Merchan that additional violations of a gag order barring Trump from inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case could result in jail time.
The $1,000 fine imposed on Monday marks the second time since the trial began last month that Trump has been sanctioned for violating the gag order. He was fined $9,000 last week, $1,000 for each of nine violations.
“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent. Therefore going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction,” Merchan said before jurors were brought into the courtroom.
Deborah Tarasoff, a former accountant at the Trump Organization, testified that Trump personally signed reimbursement checks to his “fixer” Michael Cohen, who made the payment to adult movie star Stormy Daniels that is at the heart of this case. Showing that Trump signed them chips away at the defense claim that Trump was detached from the transactions.
Tarasoff was led through a succession of checks to Cohen that she cut, then sent to Trump for signing, some while the former president was in the White House. The purpose appeared to be giving the jury a clear understanding of the regular practices in place at the company, and how the hush-money payment to Daniels veered outside normal procedures to point of illegality.
Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization’s retired controller and senior vice-president, was pressed by the prosecution on the company’s accounting and reporting procedures, focusing on the argument that Trump was in full control of his personal and company finances, and had authorized and was aware of the purpose of the payment to Daniels.
Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove got McConney to concede he had never spoken with Trump about repayments to Cohen, and had never been directed to register the payments in a certain way, or improperly.
Bove suggested there was no falsification, in part because of the narrow way Trump Organization payments had to be recorded, using the drop-down menu of an “antiquated” software recording system.
Additionally, McConney conceded that Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer, and said he always recorded payments to lawyers as “legal expenses” in the ledger during his 36-plus years with the company.
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