Former President’s first witness Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York Trump is expected back in court Tuesday morning, but only after a hearing where the judge in the case will review a batch of Trump’s recent social media posts.
Prosecutors said there were 11 counts of violations Gag order in caseBanning Trump from commenting on witnesses, judges and others involved in the trial.
Many of the posts have been made in the past few weeks and include disparaging comments about adult film star Stormy Daniels and former attorney Michael Cohen, a key witness in the case. An April 17 post mentioned potential jurors who were being considered for the case at the time.
Prosecutors sought a $1,000 fine for each post, the maximum amount under New York law, and asked Judge Juan Marchan to find Trump in contempt of court. It was unclear whether Marchan would immediately rule on Tuesday’s request.
Jurors were told to be ready to return to court by 11 a.m. to resume testimony from the trial’s first witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Packer.
Peck spent about half an hour on the witness stand after attorneys for both sides made their opening statements. He is the parent company of the Enquirer, American Media Inc. (AMI) outlined its operations, which he left in 2020.
Under questioning by prosecutor Joshua Stanglass, Peck said Stanglass’ stories were particularly “compelling” in his closing remarks.
“We use checkbook journalism,” Peck said, explaining how editors were authorized to spend up to $10,000 on source stories, but larger expenditures “had to be reviewed and brought to me for approval.”
He is expected to testify in detail about the so-called “Catch” program, in which his company bought the rights to salacious stories about Trump but did not publish them. A prosecutor said in court Monday that Pekar will describe his efforts to find and publish stories that could damage Trump’s opponents in the 2016 election.
