Live updates: First week of testimony concludes in Trump hush money trial

A poll conducted last week shows the country is decisively split over whether Mr Trump is being treated more leniently or more harshly.

Some 34 per cent say they believe the former president is being treated “more leniently” than other criminal defendants in the historic trial, according to the CNN poll on Thursday. The same percentage believe that he is being treated “more harshly”.

Only 13 per cent believe he is being treated “about the same” as other defendants.

Oh wait, he invited himself to the White House to debate the president.

Don’t hold your breath…

I’ve been waiting for Crooked Joe at the Courthouse, the Fake News Media was there too — HE DIDN’T SHOW! ANY WHERE, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!

Rooting for Donald Trump to fail has rarely been this profitable.

Just ask a hardy band of mostly amateur Wall Street investors who have collectively made tens of millions of dollars over the past month by betting that the stock price of his social media business — Truth Social — will keep dropping despite massive buying by Trump loyalists and wild swings that often mirror the candidate’s latest polls, court trials and outbursts on Trump Social itself.

Several of these investors interviewed by The Associated Press say their bearish gambles using “put” options and other trading tools are driven less by their personal feelings about the former president (most don’t like him) than their faith in the woeful underlying financials of a company that made less money last year than the average Wendy’s hamburger franchise.

Cohen then applied for another LLC, Essential Consultants LLC, which was intended to “collect fees for investment consulting for real estate transactions,” according to a form.

The prosecution says they’re at a stopping point for today.

Judge Merchan asks them to approach before excusing the jurors.

“We’ll call it a week.”

The LLC is Resolution Consultants LLC, the shell company that Cohen used to set up the McDougal transfer that Pecker ultimately backed out of.

The type of business on the First Republic Bank form to set up the LLC is listed as “MANAGEMENT CONSULTING”.

Cohen is the only listed officer for the LLC.

Cohen signed off on it on 13 October 2016, two days after calling Farro’s office to try to set it up.

A question on the form asked “is the entity associated with political fundraising/political action committees?” The corresponding box was checked “no”.

On the morning of October 26, Farro’s assistant emailed Farro asking him to return Cohen’s call. Hey there.

“He said he was changing course, no longer wanted to open Resolution Consultants, and wanted to open a new account,” Farro says.

“Every time Michael Cohen spoke to me he gave me a sense of urgency … This was one of those times.”

The account had never actually been opened, because Cohen didn’t pay for it, so there wasn’t anything to do necessarily.

Alex Woodward reports from the courthouse:

She testified that she saw Ms Daniels in the lobby of the 26th floor of Trump Tower, where Mr Trump’s office is located.

An email in the morning from October 13 2016.

The subject line is: FW: Message from “26-Copier-Pantry”

There’s a PDF attachment.

Farro then emailed one of his coworkers about opening an account for Cohen “immediately”.

We see an email from October 11 2016 from Farro’s assistant about a missed call from Michael Cohen.

She sent another email two days later asking him to please return his call “regarding an important matter”.

When he called back, Cohen said he wanted to open an LLC account.

This was all roughly three weeks before election day.