The latest | Cohen returning to the stand for more testimony in Trump’s silent trial

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s middleman-turned-nemesis returns to the witness stand and could face a tough round of questioning from the former president’s lawyers as early as Tuesday.

Michael Cohen’s testimony on Monday linked Trump to every aspect of a hush-money scheme that prosecutors say was aimed at hushing up stories that threatened his 2016 campaign. He is the prosecution’s star witness.

Trump’s lawyers will have the opportunity to begin questioning Cohen as early as Tuesday.

Cohen placed Trump at the center of the hush-money scheme, saying he had promised to repay the money the lawyer had provided for the payments and was constantly informed about behind-the-scenes efforts to bury stories he feared would be damaging to the campaign.

Text messages, audio recordings, notes and more have been presented or shown to jurors in recent weeks to illustrate what prosecutors say was a scheme to illegally influence that year’s elections. And at times dramatic testimony from witnesses that included former National Enquirer editor David Pecker, former Trump staffers and porn star Stormy Daniels added to the intrigue.

The trial is in its 17th day.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges.

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:

– Michael Cohen: A Challenging Witness in Trump’s Secret Money Trial

— What to know about Cohen’s pivotal testimony

– Trump’s Republican allies come out in force as Cohen takes stance

– Trump trial to silence the money: A timeline of the case’s key events

– Key players: who’s who in Trump’s criminal trial

Here are the latest:

Former President Donald Trump entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday for another day of testimony from his fixer-turned-enemy, Michael Cohen.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, second in line to the president’s line of succession, traveled with Trump in his motorcade in a politically impressive and significant show of Republican support.

Johnson is using his powerful pulpit to attack the US judicial system, criticizing the courts as biased against the former president. The speaker claims the case is politically motivated by Democrats and insists that Trump did “nothing wrong.”

It is a remarkable, if not unprecedented, moment in modern American politics to see the powerful Speaker of the House, a constitutional incumbent, turn his political party against the US system and rule of law by declaring a trial illegitimate.

Johnson’s team announced that he planned to speak to the media later in the morning “outside the ongoing sham prosecution of President Trump.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel with Donald Trump in his motorcade to the courthouse along with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Representatives Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, and his former Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy.

Both Burgum and Donalds are considered potential vice presidential candidates.

On Monday, Trump was joined in court by several Republican supporters, including another potential running mate: Ohio Senator JD Vance.

With Donald Trump barred from publicly attacking the key witness in his secret trial, his campaign took a group of Republican elected officials to court to speak for him.

Trump, who is balancing the demands of a felony trial with his third run for the White House, has been banned by a judge’s gag order from criticizing witnesses and has already been fined for violating the restrictions.

Taking allies to court allowed the Trump campaign to press its message without violating the gag order. It also gave those allies a high-profile platform to demonstrate loyalty to their party’s presumptive nominee and perhaps audition for higher office.

Donald Trump’s once-loyal lawyer and mediator Michael Cohen provided jurors with an inside account of payments to silence women’s allegations of sexual encounters with Trump, saying the payments were directed by Trump to avoid damaging his 2016 White House bid .

While he is prosecutors’ most important witness, he is also their most vulnerable to attack — having served time in federal prison and built his persona in recent years around being a thorn in Trump’s side.

Cohen is expected to be on the witness stand for several days and face intense questioning from Trump’s lawyers, who have portrayed him as a liar who is trying to take down the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

While he is prosecutors’ most important witness, he is also their most vulnerable to attack — having served time in federal prison and built his persona in recent years around being a thorn in Trump’s side.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case.