Trump Faces Jail Threat Over Gag Order 05/07 06:06

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump returns to his hush money trial Tuesday facing 
a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations as prosecutors gear 
up to summon big-name witnesses in the final weeks of the case.

   Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who has said she had a sexual encounter with 
Trump, and Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer and personal fixer who 
prosecutors say paid her to keep silent in the final weeks of the 2016 
presidential campaign, are among those who have yet to take the stand but are 
expected to in the coming weeks.

   The jury on Monday heard from two witnesses, including a former Trump 
Organization controller, who provided a mechanical but vital recitation of how 
the company reimbursed payments that were allegedly meant to suppress 
embarrassing stories from surfacing and then logged them as legal expenses in a 
manner that Manhattan prosecutors say broke the law.

   The testimony from Jeffrey McConney yielded an important building block for 
prosecutors trying to pull back the curtain on what they say was a corporate 
records cover-up of transactions designed to protect Trump's Republican 
presidential bid during a pivotal stretch of the race. It focused on a $130,000 
payment from Cohen to Daniels and the subsequent reimbursement Cohen received.

   McConney and another witness testified that the reimbursement checks were 
drawn from Trump's personal account. Yet even as jurors witnessed the checks 
and other documentary evidence, prosecutors did not elicit testimony Monday 
showing that Trump dictated that the payments would be logged as legal 
expenses, a designation that prosecutors contend was intentionally deceptive.

   McConney acknowledged during cross-examination that Trump never asked him to 
log the reimbursements as legal expenses or discussed the matter with him at 
all. Another witness, Deborah Tarasoff, a Trump Organization accounts payable 
supervisor, said under questioning that she did not get permission to cut the 
checks in question from Trump himself.

   "You never had any reason to believe that President Trump was hiding 
anything or anything like that?" Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked.

   "Correct," Tarasoff replied.

   The testimony followed a stern warning from Judge Juan M. Merchan that 
additional violations of a gag order barring Trump from inflammatory 
out-of-court comments about witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to 
the case could result in jail time.

   The $1,000 fine imposed Monday marks the second time since the trial began 
last month that Trump has been sanctioned for violating the gag order. He was 
fined $9,000 last week, $1,000 for each of nine violations.

   "It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent. Therefore 
going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction," Merchan said 
before jurors were brought into the courtroom. Trump's statements, the judge 
added, "threaten to interfere with the fair administration of justice and 
constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue."

   Trump sat forward in his seat, glowering at the judge as he handed down the 
ruling. When the judge finished speaking, Trump shook his head twice and 
crossed his arms.

   Yet even as Merchan warned of jail time in his most pointed and direct 
admonition, he also made clear his reservations about a step that he described 
as a "last resort."

   "The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," Merchan said. "You are the 
former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well. 
There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for me. To take 
that step would be disruptive to these proceedings."

   The latest violation stems from an April 22 interview with television 
channel Real America's Voice in which Trump criticized the speed at which the 
jury was picked and claimed, without evidence, that it was stacked with 
Democrats.

   Prosecutors are continuing to build toward their star witness, Cohen, who 
pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments. He is 
expected to undergo a bruising cross-examination from defense attorneys seeking 
to undermine his credibility with jurors.

   Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, is charged 
with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the 
hush money payments but has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. The 
trial, the first of his four criminal cases to come before a jury, is expected 
to last another month or more.