(WatchDogReport.org) – Former President Donald Trump’s Hush Money criminal trial has entered an eventful third week, with several crucial witnesses taking the stand to testify. Trump has already been fined $1000 for violating a gag order during the trial and threatened with jail time by Judge Juan Merchan, who noted that previous fines had not deterred the 2024 presidential candidate. The 34 counts that Trump is charged with relate specifically to claims that the former president falsified business records to cover up the payments.
The former president is accused of making payments to silence Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, over an alleged extramarital affair. As Daniels testified under cross-examination during the trial, she admitted to hating Donald Trump. Daniels also stated that she refuses to pay him a court-ordered $500,000. Her testimony was so damaging that even Elie Honig, a legal analyst for CNN, called it “disastrous.”
Greg Jarrett on Stormy Daniels' Testimony: "She self-destructed… None of what she had to say was relevant to any of the charges against Donald Trump… Prosecutors put her on the stand to vilify Trump with a salacious story, irrelevant, highly prejudicial, probative of nothing… pic.twitter.com/ApE57cCV6L
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 8, 2024
In addition to Daniel’s blunderous testimony, the prosecution’s key witness and former Trump ally, Michael Cohen, is also a potential liability for those looking to see Trump convicted in the trial. Cohen’s conduct outside of the courtroom has been criticized, and his own criminal past, which saw him confess in 2018 to campaign finance violations and criminal tax evasion, has raised questions about his credibility as a witness.
Keith Davidson, an attorney who previously represented Daniels, declared that her denial of an affair with the former president was technically true while on the stand. He also claimed that the alleged hush money was not paying her off, referring to it as a “consideration.” During the cross-examination, Trump’s attorneys played audio recordings in which Davidson admitted Cohen did not require Trump’s authority to make the payment.
The testimonies could call into question Cohen’s narrative. In the second week of the trial, bank executive Gary Farro said he helped Cohen set up an account with Essential Consultants, LLC, the company Cohen is alleged to have used to pay $130,000 to Daniels. In his testimony, Farro clarified that he received no indication that the account was to be used to process payments on any political candidate’s behalf.
Farro added that if this had been the case, there would have been further scrutiny and delays in opening the account. He even admitted that the account might not have been opened at all if scrutinized on these grounds. Farro testified that he was unaware the account was being set up on behalf of Trump.
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