Trump trial resumes with hearing over more alleged gag order violations

Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York are urging the judge to penalize the defendant for more alleged violations of a gag order that limits what he can say about those involved in the case.

At a hearing as the trial resumed Thursday, lawyers from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told Judge Juan Merchan that Trump had violated Merchan’s order four more times in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court for nine posts on social media and his campaign website referencing likely witnesses. The judge fined him $9,000, or $1,000 per post, the maximum fine allowed under New York law. He warned Trump that he could be sent to jail if he violates the order again.

Prosecutors brought the additional alleged violations to the judge’s attention last week, before he held Trump in contempt. One involved a comment about Michael Cohen that Trump made outside the courtroom. Another quoted comment he made about David Pecker, who testified on the stand last week.

The contempt hearing

Christopher Conroy presented the prosecution’s argument for holding Trump in contempt for the additional alleged violations.

“The order was issued because of the defendant’s persistent and escalating rhetoric aimed at participants in this proceeding,” Conroy said. “He’s already been found to have violated the order nine times, and he’s done it again here.”

He referenced Trump’s comments about Pecker, the former media executive who testified about his involvement in the “catch and kill” scheme to suppress negative stories about Trump in 2015 and 2016. At a campaign stop last week, Trump told reporters he thought Pecker had been “very nice.”

“The defendant knows what he’s doing. He talks about the witness, says nice things, does it in front of cameras,” Conroy said. “The [question] he answered was about the witness who was testifying. It was deliberate and it was calculated.”

Conroy said prosecutors weren’t seeking jail time for the additional violations, since they “prefer to minimize disruptions to this proceeding” and the comments that issue came before Merchan held Trump in contempt. Conroy asked Merchan to again fine Trump $1,000 per violation.

Witness testimony

Following the hearing, witness testimony is set to resume with Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented two women in 2016 as they sought payments for their silence about alleged sexual encounters with Trump.

On Tuesday, Davidson told the court how he negotiated on behalf of model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels as they pursued deals for the rights to their stories.

McDougal was paid $150,000 by the parent company of the tabloid magazine the National Enquirer for her story, as part of what prosecutors say was a scheme to bolster Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time.

Cohen is expected to be called later in the trial as a key witness against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump denies committing the crimes and says he did not have sex with Daniels or McDougal.

In court on Tuesday, prosecutors showed a series of text messages and emails in which Davidson marketed McDougal’s allegations to the tabloid, calling them a “blockbuster” story about Trump. He later negotiated directly with Cohen to sell the rights to Daniels’ claims.

Davidson testified that he understood suppressing the stories would be beneficial to Trump’s candidacy.