Here’s the latest on the trial. (2024)

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Trump is threatened with jail at his criminal trial: 5 takeaways.

The judge said that “therefore, going forward, this court will have to consider jail.”

That warning preceded a desert-dry description of a $130,000 payment made by Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael D. Cohen, to a p*rn star to buy her silence about her story of a one-night stand in 2006. That testimony was elicited from two employees, one current and one retired, of the Trump Organization.

The former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up that $130,000 payment. Mr. Trump, 77, the first American president to face criminal prosecution, has denied the charges and says he did not have sex with the woman, Stormy Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison time or probation.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s 12th day on trial:

Trump’s comments continue to bring him trouble.

Justice Merchan once again found Mr. Trump in contempt for violating his gag order that prohibited attacks on jurors, witnesses, court staff and others. It was Mr. Trump’s 10th violation, and resulted from an April 22 interview in which he said the jury was from “a purely Democrat area,” calling those circ*mstances “very unfair.”

The violation resulted in a $1,000 fine, which was on top of the $9,000 he was fined last week for nine other violations, a pittance for a billionaire. But the comments by Justice Merchan, who called the repeated violations “a direct attack on the rule of law,” may have a far greater impact.

Justice Merchan said he recognized what a disruption and dramatic decision jailing Mr. Trump would be, but made clear he would imprison him, if necessary.

“You are the former president,” the judge said, adding, “and possibly the next president.”

But, he added, “at the end of the day, I have a job to do.”

A chastised Mr. Trump seethes.

As Justice Merchan admonished Mr. Trump, the former president hunched over the defense table staring at him. When he finished, Mr. Trump shook his head. After court, Mr. Trump again blasted the trial as “election interference” in comments in the hallway outside the courtroom.

“They want to keep me off the trail,” said Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, adding he had hoped the trial might end on Monday.

Mr. Trump did perk up when Jeffrey S. McConney, the Trump Organization’s former corporate controller, recounted when Mr. Trump told him — as a joke — that he was fired because of a dip in his cash balances. Mr. Trump smiled at the memory.

The jury saw evidence of Michael D. Cohen’s payments.

Mr. McConney testified about reimbursing Mr. Cohen for his payment to Ms. Daniels. (He was ultimately paid $420,000, which included a bonus and money to offset taxes, an arrangement outlined in a handwritten note by Mr. McConney shown to jurors.)

Paid over a year, the hush money amounted to $35,000 a month. The schedule was painstakingly documented by prosecutors, who showed invoices Mr. Cohen sent to the Trump Organization and checks to Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen’s invoices mention a “retainer agreement,” something that prosecutors say didn’t exist, but rather was a way to disguise the reimbursem*nt.

On Monday, Mr. McConney was asked if he saw such an agreement.

“I did not,” Mr. McConney replied.

It was dull, but it was important.

Mr. McConney and another witness — Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts supervisor at the Trump Organization — both testified about internal machinations to pay back Mr. Cohen.

Prosecutors asked them to identify a raft of business records and other forms to authenticate and describe them. After a week that had set a sensational backdrop for the case — including the presidential race in 2016, and the frantic efforts to keep stories about extramarital affairs quiet — Monday’s testimony was often soporific.

Notably, Ms. Tarasoff also testified about the checks to Michael Cohen, which account for business records, which prosecutors say were falsified.

But the slog was necessary for prosecutors hoping to hang a case on documents. Still, Mr. Trump didn’t seem impressed, keeping his eyes closed for some of it, as he has for swaths of testimony on other days.

The week — and weeks — ahead may get more exciting.

Despite Mr. Trump’s shut eyes, his trial has featured gripping testimony about tabloid deals, celebrity shakedowns and life inside his inner circle. The rest of the week may intensify, including a possible appearance by Ms. Daniels.

She will likely attract a crush of media attention, driven by the spectacle of her sitting just across from Mr. Trump. With eight days of testimony complete, prosecutors said on Monday that they would need approximately two weeks to finish their case. The defense then gets its turn, and closing arguments follow.

After that, the jury will take over.

We’ve had two dry but important witnesses for the prosecution today, and a stern warning to Trump from the judge, threatening jail if he continues to violate his gag order.

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Blanche takes a slight swipe at the prosecution, noting the confirmation of the checks took “an hour and a half.” Conroy, who led Tarasoff through that testimony, shoots Blanche a look.

Blanche looked down at his wrist when he did this, as if to look at a watch. As he mentioned how long it took to go through this evidence, Trump scoffed and shook his head.

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This is a good moment to remind people that we have no idea how the jury is interpreting any of this. There is lots of circ*mstantial evidence that decisions didn’t get made on spending without Trump, that Michael Cohen made a payment to a p*rn star, and that Trump said later it was better the story didn’t come out before the election. But there has been no direct testimony tying Trump to how the payments were recorded yet.

It’s not clear how closely jurors are paying attention to this records recitation. Some are clearly looking at the screens in front of them. At least one looks drowsy.

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Deborah Tarasoff says that Trump had to sign all the checks from his personal account, even after he became president and was living in Washington, D.C. She says they were sent by FedEx. She added that after Trump signed the checks, she would eventually get them back.

Christopher Conroy, the prosecutor, is emphasizing Tarasoff’s point that only Trump could sign checks from his personal account. He is surprisingly halting as he questions her, moving slowly and thumbing through his binder at the lectern between questions.

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Trump smiles a little when Tarasoff mentions he owns the Trump Organization.

Her current title is “accounts payable supervisor.” She is expected to play a similar role, as a witness, to that of Jeffrey McConney, her former boss. She will likely testify about various exhibits, including potentially some of the false records.

Deborah Tarasoff, the next witness, had a role in the Stormy Daniels deal.

Some checks were issued from Mr. Trump’s personal bank account, which were sent via FedEx to him in the White House for his signature and returned with it in black Sharpie.

Prosecutors say those checks were to repay Mr. Cohen for the $130,000 he gave a p*rn star, Stormy Daniels, in the final days of the 2016 campaign to keep her from going public with her claim that she had sex with Mr. Trump a decade earlier.

Before taking the stand on Monday, Ms. Tarasoff had been identified in the statement of facts only as the company’s accounts payable supervisor, the person who was told to label each of the 11 payments to Mr. Cohen as a “legal expense,” according to prosecutors.

They have charged Mr. Trump with falsifying business records, saying that characterization of the payments disguised illegal campaign contributions as legitimate business expenses.

Ms. Tarasoff worked closely at the Trump Organization with Jeffrey S. McConney, the company’s controller, who testified on Monday about being instructed to send payments to Mr. Cohen in 2017. He, too, is mentioned in the statement of facts, but not identified by name.

Ms. Tarasoff also had a small but key role in the Manhattan district attorney office’s tax-fraud case against the Trump Organization, Mr. Trump’s company. She testified that she knew about fringe benefits being paid to Allen H. Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer.

The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud in December 2022. Mr. Trump himself was not charged.

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Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers, complains to Justice Merchan that the defense only learned who the prosecution's next witness would be 30 minutes ago. The prosecutors' lack of trust toward the defense team is underscored here.

Prosecutors suggested early on that they did not trust Trump with the knowledge of which witnesses were being called in advance — a professional courtesy in many trials — because of worries that he would attack them on social media.

Why are the charges against Trump felonies?

What is a felony?

A felony is a crime of greater seriousness than a misdemeanor, and conviction of a felony carries the possible penalty of a year or more in prison.

Falsifying business records in New York State can be a misdemeanor, but prosecutors can bring the charge as a felony if they believe the records were falsified to conceal another crime.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg had suggested that Mr. Trump concealed three potential crimes, although he has not charged him with any of those.

Prosecutors do not need to prove such crimes were committed — only that there was “the intent to commit or conceal” an additional crime.

What do the business records show?

The $130,000 payment was made by Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael D. Cohen, in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Mr. Cohen said he had done so at Mr. Trump’s direction.

While “hush money” payments are not necessarily illegal, Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen during his presidency. In internal records, Mr. Trump’s company classified the repayment to Mr. Cohen as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. Prosecutors say there were no such expenses or retainer agreement.

The records related to the reimbursem*nt underpin the 34 counts of falsifying business records: 11 counts involve the checks issued to Mr. Cohen, 11 center on monthly invoices Mr. Cohen submitted to the company, and 12 involve entries in the general ledger for Mr. Trump’s trust.

What crimes do prosecutors believe Trump was trying to conceal?

Prosecutors have suggested three possible crimes since filing the charges against Mr. Trump last year: a federal campaign finance violation, tax fraud and a state election-law crime. But since the start of the trial, they have largely focused on the state election-law crime: conspiracy to promote or prevent election.

Prosecutors have framed the falsified documents as concealing a broader conspiracy to protect Mr. Trump’s campaign. They allege that Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen coordinated with the former publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker, to bury stories that could damage Mr. Trump’s campaign and promote others that would harm his political rivals.

Mr. Pecker testified about how the tabloid purchased the story of a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who said she’d had an affair with Mr. Trump, and about how he declined to buy Ms. Daniels’s story and suggested that Mr. Cohen buy it instead.

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Allen Weisselberg had a major role in Stormy Daniels’s hush deal, witness says.

Mr. Cohen was repaid for that deal throughout 2017 in 11 checks — nine of them originating from Mr. Trump’s personal banking account — that were recorded as “legal expenses” in Trump Organization records. Prosecutors have accused Mr. Trump of falsifying those business records to conceal the hush-money deal.

The checks to Mr. Cohen ultimately totaled $420,000, covering the hush money, a bonus and additional funds for taxes.

Mr. McConney joined the Trump Organization in 1987 and worked as its corporate controller, reporting to Mr. Weisselberg. He said he had a close relationship with Mr. Weisselberg and ate lunch with him every day. For nearly 50 years, Mr. Weisselberg worked for Mr. Trump’s family business, with an unflinching devotion to the former president.

Mr. Weisselberg, who previously pleaded guilty to perjury in another case involving Mr. Trump, is currently incarcerated and is not expected to testify in the case.

He and Mr. McConney were sued along with Mr. Trump in a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general’s office. In his ruling, the judge in that case, Arthur F. Engoron, issued a fine of more than $450 million to Mr. Trump and gave a lifetime ban to Mr. Weisselberg from serving in a financial management role in any New York company.

Last month, Mr. Weisselberg, 76, was sentenced to five months in jail after pleading guilty to lying during his testimony in that case. He had already served about three months for tax fraud at the Rikers Island jail.

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