Trump hush money trial live updates: Judge Merchan to rule if Trump violated gag order

Alex Woodward reports from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan:

A tabloid publisher’s secret agreement with Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen helped bury politically compromising stories that he fathered an illegitimate child and had an affair with a former Playboy model, jurors heard in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday.

In his second day of testimony in the former president’s so-called hush money trial, formerNational Enquirer publisher David Pecker outlined what he called a “mutually beneficial” plan to keep the supermarket tabloid loaded with stories that would boost Mr Trump’s election chances – and ensure “negative” stories never saw the light of day.

…that’s not what reporters on the scene saw.

Here’s what the former president wrote on Truth Social:

Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave. It is an armed camp to keep people away. Maggot Hagerman of The Failing New York Times, falsely reported that I was disappointed with the crowds. No, I’m disappointed with Maggot, and her lack of writing skill, and that some of these many police aren’t being sent to Columbia and NYU to keep the schools open and the students safe. The Legal Scholars call the case a Scam that should never have been brought. I call it Election Interference and a personal hit job by a conflicted and corrupt Judge who shouldn’t be allowed to preside over this Political Hoax. New York Justice is being reduced to ashes, and the World is breathlessly watching. Hopefully, Appellate Courts can save it, and all of the companies that are fleeing to other jurisdictions. They can no longer take a chance on New York Justice!

Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News was outside the court this morning and reported: “Trump just claimed that the police have shut down the streets around the courthouse for blocks & that his protesters can’t be here.”

He continues: “Just…not true. There is one pro-Trump person here & the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic.”

Perhaps the ultimate totem of Senate Minority Mitch McConnell’s power is that nobody forces him to speak. Where reporters stick their arms out to grab quotes from his fellow Republicans or his gabby Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer, the same can’t be said for when McConnell takes the handful of steps from his office off the Senate floor to speak in the chamber. Most of the time, journalists don’t bother him at all — they know better.

When he does speak, the mercurial Kentuckian rarely emotes and only gives the bare minimum in terms of information. That’s made McConnell’s remarks both on the Senate floor and during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon so surprising.

As Mr Trump continues to cool his heels in a New York City courtroom, Mr Biden travelled from Washington to Tampa, Florida.

Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial have refused to hand over a list of witnesses in the case in a bid to save them from Truth Social attacks by the former president.

Kelly Rissman and Ariana Baio report:

Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the judge in his New York hush money trial on Truth Social on Tuesday morning – just moments after his attorneys were forced to defend his posts in a hearing determining whether he had violated the gag order in the case.

Before testimony resumed in the historic case, Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments from the prosecution and the defence about the former president’s Truth Social posts.

Prosecutors have accused Mr Trump of violating his gag order at least 10 times in online attacks against potential witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Kelly Rissman and Alex Woodward report:

Donald Trump‘s valet, Walt Nauta, was reportedly told he would be pardoned during a potential second Trump administration if he was charged with lying to the FBI.

Mr Nauta was charged in June 2023 for lying to the FBI and for obstructing the agency’s investigation into the classified government documents Mr Trump had stored at Mar-a-Lago after his presidency.