[florida80]

4/30

Judge Juan Merchan delivered a stiff rebuke to Donald Trump at the opening of court Tuesday morning by holding the former president in contempt for nine violations of the gag order in his criminal hush money trial. Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for violating a rule against making public statements about jurors, witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and members of their families. He also warned Trump that he could face incarceration if he continued to violate the order and gave him until 2:15 p.m. to remove social media posts related to the ruling — which he did.

The judge's decision came as prosecutors prepared to resume presenting their case against Trump, who is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election. The third week of the trial — which is expected to last six weeks — will see more testimony from bank officials as well as people who worked for Trump and had firsthand knowledge of the $130,000 payment made to Daniels, who alleged she had an extramarital affair with Trump.

On Tuesday prosecutors called a handful of witnesses to the stand, including Gary Farro, First Republic Bank’s former senior managing director, who testified about working with Michael Cohen to set up an account for a limited liability corporation that was used to pay Daniels, and Keith Davidson, a lawyer who previously represented Daniels and Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who also alleges she had an affair with Trump.

Cohen, who was convicted of tax fraud and lying to Congress while working for Trump, will be called as a witness in the case.