NY –
Even by Donald Trump’s standards, this was a dizzying week.
The first criminal trial against a former US president began in earnest with opening statements and testimony in a lower Manhattan courtroom. But the action quickly spread to involve more than half a dozen cases in four states and the nation’s capital. Twice during the week, Trump’s lawyers appeared simultaneously in different courtrooms.
The collision of so many cases in a five-day span underscores the challenges Trump will face as he campaigns for the White House again while his legal issues intensify. While the presumptive Republican nominee attempted to talk about the economy and other issues, his intended message was repeatedly overshadowed by recent events emerging across the country.
Here’s how the week unfolded and what’s next:
Monday
The week began with a moment for the history books, when prosecutors presented a criminal case against a former US president to a jury for the first time. In their opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that hush money payments made to an adult film actor were “a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” while Trump’s lawyers argued that The case is unfounded. Then the testimony began as former National Enquirer editor David Pecker gave the public the most tangible insight yet into the allegations.
It also provided the clearest picture yet of Trump’s defense and how he is combining his roles as candidate and criminal defendant. Trump begins and ends the day by introducing himself to reporters waiting in court, offering complaints that he is required to be there and comments about how cold it is for him in the courtroom or commentary on unrelated national news.
In a separate but nearby court, one of Trump’s lawyers reached a deal with New York state lawyers over $175 million bail Trump posted to stop a large civil fraud conviction that he is appealing in a separate case. .
Tuesday
Trump returned to court where prosecutors began by urging the judge to hold Trump in contempt for social media posts that they said violated a gag order prohibiting him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others involved. The judge did not immediately rule on the request, but seemed skeptical of defense arguments that Trump was simply responding to attacks from others.
Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump, testified the rest of the day and said he was committed to helping suppress damaging stories about Trump during the 2016 election.
Wednesday
The trial was not scheduled for Wednesday, so Trump did not travel to the Manhattan courthouse from his namesake penthouse. But he did publish a post at 2 a.m. on Truth Social, his social media platform, criticizing the judge and did so again later that day in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, more court documents were revealed in Florida in another criminal case in which federal prosecutors accused Trump and two of his staff of mishandling classified documents after he left the White House. Although the case has moved at a slow pace in recent months and appears unlikely to go to trial this year, the documents show, among other things, warnings Trump received from associates to return confidential files from which he later he was accused of possessing.
Beyond the cases in which Trump is charged as a defendant, Arizona’s attorney general on Wednesday charged 18 of his associates for their role in an effort to overturn Trump’s loss in that state to Democrat Joe Biden in the election. 2020. In the Arizona case, Trump was referred to as an unindicted accomplice.
In a similar case in Michigan, a state investigator testified that he considers Trump an uncharged accomplice in that state’s case against false electors.
Thursday
Trump’s hush money case in New York state court resumed Thursday. But prosecutors began the day arguing before the judge that Trump had again violated the gag order with social media posts and comments he made early that morning at a dawn campaign rally in the city.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchán has not yet ruled on whether Trump should be held in contempt. Pecker then resumed his testimony. Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump adviser who was among 18 indicted in Arizona the day before, was listening in the courtroom.
At the same time, in Washington, the US Supreme Court weighed whether Trump can be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden. In their questions, the justices seemed skeptical of Trump’s claims of absolute immunity from prosecution, but some seemed to indicate they had reservations about the charges, and that could result in a delay in that trial beyond the November election.
In federal court in New York on Thursday, a judge rejected Trump’s request for a new trial in a defamation case in which he was ordered to pay $83.3 million to an advice columnist for her online attacks. social media over her claims that he sexually assaulted her.
Friday
The hush money trial continued in New York on Friday, with Pecker wrapping up his testimony and Trump’s lawyers trying to discredit him. Two other witnesses, Rhona Graff, Trump’s longtime executive assistant, and Gary Farro, banker to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. Epshteyn sat back down in the courtroom.
This next week
The hush money case in New York is not expected to resume until Tuesday because there will be a long-scheduled day off on Monday. Testimony is expected to continue Thursday and Friday, giving Trump the opportunity to make campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the judge scheduled a morning hearing on prosecutors’ latest effort to punish Trump for the gag order.
And in the case of Arizona, details could emerge about charges against Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Sixteen of the 18 people indicted by a grand jury have been charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery for their role in submitting a false list of electors to Congress; The state attorney general has yet to confirm charges against the two remaining defendants. The indictment makes it clear, based on their statements and positions, that they are Giuliani and Meadows, but the charges against them are still drawn up.
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.