LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER40 updates

• Fri, May 10, 2024 at 12:11 AM GMT+2

  What happened today

  

  The day began with Trump’s lawyers continuing their cross-examination of adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Defense attorney Susan Necheles tried to convince the jury that Daniels had concocted her story of having sex with Trump in order to benefit from it financially. But Daniels did not shy away from confrontation.

  Here’s what else transpired in the courtroom on day 14 of the hush money trial:

  Two more losses for Trump’s lawyers: Judge Juan Merchan denied two Trump motions. The first would have allowed Trump to publicly comment on the testimony given by Daniels. The second had called for Merchan to declare a mistrial because, the defense claimed, Daniels’s story of having had sex with Trump was prejudicial to their client.

  Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, testified about checks to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that she sent for Trump to sign.

  Tracey Menzies, a senior vice president at HarperCollins book publishers, read aloud quotes from the Trump book Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, including passages about trusting employees.

  Madeleine Westerhout, a former executive assistant to Trump at the White House, testified about bringing Trump checks from his business to sign in the Oval Office and confirming a White House meeting with Cohen.

  Read more from Yahoo News.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:22 PM GMT+2

  What Trump said when he left court

  Trump spoke to reporters outside after court adjourned for the day and appeared to rail against Judge Merchan for denying his defense team’s request for a mistrial and for a loosening of the gag order so he could speak out against Stormy Daniels.

  He also complained that he should be out on the campaign trail instead of being stuck in court for the trial.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:08 PM GMT+2

  Court adjourned until Friday morning

  Judge Merchan dismissed the court until tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. ET. Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, is expected to take the stand again.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:05 PM GMT+2

  Defense’s motion for a mistrial denied

  For the second time, Judge Merchan denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial over Stormy Daniels’s testimony.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:58 PM GMT+2

  Trump’s attorneys are pushing for a mistrial. What is a mistrial and what happens if one is declared?

  A mistrial is when a criminal or civil trial is not completed and ends before a jury decides on a verdict.

  A mistrial is often declared in two ways: when a jury can’t reach a verdict after a number of attempts, also known as a “hung jury,” or when there has been a procedural error or misconduct has happened that could “prejudice” the jury.

  Trump’s defense attorneys argue that the prosecution asked “prejudicial” questions of Stormy Daniels when she detailed her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and that those details weren’t relevant to the case.

  If a mistrial is declared, the current trial is considered “void,” according to USA Today. The trial has to start all over but with a new jury if the prosecutor decides to retry the defendant.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:38 PM GMT+2

  Trump attorney renews request for mistrial

  Trump lawyer Todd Blanche has renewed the defense’s request for a mistrial, arguing “there is no way this case can go forward” after Stormy Daniels’s testimony divulged intimate details about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, according to NBC News.

  This is now the second time the defense has requested a mistrial.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:36 PM GMT+2

  Trump remains barred from responding to Stormy Daniels after judge rules against modifying gag order

  Trump will remain barred from talking about Stormy Daniels after Judge Merchan denied the defense’s request to change the gag order so Trump could respond to her salacious testimony, which the jury heard on Wednesday and Thursday.

  Merchan has ruled that Trump has violated the trial’s gag order 10 times and has fined him $1,000 for each violation. Earlier this week, he threatened the former president with jail time if he again violated the gag order.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:30 PM GMT+2

  Karen McDougal will not be called as a witness

  Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was allegedly paid $150,000 to keep quiet about what she claims was a 2006 affair with Trump, will not be called to testify, according to defense attorney Todd Blanche.

  It was previously thought thatthe prosecution would call her to testify in order to establish that the alleged payoffs were part of a larger scheme to protect Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign ahead of the election.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:27 PM GMT+2

  Prosecutors warn lifting Trump’s gag order would result in ‘barrage of threats’ against Stormy Daniels

  Responding to the defense request that would loosen the gag order the judge placed on Trump so that he could respond to the testimony given by Stormy Daniels, prosecutor Christopher Conroy told Judge Juan Merchan that doing so would result in a “barrage of threats” from Trump against the witness.

  “Let’s not pretend he wants to engage in high-minded discourse,” Conroy told the judge, according to the New York Times.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:21 PM GMT+2

  Judge hears defense motion for mistrial and gag order exception

  After the jury was excused from the courtroom, Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments from lawyers on both sides of the case on a renewed motion by Trump’s lawyers to declare a mistrial. The defense is also asking the judge to loosen his gag order so that Trump could comment on the testimony given by Stormy Daniels.

  “We ask that President Trump be allowed to respond publicly to what happened in court the past day and a half,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said, per reports from the Manhattan courtroom.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:11 PM GMT+2

  Jury dismissed for the day after very brief cross-examination of Trump executive assistant

  Trump’s defense attorney Susan Necheles conducted a very brief cross-examination of Madeleine Westerhout in an effort to depict Trump as a kind boss and family man.

  According to CNN, Westerhout said that Trump “never once made me feel that I didn’t deserve that job and that I didn’t belong there. Especially in an office filled with older men, he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there. He was a really good boss.”

  After that, the jury was dismissed for the day.

  Necheles will resume cross-examination of Westerhout tomorrow, the New York Times reported.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:08 PM GMT+2

  Trump wasn’t bothered by release of ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, Westerhout testifies

  In her cross-examination of prosecution witness Madeleine Westerhout, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles sought to chip away at the prosecution’s assertion that the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape convinced Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen to cut a deal with adult film actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence.

  “There was always some event that everybody said that’s it, he’s not gonna win?” Necheles asked Westerhout.

  “Yeah,” Westerhout responded.

  “And everybody around would be freaking out?” Necheles continued.

  “Yeah,” Westerhout replied.

  “Not President Trump?” Necheles added.

  “No,” Westerhout said, according to CNN.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:01 PM GMT+2

  Westerhout tears up on the witness stand

  Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, who sat right outside the Oval Office, broke down in tears while testifying as she recalled being forced out of her position in 2019 after she shared personal details about Trump’s family with reporters.

  Westerhout testified that she didn’t have anything negative to say about Trump, even after leaving the White House.

  “President Trump forgave you, right?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked, according to CNN. “He did,” Westerhout said.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:54 PM GMT+2

  Westerhout describes Trump’s relationship with Melania

  Former Trump executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout was asked by prosecutors to describe Trump’s relationship with his wife, Melania.

  “There was really no one else that could put him in his place too,” Westerhout told the jury, according to CNN. “He was my boss, but she was definitely the one in charge.”

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:32 PM GMT+2

  Jury shown email Westerhout sent to Cohen confirming February 2017 White House meeting

  According to reporters in the courtroom, prosecutors showed an email sent by Trump executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen confirming a Feb. 5, 2017, meeting at the White House with then-President Donald Trump.

  It was at this meeting, prosecutors allege, that Cohen and Trump worked out an arrangement for Cohen to be reimbursed for his $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:21 PM GMT+2

  Westerhout says Trump wrote and posted his own tweets from the White House

  Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asked former Trump assistant Madeleine Westerhout whether the former president used social media while working in the White House.

  “He did, yes,” Westerhout responded, noting that he posted tweets himself, CNN reported.

  “My recollection [is] there were certain words he would like to capitalize, words like ‘country,’ and he liked to use exclamation points,” Westerhout added.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:09 PM GMT+2

  Westerhout testifies about sitting close to Trump in the Oval Office

  Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, told jurors that she sat just outside the Oval Office when Trump became president.

  That proximity and level of interaction could be important when Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testifies about a White House meeting he had with Trump that prosecutors allege regarded the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:07 PM GMT+2

  Brief testimony from HarperCollins VP; Trump’s former White House personal assistant now testifying

  There was very brief testimony from Tracey Menzies, a senior vice president of production at HarperCollins, who read excerpts from Trump’s 2007 book, Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. The prosecution selected excerpts to demonstrate its case that Trump micromanages his business and is in the loop, including on the reimbursements made to Michael Cohen for the alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

  Madeleine Westerhout, former director of Oval Office operations, is now testifying.

• 

  Thu, May 9, 2024 at 8:51 PM GMT+2

  Brief cross-examination of Trump Organization bookkeeper

  The defense briefly cross-examined the prosecution’s witness Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization.

  Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Manochio if she had a lot of direct interaction with Trump, to which she responded, “No,” according to CNN.

  Manochio also testified that all expenses being sent to Trump for him to sign were personal and not business-related.

  According to reporters in the courtroom, Necheles said that personal expense checks were also sent to Ivanka Trump, in Washington, D.C., when she worked in the White House, which the bookkeeper confirmed was true, pointing out that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Trump to have his personal checks sent to D.C. to sign.

• Thu, May 9, 2024 at 8:27 PM GMT+2

  Trial resumes after lunch break

  Court is back in session after a lunch break. The defense continues its cross-examination of Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization.