The criminal trial of Donald Trump resumes in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday with a focus on the hush money transaction that’s at the center of the allegations against the former president.
The first witness of the day will be Gary Farro, a banker who worked with then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen when Cohen, Trump’s self-described “fixer,” paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about her allegation that she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies her claim.
Farro, who in 2016 was an executive at First Republic Bank, testified Friday that Cohen reached out to him in mid-October of that year to set up a bank account for a company he was forming called Essential Consultants LLC.
Cohen described the company to the bank “as a real estate consulting company to collect fees for investment consulting work he does for real estate deals,” Farro told jurors. Prosecutors characterized it as a shell company that was set up to mask the source of the payment, which was made shortly before Election Day.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursing Cohen for the Daniels payment. He has pleaded not guilty.
Farro’s testimony is expected to last much of Tuesday morning. There were no trial proceedings Monday.
It wasn’t immediately clear who will take the stand after Farro. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been keeping its list of witnesses close to the vest, citing Trump’s social media posts blasting expected witnesses Cohen and Daniels, despite a gag order.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to hold Trump in criminal contempt because of the posts, and a hearing has been scheduled for Thursday over additional alleged violations of the gag order. The Manhattan district attorney has already asked Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the case, to fine Trump and warn that he could be locked up.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
