NBC News’ Savannah Sellers speaks with Joel Corey, director of church partnerships at nonprofit organization Mercy Chef, about providing hot meals to tornado victims in the Sulfur, Oklahoma area.
Trump appears for second week of witness testimony in hush money trial
Donald Trump’s criminal trial resumed Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom, focusing on the hush-money deal at the center of allegations against the former president.
The first witness of the day was that Cohen, Trump’s self-proclaimed “fixer,” was accused of paying adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign. Gary Faro, a banker who worked with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. She is accused of having had a sexual relationship with President Trump 10 years ago. Trump denies her claims.
Mr. Faro, who was an executive at First Republic Bank in 2016, testified Friday that Mr. Cohen contacted him in mid-October of that year to open a bank account with a fledgling company called Essential Consultants LLC.
Mr. Faro told jurors that Mr. Cohen described his company to the bank as a “real estate consulting firm for the purpose of collecting fees for investment consulting services related to real estate transactions.” Prosecutors characterized it as a shell company set up to hide the source of the payments, which were made just before Election Day.
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Gag order hearing set for Thursday
As the trial resumes today with Mr. Faro’s testimony, we await Judge Juan Mercian’s decision on the prosecution’s request to hold Mr. Trump in contempt on 10 counts of violating the gag order against him. . A hearing will be held Thursday at 9:30 a.m. on the remaining four alleged violations, as well as any others that the prosecution team may add.
Far-right news network OAN retracts article about Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels
One America News Network on Monday retracted a story alleging that former President Donald Trump’s one-time lawyer Michael Cohen had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
A March 27 article in a conservative news outlet cited a post about X by a user who falsely claimed to have received information from Daniels’ then-lawyer Michael Avenatti in 2018. The post quoted Avenatti as saying that Cohen and Daniels had an affair starting in 2006 and that Cohen “concocted” a hush-money scheme to extort the Trump Organization before the 2016 election. he claimed.
“To be clear, there is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Cohen and Mr. Daniels had an affair, and that Mr. Daniels ‘concocted’ an extortion scheme from the Trump Organization before the 2016 election.” There is no evidence that this is the case,” OAN said in a statement. Monday.
The network said it would remove the article from “all sites” and “all social media.”
“This retraction is part of the settlement with Michael Cohen. Mr. Avenatti denies the allegations,” it said in a statement. “OAN apologizes to Mr. Cohen for any harm this publication may have caused him.”
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President Trump appears in Manhattan criminal court
The former president leaves Trump Tower and heads to court.
Trump supporters gather outside court
This morning, a small group of Trump supporters gathered outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, waving flags and donning their trademark MAGA hats, participating in a protest organized at the invitation of the Young Republican Club of New York.
What to expect in today’s courtroom
Gary Faro, who testified Friday that he was appointed Michael Cohen’s banker at First Republic Bank in 2015, is scheduled to take the stand again today after the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Mr. Faro said he helped Mr. Cohen set up A shell company bank account used to pay Daniels. Faro also said he was appointed by Cohen because of his “ability to handle people who might be a little…difficult.”
It was not immediately clear who would take the stand if Faro’s testimony ends today.
A longtime Trump aide and a banker who helped Michael Cohen facilitate payments to Stormy Daniels also testified. Defense attorneys also completed cross-examination of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who testified how he tried to kill negative stories about Donald Trump before the 2016 election. did. NBC News’ Laura Jarrett reports.
Here’s what happened in court last time
There was no trial yesterday, so Friday was the latest day for trial testimony. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker takes to the stage for the fourth day in questioning by Trump lawyers who seek to reshape the narrative prosecutors have painted about Pecker’s publishing norms, particularly his article-buying practices. That’s when I received it.
His cross-examination was followed by testimony from longtime Trump aide Lorna Graff, who said she had access to Karen McDougall and Stormy Daniels’ contact information pages (displayed to prosecutors in court). Trump testified that he believed he had created the page, which was stored on the Trump Organization’s computer system. Trump’s lawyers suggested that Trump may have had Daniels’ contact information because he had suggested she might be an interesting candidate for the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.”
The last witness to take the stand Friday was Gary Faro, Michael Cohen’s banker who allegedly helped open the shell company bank account used to pay Daniels. Mr. Faro was asked about bank documents and communications, including the paperwork for the account Mr. Cohen opened for the LLC.
