Criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York

neighborhood. The trial began on April15, 2024, with recessed Wednesdays. Trump was required to attend every day of trial barring a court-approved absence. If he chose to testify, prosecutors could have asked him about his civil lawsuits regarding business fraud, sexual abuse, and defamation as well as the 2018 dissolution of his charitable foundation. Attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles represented him. The trial was not televised. Initially, Merchan allowed photographers to stand at the front of the room for a few minutes each morning before the trial began to take photos of Trump seated. Merchan withdrew this permission on May9 after at least one photo was taken from the side of the table. There are courtroom sketch artists present to capture the milieu. The temperature in the trial courtroom was a point of contention, with Trump repeatedly complaining that it was too cold, akin to an icebox, possibly intentionally. Judge Juan Merchan acknowledged that the courtroom was chilly, but has stated that he would rather it be a little cold than too hot, and that climate control is limited in the 80-year-old building. List of witnesses == Jury selection and opening statements ==

On April8, 2024, the judge gave attorneys a copy of the jury selection questionnaire, with jury selection beginning on April 15 from a pool of over 500 candidates. Over the first two days, 96 potential jurors appeared, of which more than half were immediately dismissed after indicating that they could not be impartial. Nine jurors provisionally qualified on the first day, and an additional ten on the second; from these 19, seven jurors were selected and sworn in. However, two were excused on April 18, one of whom complaining that her friends and family had recognized her from details published in the news. Trump was reprimanded by the judge on April 16 for gesturing and audibly speaking in the direction of a potential juror. Another group of 96 potential jurors was brought in later in the week. The selection of six alternate jurors concluded on April 19. The jury reportedly comprised seven men and five women, who mostly had white-collar careers. The jurors were allowed to tell their family and employers that they were on the jury but could not discuss the case with them. Trump was described as falling asleep for brief intervals on four out of the first five days of the trial, ahead of opening statements, and as being flatulent. Trump has denied dozing off at his trial. On April 22, opening statements began. Prosecutors accused Trump, Cohen, and Pecker of campaign finance violations, alleging they coordinated payments to two women and concealed them as part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. During their opening statements, prosecutors said the jury would be presented with a document with a handwritten note in the margin by Allen Weisselberg outlining the hush-money payment scheme. The defense argued that the testimony of Cohen, a convicted felon, could not be trusted; that the payments were ordinary business transactions, akin to editorial decisions made by newspapers; and that in democracies it is normal for candidates to attempt to influence an election. == Contempt hearings ==

On April 15, prosecutors asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt and fine him $3,000 for three alleged violations of the gag order against him; By the morning of April 18, prosecutors alleged that Trump incurred seven further violations of the order and requested that he be fined another $7,000. Merchan criticized Trump's attorney Todd Blanche for failing to justify Trump's claim that he was merely responding to "political attacks" and for failing to provide any legal precedent supporting Trump's claim that reposting an article could not be a violation of a gag order; Merchan told Blanche, "You're losing credibility." Merchan rejected Trump's position that reposting a news article to social media was a merely "passive" rather than active act. The defense also declared that "Trump absolutely knows what the gag order allows him to do and does not allow him to do." (Trump had previously been held in civil contempt, for withholding documents, in the New York business fraud case.) Trump was found in contempt on nine of the ten counts, regarding statements made from April 10–17. Over the next few days, he paid a $9,000 fine. Merchan said he would consider jailing Trump for further violations "if necessary and appropriate". On May 2, a second hearing was held to consider four further violation claims. The prosecution said it was "not yet seeking jail". On May 6, Trump was found in contempt for one of those four claims (when he on April 22 commented on the jury) and was fined $1,000. The judge again warned Trump of possible incarceration for further violations. The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said that corrections officials would be "ready" if the judge ordered incarceration. == Prosecution witnesses ==

David Pecker Prosecutors called former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to testify on April 22, 23, 25 and 26 as the trial's first witness, taking most of the first week of testimony. He had been given immunity in 2018 in a federal investigation into Michael Cohen in exchange for information regarding hush money deals. During Pecker's testimony, it was implied that former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard, who Pecker stated was now living in Australia and suffering from a "spinal condition", would not testify. It was previously reported that while Pecker and his company American Media Inc. (AMI), the National Enquirer's parent company, facilitated payment to McDougal, Pecker refused to personally do the same with Daniels, though he allegedly alerted Trump associates about Daniels' decision to go public with her affair allegation. On April 23, Pecker testified that Cohen used to feed him negative stories about Trump's enemies, which Pecker's staff would then "embellish" and show drafts to Cohen to get his feedback before publishing them. Pecker also detailed how he offered to deploy the "catch and kill" scheme, stating that he offered in 2015 to suppress negative stories about Trump and flag efforts by women attempting to sell stories about him. The prosecution cited a state election law regarding conspiracy to defend their questioning of Pecker about his contacts with Steve Bannon, the chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 campaign. On April 25, Pecker testified that AMI suppressed negative press about other celebrities, which was emphasized by Trump's team in their cross-examination. Additionally, he stated that he did not believe Cohen was working for Trump's campaign. Pecker discussed his relationship with Trump prior to the 2016 campaign, during which he suppressed other negative stories about him. Pecker detailed how his company, Trump and Cohen facilitated payment to McDougal in mid-2016, in tandem with promising her a ghostwritten monthly column in an attempt to disguise the contract's true nature. In September 2016, Cohen asked to purchase the boxes of McDougal's source material (valued by Pecker at $25,000) on Trump's behalf. Pecker then told Cohen that he did not want to be reimbursed for the payment to McDougal. According to Pecker, an AMI staff member leaked details of the scheme on November 4, 2016, ahead of the election, after which Pecker released a false statement that AMI had never paid anyone to kill damaging stories about Trump. AMI then amended its contract with McDougal allowing her to speak to the press. Pecker said his decision not to facilitate payment to Daniels (because she was a porn star) led to it being done by Cohen. Additionally, Pecker said that after receiving a letter from the Federal Election Commission about possible campaign violations in mid-2021, he signed a non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors for his cooperation. and that she had a "vague recollection" of glimpsing Daniels at a Trump Tower reception area. During her cross-examination by the defense, Graff said Trump was sometimes prone to multitasking while signing checks, depending "what was going on ... and how important the checks were". Additional testimony was also provided by former First Republic banker Gary Farro on April 26 and 30. He testified that on October 26, 2016, he helped Cohen open an account for a real-estate limited liability company. According to prosecutors, the same day, Cohen deposited $131,000 from his personal home-equity credit line, and the next day transferred $130,000 to Daniels' lawyer, Keith Davidson. He detailed how he assisted in setting up the bank account which enabled Cohen to make the hush money payment. Farro stated that Cohen was eager to connect with him, and would set up the account in October 2016. Farro also noted that the account was set up for Essential Consultants LLC, the company the payment was made from, and that it was funded through Cohen's home-equity line of credit at First Republic. According to Farro, Cohen did not want addresses on the checks. April 30 also saw testimony from C-SPAN Executive Director for Archives Robert Browning, who verified the authenticity of C-SPAN videos of Trump, as well as Phillip Thompson, a regional director of Esquire Deposition Solutions, which provided court reporter services for Trump's October 2022 deposition in one of the E. Jean Carroll defamation cases. On May 20, the prosecution tried to contact Browning to see if he would be available to testify again, this time regarding a photograph of Trump with his former bodyguard Keith Schiller. Keith Davidson and Douglas Daus Keith Davidson, a former attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, appeared on April 30 and May 2. He testified that the Access Hollywood tape helped influence Daniels to go forward with her story. According to Davidson's testimony, he drafted the $130,000 hush-money agreement, in which he used the pseudonyms "Peggy Peterson" for Daniels and "David Dennison" for Trump. The agreement called for payment by October 14, 2016. When the payment did not arrive, Davidson communicated with Cohen, who told him that Trump was traveling. On October 17, Davidson wrote to Cohen that the agreement was void and furthermore that he would no longer be representing Daniels. (Cohen would wire his personal funds to Davidson on October 27.) Davidson testified that he believed Trump was behind the hush-money talks. However, he also acknowledged how Cohen wired the transfer and that he also had conversations with Howard as well as Daniels' manager Gina Rodriguez regarding the deal. Howard and Rodriguez, who had no direct roles, would encourage Davidson to connect with Cohen. Daniels, Davidson and Rodriguez were also revealed to have received part of the $130,000 settlement payment. Davidson's role in the $150,000 deal with AMI for McDougal's story was noted as well. Further audio was played of a phone call in which Cohen tells Davidson that "I can't even tell you how many times [Trump] said to me, you know, I hate the fact that we did it," apparently regarding the payment to Daniels. Davidson acknowledged texting Howard on Election Night 2016: "What have we done?", to which Howard responded "Oh my god." Davidson explained that this was a recognition that "our activities may have assisted the presidential campaign" and that it was "sort of gallows humor". He also confirmed that, after texting with Cohen on February 13, 2018, he sent a statement to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo to corroborate Cohen's claim of having paid $130,000 to Daniels from his personal funds. Davidson testified during his cross-examination that he had never personally met Trump. Hope Hicks , pictured in 2017, testified for one full day. On May 3, former White House communications director Hope Hicks testified. She said a Wall Street Journal reporter asked her for comment on the alleged Trump–McDougal affair, which is how she learned that AMI had paid to catch and kill the story. She stated that she drafted a statement to respond to The Wall Street Journal, with Cohen offering feedback, but Trump overrode them by telling Hicks to say that McDougal's allegations were "totally untrue", which is how she was quoted by the Journal just days before the election. Hicks stated that Trump sought to hide news of both scandals from Melania, Hicks further testified that she had heard Trump praise Pecker on multiple occasions for his negative reporting on his Republican rivals in the 2016 election. the campaign felt the tape was a "crisis". Hicks stated that the tape's release stressed Trump because he wanted members of his family, including Melania, to be proud of him and not hurt or embarrassed. In her cross-examination by the defense, Hicks stated that Trump "is a very good multitasker [who] is always doing many things at once". He testified that Weisselberg instructed him in early 2017 to send the reimbursement payments to Cohen. McConney acknowledged that he told organization payroll specialist (and its accounts payable supervisor) Deborah Tarasoff to record the reimbursement payments as "legal expenses"; he said he told her these payments were part of a retainer agreement between Cohen and Trump. Tarasoff stated that she had no decision-making authority and merely followed instructions, but also acknowledged that she would approve invoices if she got them, including the ones which were sent to Cohen. Stormy Daniels Stormy Daniels testified for five hours on May 7, and for the earlier part of May 9. She said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006 and detailed a sexual encounter with Trump in his hotel suite after he invited her to dinner. Daniels stated that Trump did not use a condom and that during the encounter, "I was staring up at the ceiling, wondering how I got there," despite not having used drugs or alcohol. Daniels said Trump offered to make her a contestant on The Apprentice; she stated that he continued alluding to the idea for a time in subsequent phone conversations, in which he referred to her as "honey bunch" and asked when they could meet again. Trump criticized Merchan for permitting the testimony stating "He's [Merchan] trying to make it as salacious as possible by allowing testimony that has nothing to do with the case." Manochio, Menzies, and Westerhout Madeleine Westerhout, pictured in 2019, testified over parts of two days. On May 9, Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, testified for about a half-hour. She had provided evidence to the prosecution. Tracy Menzies, a senior vice president at HarperCollins, then testified about the accuracy of certain excerpts from the book Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, which Trump had co-authored. Trump's director of Oval Office Operations in 2019 and former Secretary to the President between 2017 and 2019, Madeleine Westerhout, also began testifying the same day. She also noted how she set up a meeting between Cohen and Trump in February 2017, and how the meeting led to Trump Organization employees sending reimbursement checks to the White House—which Trump would then sign and send to Cohen—through a circuitous mail system. She was in tears when discussing how Trump fired her, reportedly in response to her telling reporters that she had a better relationship with him than his daughters. Westerhout resumed testifying on May 10. Among these witnesses were Jennie Tomalin (a Verizon senior analyst), Daniel Dixon (an AT&T compliance analyst), and Jaden Jarmel-Schneider (a paralegal from the Manhattan DA's office). He would give 17 hours of testimony over four days. On May 13, Cohen acknowledged that he, Trump and David Pecker conspired to suppress negative stories and promote positive stories about Trump during the 2016 election. By email (shown as evidence), Cohen informed the National Enquirer that Trump did not want them to report his affair with a "Penthouse Pet". By text message, Cohen told Dylan Howard that he was making the payments on Trump's behalf. Cohen testified that Weisselberg told him to not make the payment through the Trump Organization and instead to come up with a more creative way to do it. He said he lied about Daniels to protect Trump (while also "staying on Trump's message" by lying about the Trump Tower Moscow project). Cohen testified that, in January 2018, he pressured Davidson to have Daniels sign a false statement denying the affair and payment, which Daniels signed on January 30, and also offered her an appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity. Cohen testified that Daniels also wanted an appearance on Fox News' Hannity, which she did not go through with. On May 20, during cross-examination, Cohen confirmed that around October 26, 2016, he helped Tiffany Trump regarding an extortion issue she faced. He said he was also working with David Pecker that month. Cohen made two brief calls to Donald Trump on the morning of October 26, which he said were about Daniels. On January 27, 2017, Cohen told the Trump Organization he would no longer be working at Trump Tower because he was now Trump's "personal attorney". On January 31, 2017, Weisselberg emailed Cohen with the subject: "Note and mortgage modification agreement for Trump Park Avenue Condominium." Weisselberg asked Cohen to "prepare the agreement discussed" so Weisselberg could start sending monthly payments. Cohen said that Donald Jr. and Eric Trump signed the checks "because they were the trustees". In 2017, he received nine checks for $35,000 apiece directly from Trump, plus two checks from the trust. Cohen confirmed that he lied to Weisselberg about how much he had paid Red Finch, and that his false reimbursement request amounted to theft from the organization. He said he lied in 2018 when he said that Trump had been unaware of the Daniels payment. He said he had no income between his 2018 guilty plea and the publication of his 2020 memoir, but that since then he had earned $4.4 million from podcasts and books. Asked whether he has a "financial interest in the outcome of this case", Cohen said he expected to make more money if Trump was found not guilty, since "it gives me more to talk about". He acknowledged that his name recognition comes from his frequent criticism of Trump and that he was even interested in running for Congress. The prosecution then conducted redirect examination. The prosecution rested its case the same day. == Defense witnesses ==

The defense began its case on May 20, 2024, and rested its case on May 21 after calling two witnesses. Trump did not testify. On May 22, he stated (in a press interview outside the court proceedings) that he did not testify because (1) he disagreed with Merchan's past rulings, (2) he was concerned about being questioned about his own past, and (3) there was "no case". The defense team had initially planned to call Bradley Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), as an expert witness on campaign finance law. Smith had argued that the payments to Daniels were not campaign payments and not illegal. However, on May 20, Judge Merchan ruled that Smith's testimony would be limited to "general definitions and terms" so as to not supplant the judge's role to determine what the law is. Smith was prohibited from mentioning "there had never been a case in which anyone had been convicted of a federal campaign finance law violation for the making of 'hush money payments'" and from discussing "that the FEC dismissed the complaint against defendant and the DOJ decided against prosecuting defendant for potential FECA violations" due to irrelevance. In February 2024, prosecutors pointed out that Smith had previously been barred from testifying for the defense in two unrelated federal cases in Manhattan where the defense had improperly sought to have Smith interpret campaign finance law for the jury: United States v. Bankman-Fried and United States v. Suarez. Trump then falsely stated that Merchan had not allowed Smith to be called, and Smith wrote that the "judge's bias is very evident." Daniel Sitko On May 20, Daniel Sitko, a paralegal for Todd Blanche, provided testimony. A chart of phone calls between Cohen and Robert Costello, the lawyer that Giuliani suggested Cohen hire in 2018, was submitted into evidence. Robert Costello On May 20, Robert Costello also testified. Merchan admonished the witness for making comments on the stand objecting to rulings, staring at the judge, and rolling his eyes. On May 21, Costello was cross-examined by the prosecution. Emails from Costello to his law partner Jeff Citron and Cohen were shown. In a May 2018 email to Citron, Costello said it was a goal to get Cohen "on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president" and said he believed it was "the clear and correct strategy". When asked if "the email speaks for itself" as he had asserted the day before, Costello said "Sometimes." He also wrote to Citron about Cohen, "What should I say to this asshole? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet." (Cohen testified that Costello and Trump's campaign had attempted to pressure him to realign to their interests.) In an email to Cohen, Costello wrote: "You are making a very big mistake if you believe the stories these 'journalists' are writing about you. They want you to cave. They want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed. If you really believe you are not being supported properly by your former boss, then you should make your opinion known." The defense rested its case thereafter. == Closing arguments and jury instructions ==

Later on May 21, arguments over jury instruction language were held. On May 28, the defense gave a three-hour closing argument including breaks. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche claimed Trump had nothing to do with checks which were written by Trump's sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Blanche questioned why prosecutors did not call Donald Jr. and Eric as witnesses despite their signing payment checks to Cohen. as the jury is instructed not to consider how Merchan might sentence Trump. The same day, the prosecution gave a four-hour and 41 minute closing argument including breaks. Steinglass argued that Cohen was Trump's "fixer" and that his knowledge was "limited to what actually happened". Steinglass cited a 2018 tweet by Trump in which he acknowledged that Cohen was reimbursed for an NDA via a retainer agreement, but said it had "nothing to do with the campaign". At the end of closing arguments, Merchan said that jury instructions would be read on May 29 and were expected to last an hour. == Jury deliberations and verdict ==

On May 29, the jury began deliberations. A few hours in, they asked to hear a readback of about 30 minutes of testimony by Pecker and Cohen; the readback was held the following day. It regarded an August 2015 meeting between Pecker, Cohen, Trump, and Hicks, in which Pecker pledged to be Trump's "eyes and ears" regarding negative stories about him; additionally, the jury wanted to hear Pecker's testimony regarding an alleged phone call from Trump in which the two discussed a rumor that McDougal had gone to another outlet to publish her story. On May 30 at 5:07 pm EDT, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Merchan denied a defense motion for an acquittal. == Aftermath == Trump had turned over two of the three pistols he was licensed for to the New York Police Department (NYPD) on March 31, 2023, with a third pistol moved to Florida. Trump's New York State concealed carry license was suspended on April 1, 2023, following his indictment on criminal charges. As of June 5, 2024, Trump's New York firearm license was expected to be revoked after the NYPD's legal bureau completes its investigation. On June 4, Blanche filed a motion to have the gag order lifted, stating: "Now that the trial is concluded, the concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump." On June 25, two days before the first 2024 U.S. presidential debate, Merchan partially lifted the gag order permitting Trump to comment on witnesses and jurors, but Trump cannot reveal the jurors' identities, nor comment about court staffers, the prosecution team or their families until after sentencing. Trump's sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for July 11, 2024. On July 1, Trump's counsel requested to delay sentencing to consider the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States released that day. On July 2, Merchan postponed the sentencing hearing to September 18. In August, Trump's team asked Merchan to again postpone the sentencing hearing until after the election, and the Manhattan DA stated that it would defer to Merchan on this matter. On September 6, Merchan postponed the sentencing hearing to November 26. On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States, supporting presidential immunity for official acts committed by the seated president. Later that day, Trump's counsel requested permission to move to dismiss the conviction on the basis that some evidence presented in the trial constituted official actions by Trump. Ultimately, on January 3, 2025, Merchan set a new sentencing hearing for January 10. Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge on January 10. == Notes ==