A veteran tabloid publisher testified that he pledged to be Donald Trump 's “eyes and ears" during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress stories that had the potential to harm the Republican's election bid.

The testimony from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors' assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the candidate a heads-up on negative tips and stories so they could be quashed.

Pecker is the first witness in Trump's historic hush money trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments meant to prevent harmful stories from surfacing during the final days of the 2016 campaign.

Former President Donald Trump is meeting with another foreign leader while he's in New York for his criminal hush money trial.

The presumptive GOP nominee will host former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at Trump Tower Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been formally announced. Aso is just the latest foreign leader to spend time with Trump in recent weeks as U.S. allies prepare for the possibility that he could win back the White House this November.

“Leaders from around the world know that with President Trump we had a safer, more peaceful world,” said Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes in a statement. “Meetings and calls from world leaders reflect the recognition of what we already know here at home. Joe Biden is weak, and when President Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the world will be more secure and America will be more prosperous.” (AP)

A longtime tabloid publisher was expected to tell jurors about his efforts to help Donald Trump stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign as testimony resumes in the historic hush money trial of the former president.

David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher who prosecutors say worked with Trump and Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen on a strategy called “catch and kill” to buy up and then spike negative stories, testified briefly Monday and will be back on the stand Tuesday in the Manhattan trial.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors are expected to tell a judge that Trump should be held in contempt over a series of posts on his Truth Social platform that they say violated an earlier gag order barring him from attacking witnesses in the case. Trump's lawyers deny that he broke the order.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial will decide on Tuesday whether the former U.S. president should be punished for violating a gag order that prevents him from criticizing witnesses and others involved in the case.

Prosecutors are asking Justice Juan Merchan to fine Trump for criticizing porn star Stormy Daniels and his former lawyer Michael Cohen, both of whom are expected to testify. They also have highlighted Trump's claim last week that people were lying to get on the jury so they could convict him.

Merchan could opt to fine Trump $1,000 for each of those violations, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has requested.

Prosecutors have asked Merchan to remind Trump at the 9:30 a.m. hearing (1330 GMT) he may face more severe consequences if he keeps violating the order. The law permits the judge to send Trump to jail for up to 30 days, in what would be a dramatic twist to the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

Former President Donald Trump faces serious charges in two separate cases over whether he attempted to subvert the Constitution by overturning the results of a fair election and illegally remain in power.

Yet it’s a New York case centered on payments to silence an adult film actress that might provide the only legal reckoning this year on whether he tried to undermine a pillar of American democracy.

Lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wasted little time during opening statements tying the case to Trump's campaigning during his first run for the presidency. He said the payments made to Stormy Daniels amounted to "a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election".

Whether the jury accepts that connection will be pivotal for Trump's fate. The presumptive nominee faces charges related to falsifying business records that would typically be misdemeanors unless the alleged act could be tied to another crime. Prosecutors were able to charge them as felonies because they allege that the false records were part of an effort to cover up state and federal election law violations — though that’s still not the type of direct election interference that Trump is charged with elsewhere.

Former President Donald Trump is due back in a Manhattan court for opening statements in his hush money trial after spending the weekend fuming on social media over the court proceedings. 

Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial shifts to opening statements Monday, followed by the start of witness testimony. A jury of seven men and five women, plus six alternates, was picked last week.

The trial centers on allegations the former president falsified his company’s internal records to obscure the true nature of reimbursement payments to his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, who arranged hush money payments to bury negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential race.

The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.

The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these shush money posed sexual encounters occurred. (Read more)

Former US president Donald Trump left a Manhattan courthouse after the first day of his historic criminal trial, where the jury heard opening statements about hush money paid to an adult film actress Stormy Daniels. 

New York prosecutors said on the first day of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial that the former president broke the law and corrupted the 2016 election by trying to cover up sexual encounters with a porn star and a Playboy model, while his defense lawyer said he committed no crime.

Jurors in the historic trial also heard briefly from the prosecution's first witness: former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who prosecutors say participated in a "catch and kill" scheme to suppress unflattering stories about Trump and help him get elected. (Reuters)

Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president's historic hush money trial."This was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. — AP

The court has been adjourned for the day and the hearing will be heard tomorrow again on whether Donald Trump violated the gag order. (CNN reported)

David Pecker is the former publisher of National Enquirer Tablioid as the first witness in Donald Trump's hush money criminal trial. As the former chairman of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, Pecker was involved in several 'catch-and-kill' schemes he orchestrated on behalf of Trump. He allegedly helped broker the deal with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

New York prosecutors say Trump broke the law and corrupted the election by falsifying business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet. Pecker, 72, said under questioning by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass that he currently does consulting work for American Media, his prior employer.

Former President Donald Trump agreed on Monday to additional restrictions on the $175 million bond in the former U.S. president's New York civil fraud case, resolving concerns by the state attorney general that the funds were not secure.

The bond issued by Knight Specialty Insurance is meant to secure Trump's compliance with a $454.2 million judgment won by state Attorney General Letitia James if he does not succeed in an appeal. Justice Arthur Engoron imposed the penalty after finding that Trump, the Republican presidential candidate to face President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election, fraudulently inflated his net worth and real estate assets to deceive banks and insurers into providing better terms.

James, a Democrat, had challenged the bond this month, saying Trump still had access to the Charles Schwab account pledged to the insurer as collateral. But at a hearing on Monday, down the block from where jurors heard opening arguments in Trump's criminal hush money trial, lawyers for Trump and Knight agreed that the funds would remain as cash and not be traded for securities.

They also agreed that Knight would have exclusive control of the account and not withdraw funds, and to provide James with monthly statements to ensure that the cash isn't going anywhere. The agreement was reached after Engoron questioned the security of the collateral. (Reuters)

Trump's legal team is led by Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two former federal prosecutors from New York and Susan Necheles, a veteran criminal defence lawyer with deep experience in New York and before Merchan. (CNN reported)

Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche told jurors to use common sense when assessing the case. "Use your common sense. We’re New Yorkers.” (CNN reported)

During his opening statement on Monday, Todd Blanche, Trump's attorney, tried to strike a delicate balance. He acknowledged that his client was once the most powerful person in the country while also attempting to humanize him to the jury of 12 ordinary New Yorkers.

Blanche noted that Trump's defense team would refer to their client as "President Trump" out of respect. Blanche said that his client earned that title "because he was our 45th president."

However, he added: "He's a man. He's a husband. He's a father. He's a person just like you and me." Blanche told the jury that they would find "plenty of reasonable doubt," which would enable them to acquit his client.

"The 34 counts, ladies and gentlemen, are really just pieces of paper," Blanche said. "None of this was a crime." (CNN reported)

A lawyer for Donald Trump tried to convince a judge on Monday that the insurer that provided the former U.S. president with a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case was empowered and strong enough to issue the guarantee. The bond issued by Knight Specialty Insurance is meant to secure Trump's compliance with a $454.2 million judgment won by state Attorney General Letitia James if he does not succeed in an appeal.

Justice Arthur Engoron imposed the penalty after finding that Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, fraudulently inflated his net worth and real estate assets to deceive banks and insurers into providing better terms.

James, a Democrat, challenged the bond this month, saying Knight lacked a "certificate of qualification," and that Trump still had access to the Charles Schwab account pledged to the insurer as collateral. Knight is owned by billionaire Trump supporter Don Hankey. At a hearing, Trump's lawyer Christopher Kise assured Engoron that Trump couldn't move money out of the account without Knight's approval, and Schwab would not allow it. "We have to put the money somewhere," Kise said.

Engoron, however, questioned the security of the collateral. "You keep using the word agreement, what if they break the agreement?" he asked. "It all seems like a house of cards."

Engoron is considering Trump's bond at the same time jurors down the street are expected to hear opening arguments in Trump's criminal hush money trial. Trump defended the bond outside the courtroom at the trial.

"We put up cash and the number is 175," Trump said. "She shouldn't be complaining about the bonding company. The bonding company would be good for it because I put up the money. I have plenty of money to put up." Knight has said it was authorized to issue the bond, which is fully backed by cash in the Schwab account, and that it could access nearly $2.2 billion of assets at its parent company if something went wrong.

James said in court papers that a Trump-owned trust still controls the account, and Knight's own financial arrangements appear insufficient to cover the amount of the bond. Hankey previously said in an interview that he charged Trump a low fee as he did not anticipate problems.

"We thought it would be an easy procedure that wouldn't involve other legal problems and it's not turning out that way," he said. "We probably didn't charge enough." Hankey made his fortune in subprime car loans, with some regulators criticizing his companies' debt collection tactics. He is worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Trump was originally required to obtain a guarantee for the entire verdict while he appeals, but a state appeals court let him post a smaller bond. (Reuters)

Donald Trump became the first former US president to face a criminal trial on Monday, when he appeared in a New York court on charges that he illegally covered up a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. How will a conviction — if there is one at all — impact his bid to become president once again?

First, what is this case about?

Former U.S. president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrived to attend his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York.

Reuters Photo

In opening statements in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial, prosecutors alleged Monday that the former president “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt” the 2016 presidential election.

The commencement of the proceedings set the stage for weeks of unsavory and salacious testimony about Trump's personal life and placing his legal troubles at the center of his closely contested campaign against President Joe Biden.

A panel of New Yorkers — 12 jurors and six alternates — was sworn in last Friday after four days of jury selection and is hearing what is the first-ever criminal trial against a former U.S. commander-in-chief.

Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories that he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016. (AP)

For the first time in history, prosecutors will present a criminal case against a former American president to a jury Monday as they accuse Donald Trump of a hush-money scheme aimed at preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public.

A 12-person jury in Manhattan is set to hear opening statements from prosecutors and defence lawyers in the first of four criminal cases against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to reach trial.

Trump arrived at the courthouse shortly before 9 am, minutes after castigating the case in capital letters on social media as “election interference” and a “witch hunt.” He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison — though it's not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars. A conviction would not preclude Trump from becoming president again, but because it is a state case, he would not be able to attempt to pardon himself if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. (AP)

The New York state law regarding media coverage of court proceedings is one of the most restrictive in the country. Regulations limiting media coverage in courtrooms date back nearly a century, when the spectacle of bright flashbulbs and camera operators standing on witness tables during the 1935 trial of the man accused of kidnapping and killing Charles Lindbergh’s baby son horrified the legal community, according to a 2022 report by the New York-based Fund for Modern Courts.

Yet an interest in open government chipped away at these laws and — slowly, carefully — video cameras began to be permitted in courts across the country, often at the discretion of judges presiding in individual cases. New York allowed them, too, on an experimental basis between 1987 and 1997, but they were shut down, AP reported.

Former US president Donald Trump has arrived at court in Manhattan for opening statements in his hush money trial. The former president left Trump Tower on Monday morning in his motorcade and walked straight inside the courthouse after arriving. (AP)