The latest | Trump’s secret trial resumes with second week of testimony

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s secret trial resumes on Tuesday with testimony from the prosecution’s third witness, Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen open accounts.

Cohen used one to buy porn actress Stormy Daniels’ silence. She alleged a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies.

The first week of testimony set the stage for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors retracted what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.

For his part, the former president and presumptive Republican candidate has been campaigning outside of business hours, but is required to appear in court during the session, four days a week.

The charges center on payments of $130,000 that Trump’s company made to Cohen. Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of these payments and falsely recorded them as legal expenses.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The case is the first criminal trial of a former US president and the first of four cases against Trump to reach a jury.

At the moment:

– Key players: who’s who in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial

— The case of silence is just one of Trump’s legal cases. I see the others here

— These people were accused of interfering in the 2020 election. Some are still in politics today

— The National Enquirer was the American tabloid of choice for many years. Donald Trump helped change that

— Trump and DeSantis meet to make peace and discuss fundraising for the former president’s campaign

Here are the latest:

Judge Juan M. Merchan could rule this week on prosecutors’ request to fine Trump for what they say were violations of a gag order that prohibits him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some other people connected to the case.

The judge also set a hearing for Thursday on another batch of alleged gag order violations.

In an order first issued in March and later revised, Merchan banned Trump from making public statements about likely trial witnesses “concerning their potential participation in the investigation or this criminal proceeding.”

Merchan’s order did not give specific examples of what types of statements about witnesses were prohibited. He noted that the order was not intended to prevent the former president from responding to political attacks.

The gag order also prohibited Trump from making public statements of any kind about jurors, court staff, lawyers in the case or relatives of prosecutors or the judge.

Defense attorneys in Donald Trump’s secret trial on Friday investigated the former National Enquirer editor’s claims and his efforts to shield Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.

The first week of testimony set the stage for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors retracted what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories. Now prosecutors are working to provide details about how they believe Trump and his allies accomplished it.

Former National Enquirer editor David Pecker’s testimony last week gave jurors a stunning inside look at the supermarket tabloid’s “catch and kill” practice of buying the rights to stories so they never see the light of day.

Trump’s longtime executive assistant, Rhona Graff, told jurors she remembered seeing Stormy Daniels in a Trump Tower reception area, although the date of the visit was unclear.