Donald Trump Silences Trial Attendees by ‘Paying $1,800 to Secure a Seat in the Courtroom’ — and ‘$500 Just to Be Full’

AMERICANS are spending hundreds of dollars to get a front-row seat at former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City.

With only a handful of spots open to the public, political crime junkies have been lining up — or paying someone to line up — for days outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump’s secret trial is taking place.

More and more people have started visiting the courtroom and lining up for a seat since the jury heard opening arguments on April 22, according to The New York Times.

There are only about half a dozen wooden seats for the public inside the courtroom, with another two dozen seats available inside the adjacent courtroom.

These seats are technically free to anyone willing to show up, but growing interest in the Trump trial has queue holders making a buck by selling their spots in line to the highest bidder.

And the seats aren’t cheap.

“Trump’s trial is now a hot ticket: Some people pay line attendants a lot to get a seat in the courtroom,” said NBC’s chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) he wrote on Thursday, at X.

“From $450 offered by one woman to an astonishing $1,800 paid by the first person in line today,” she continued.

Other waiters usually complain enough that a cutter gets kicked out of line, but the police they rarely intervene, they said.

Some cheaters have managed to secure seats in the crowded room in the past, aides told the NYT on Friday.

As Trump’s trial continues into its 18th day, more waits — and line cuts — can be expected.

COHEN CROSS QUESTION TO CONTINUE

Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, finally took the stand on Thursday after months of speculation about what the star witness might say when he goes on the record.

So far, he has admitted to lying under oath when he pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and to lying to Congress about his Russian real estate dealings, as reported by AP News.

Trump’s defense lawyers pressed Cohen on why he would turn on his former boss and what political implications he might have had in mind for his past and present actions.

Cohen described how if Trump was unhappy with a press story, it could “one, cause him to blow up at me, and two, it would probably mean the end of my job.”

He still remembers receiving hundreds of phone calls a day in 2016 and 2017, describing them as “extremely important and all-consuming.”

Prosecutors focused on Cohen’s initial misrepresentation about his work for Trump and the greater significance his actions have on the question of whether Trump criminally misled the public by lying about his relationship with former porn star Stormy Daniels.

Although Blanche intends to conclude her interrogation of Cohen on Monday when the trial resumes; prosecutor Hoffinger waits an hour to redirect the question to Trump’s former lawyer.