Mediaboss Marketing

TRENTON, N.J. -- After a long week in court, Donald Trump is heading to the Jersey Shore. And his campaign says he'll be joined by tens of thousands of his friends.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, expects to draw what his team is calling a mega crowd to a Saturday evening rally in the southern New Jersey resort town of Wildwood. It will be held 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of the New York City courthouse where he has been forced to spend most weekdays sitting silently through his felony hush money trial.

The beachfront gathering is designed to serve as a show of force at a critical moment for Trump, a presidential candidate known for drawing huge crowds.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said the tens of thousands expected attendees would be a notable contrast to the number that typically show up for President Joe Bidens political events, which Miller described as being only eight circles, two of which are empty.

Trump's gathering in deep-blue New Jersey comes less than six months before Election Day.

The former president's extraordinary legal woes, which include three other unrelated criminal cases, have emerged as a central focus of the campaign.

Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration and Democratic officials in New York of using the legal system to block his return to the White House. Prosecutors allege the former president broke the law to conceal an affair with a porn actor that would have hurt his first presidential bid.

And while Trump will almost certainly seize on his legal woes Saturday, a judge's gag order and the threat of jail will limit Trump's ability to comment publicly on witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the New York trial, which is expected to consume much of the month. The judge in the case already has fined Trump $9,000 for violating the order and warned that jail could follow if he doesnt comply.

Trump's responsibilities as a defendant have limited his ability to win over voters on the campaign trail.

He spent last week's off-day from court in the general election battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan. And he's expecting to face a massive crowd Saturday in New Jersey, a reliably Democratic state. Parts of New Jersey have deep-red enclaves and the southern shoreline in particular draws tourists and summer homeowners from neighboring Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

Saturdays visit to the New Jersey Shore resort isnt Trumps first.

While president, Trump held a rally there in January 2020 to thank Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., the congressman who had just left the Democratic Party for the GOP as a rebuke for the former presidents first impeachment.

Trump drew a crowd at the time that lined the streets, filled bars and supported numerous vendors in what is usually a sleepy city in the winter. This time, the summer season is around the corner for the resort known for its wide beaches and boardwalk games and shops.

Wildwood is in New Jerseys 2nd District, which Van Drew has represented for three terms and covers all or part of six counties in southern New Jersey. It went for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020 after earlier backing Barack Obama.

Trump is set to return to the courtroom next week, when key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, Trump's fixer-turned-foe, is expected to take the witness stand. Last week, he was visibly angry at times as he was forced to sit through testimony from former porn actor Stormy Daniels, who described a sexual encounter with the former president in shocking detail.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in company records. Prosecutors say those payments largely were reimbursements to Cohen, Trump's attorney, who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet.

The prosecution could rest its case by the end of the week. It's unclear if Trump himself will take the stand when the defense presents its case.

___

Peoples reported from New York.

See the original post here:
Trump heading to Jersey Shore to rally 'mega crowd' in break from hush money trial - ABC News

Happy Weekend! Youve made it through a week of dramatic Stormy Daniels testimony, a brain worm and a failed attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. Today were covering a different trip Trump took to court and well meet an unlikely surrogate for the Biden administrations Gaza outreach.

Donald Trump was running for president and leading in the polls. He was spending lots of time in New York. And he had a nagging legal problem that had landed him in court.

I speak, of course, of Trumps 2015 summons for jury duty.

Not long after he clashed with Megyn Kelly on a debate stage and made a crude comment about her in the aftermath Trump showed up at State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan on Aug. 17, 2015. He had a backlog of jury summonses he hadnt responded to, and it was time to make it right.

My colleague Rebecca Davis OBrien has been thinking a lot about this episode, in light of Trumps current status as a criminal defendant in the courthouse just down the block from the one where he appeared nine years ago.

Rebecca was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal at the time, assigned to cover his appearance that day. She was later part of the team that broke the story of the hush-money payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels a central element of the sex scandal cover-up for which Trump is now on trial. But she thinks the tale of his jury duty reveals just as much about his rise as a politician and the problems he is facing now.

Rebecca talked to me about that weird day in August. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

See original here:
Another Time Trump Was Stuck in Court - The New York Times

The fourth week of Donald J. Trumps Manhattan criminal trial veered from the salacious to the monotonous, and ended with a preview of a showdown coming next week: the long-awaited testimony of Mr. Trumps fixer-turned-nemesis, Michael D. Cohen.

On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan asked prosecutors to tell Mr. Cohen to stop talking about Mr. Trump, after a defense lawyer told him of a recent TikTok video in which Mr. Cohen wore a shirt with a picture of Mr. Trump behind bars.

His request capped a week in which the jury heard a porn stars lurid story of a 2006 sexual encounter with Mr. Trump but also less sensational, if potentially damning, testimony about Mr. Trumps checks, invoices and ledgers.

The former president is accused of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to the porn actress, Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 election, a payment meant to silence her. Mr. Trump, 77, has denied the charges and says he did not have sex with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison or probation.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trumps fourth week, and 15th day, on trial:

For almost eight gripping hours, Ms. Daniels took the jurors inside the Lake Tahoe, Nev., hotel suite where she said she and Mr. Trump had sex, a detailed account that included everything from what was in his bathroom to her conflicted feelings before and after.

Initially, her testimony meandered, leading to interruptions and a warning from Justice Merchan to avoid tangents, as well as many successful objections by defense lawyers.

But under cross-examination from Susan Necheles, one of Mr. Trumps lawyers, Ms. Daniels seemingly became more focused, sharply defending herself against charges that she made up her testimony and was out only for money.

By the end of her testimony, she had rebutted Mr. Trumps denial of their sexual encounter and given jurors a clear sense of what Mr. Trump was trying to suppress before the election.

On Thursday night, Ms. Daniels continued to provoke Mr. Trump online, needling him that real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh wait. Nevermind.

Its not yet clear yet whether the former president will testify.

Ms. Daniels testimony elicited strong feelings from Mr. Trump, who at one point caught the attention of the judge by muttering an expletive during Ms. Danielss memorable description of a playful spanking.

Justice Merchan, who has already held Mr. Trump in contempt and fined him $10,000 for breaking his gag order, privately warned his lawyers that Mr. Trump may be intimidating the witness.

I wont tolerate that, Justice Merchan said, in a sidebar.

It remains unclear whether members of the jury noticed his outburst. Until then, Mr. Trump appeared to be keeping his emotions in check, often sitting with his eyes closed. He has said he does that to listen intensely, but the jury could also view it as indifference.

It might not have been as memorable as Ms. Danielss presence in court, but testimony from Trump Organization employees and others about the chain of custody of Mr. Trumps repayment checks to Mr. Cohen was crucial to the prosecution.

It was painstaking, and sometimes dull, and included a blow-by-blow account about how checks were approved, then cut, then mailed, then signed, then returned.

But by showing the jury the paper trail, as well as phone logs and other documentary evidence, prosecutors were stitching a case without the emotional, subjective uncertainty of witnesses like Ms. Daniels.

Mr. Trump long tried to burnish his reputation with self-aggrandizing books. But the prosecution applied some of those against him this week, using his own writing to portray him as a micromanager a man who distrusted his employees for a fear that they will rob you blind. That could bolster their assertion that Mr. Trump knew about the payment to Ms. Daniels and payback arrangement with Mr. Cohen.

Mr. Trumps tendency to punch back was also evident in those excerpts, including one that espoused the policy of an eye for an eye. But Mr. Trump, already found to be in violation of the gag order, wont be able to speak out against Mr. Cohen his lawyers will. How well they tear down his opponents may be critical to their success.

Mr. Cohen will take the stand on Monday.

If the brief spectacle in court on Friday was any indication, his testimony should be passionate, prolonged and likely to trigger strong emotions from Mr. Trump.

Already, the defense is saying that Mr. Cohen is unruly, which the prosecutors acknowledged. How he performs next week could be crucial to how the jury accepts or rejects their arguments.

Prosecutors said on Friday that they may rest their case by the end of next week.

View post:
Quiet End of Week for Trump Trial as Cohen Looms as Witness - The New York Times

At Donald J. Trumps Manhattan criminal trial, his lawyers have insisted he had nothing to do with any of the felony charges against him.

But testimony from prosecution witnesses over the last several weeks has called that argument into question, underscoring that Mr. Trump can be obsessive about two all-important aspects of his work: Anything having to do with the media, and anything having to do with his money.

The 34 documents at the heart of the prosecutions case relate to both obsessions.

The Manhattan district attorney says Mr. Trump orchestrated the disguise of 11 checks, 11 invoices and 12 ledger entries to continue the cover-up of a damaging story, paying his former fixer $420,000 in the process. And the testimony about Mr. Trumps management style could play a central role as prosecutors seek to convince the jury that there is no world in which Mr. Trump was not tracking the outflow of cash from his accounts.

The prosecutors strategy illustrates the risk of a criminal trial for Mr. Trump, one of the most famous men in the world, whose character and habits are familiar even to those who have not tracked his every move. The Manhattan district attorneys office has accused him of orchestrating the falsification of the 34 documents to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.

David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer and the trials first witness, worked with Mr. Trump for decades, the two men trading favors as each sought to make headlines. Asked about Mr. Trumps qualities as a businessman, Mr. Pecker described him as a micromanager from what I saw, adding that he looked at all of the aspects of whatever the issue was.

The prosecutor questioning Mr. Pecker next asked about Mr. Trumps approach to money. He was very cautious and very frugal, Mr. Pecker replied.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Read more:
Trump Has Long Been Known as a Micromanager. Prosecutors Are Using It Against Him. - The New York Times

In a startling precursor to what could be the most explosive testimony in Donald J. Trumps criminal trial, the judge on Friday told prosecutors that he was personally asking that a key witness stop speaking out against the former president.

The witness, Michael D. Cohen, was once a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump and in 2016, paid $130,000 in hush money to a porn star to silence her account of extramarital sex with the then-presidential candidate. Mr. Cohen, who is expected to begin testifying next week, has been outspoken in his taunting of Mr. Trump, recently posting a TikTok video in which he wore a shirt with a picture of the former president behind bars.

On Friday, moments after prosecutors acknowledged that they have little control over their star witness, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, asked them to tell Mr. Cohen again to refrain from making any more statements about the case. He made it clear that the directive came from the highest authority in the court: him.

That comes from the bench, Justice Merchan said.

Mr. Cohen declined to comment.

Justice Merchans remarks might as well have been a billboard previewing next weeks main event. Mr. Cohen is crucial to the case: He says that records of his reimbursements for the hush-money payment were falsified in 2017 at the then-presidents direction.

The judges admonition injected a sense of anticipation into an otherwise placid proceeding, perhaps the first routine day in a most unusual trial. Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorneys office steadily tightened their focus on the central accusations against Mr. Trump ahead of what they said could be their final week of witness testimony.

View original post here:
Judge Merchan Cracks Down on Michael Cohens Taunting of Trump in Hush-Money Case - The New York Times