Trump hush money trial live updates: Witness testimony to resume | AP News

When witness testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money case resumes, it will cap a feverish week that saw porn actor Stormy Daniels take the stand, two failed attempts by the defense to have a mistrial declared, gag order sanctions and more.

It is not yet clear who will next take the witness stand, but prosecutors are ramping up for star witness Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 payment to Daniels and later went to prison for orchestrating the payments and other charges.

As the threat of jail looms over Trump following his repeated gag order violations, his attorneys are fighting Judge Juan M. Merchan’s order and seeking a fast decision in an appeals court. If the court refuses to lift the gag order, Trump’s lawyers want permission to take their appeal to the state’s high court.

At the same time, they also asked Merchan to modify the order so that Trump could publicly respond to Daniels’ testimony. Merchan denied the request, as well as two requests for a mistrial.

▶ The Associated Press explains what a judge’s gag order on Trump means in his hush money case here.

Former President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, has been chosen to serve as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention, the state party chairman said Wednesday.

Barron Trump has been largely kept out of the public eye, but he turned 18 on March and is graduating from high school next week. The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York said there would be no court on May 17 so that Trump could attend his son’s graduation.

Stormy Daniels’ testimony this week was followed by that of a Trump Organization bookkeeper who was formerly an assistant to the company’s ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg, a HarperCollins publishing executive and Trump’s former personal secretary.

Here’s a closer look at who they are:

• Rebecca Manochio: Manochio was a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization during the time Trump was president and was responsible for sending unsigned checks for him to sign at the White House for his personal expenses.
• Tracey Menzies: Menzies is a senior vice president with HarperCollins Publishers. It published a 2007 book by Trump and entrepreneur Bill Zanker.
• Madeleine Westerhout: Westerhout was the personal secretary to Trump from 2017 to 2019, and detailed Trump’s work habits, many of them already previously known, in her testimony.

Porn actor Stormy Daniels concluded her testimony on Thursday, having spent more than seven hours on the stand over two days.

The testimony over the past three weeks has seesawed between bookkeepers and bankers relaying the nuts and bolts of check-paying procedures and wire transfers to unflattering, seamy stories about Trump and the tabloid world machinations meant to keep them secret.

Prosecutors are building up to testimony from star witness Michael Cohen, whose reimbursement for hush money payments made to Daniels are at the center of the charges against the former president.