Trump trial live updates: Trump held in contempt of court for violating gag order

The defendant’s latest appeal for a delay in his criminal hush money trial inNew York has been denied, two weeks after proceedings began.

The former president had sought a delay for several reasons, including that presiding Judge Juan Merchan had refused to recuse himself from the case and that he had not been permitted to invoke a presidential immunity defence.

Mike Bedigan has the details.

You might think he’d quietly drop this insult after nodding off in court but no!

Here’s that very subject being discussed yesterday, in fact.

As for his second post here, I mean, what can you say? Utterly beneath contempt.

The far-right One America News (OAN) has retracted an article that falsely stated that Michael Cohen also had an extramarital affair with the adult film star at the centre of the current case before Manhattan Criminal Court.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Also in that Time interview, the Republican presidential contender continued to duck, weave and dodge on the question of abortion, reluctant to commit himself one way or another for fear of alienating precious votes.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander on what precisely he had to say.

In a major new interview with Time magazine published on Monday, Trump refused to dismiss the possibility of more political violence should he fail to win the upcoming presidential election in November.

The former president said that the response from his supporters “depends on the fairness of the election,” after having falsely claimed on multiple occasions that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

No evidence was ever presented to support those claims, which were rejected by judges across the country in the wake of Joe Biden’s victory.

With the court in recess on Wednesdays, the former president is finally getting back out there today to do some actual campaigning.

Who’s betting he’ll conjure up some more gag order violations for Judge Merchan to consider on Thursday morning?

Here’s Oliver O’Connell and Alex Woodward’s round-up of the key events from another busy day of testimony yesterday, including a reminder of who “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson” are and why Michael Cohen resembles a cartoon dog.

While Trump’s campaign was spiralling after a leaked tape caught him bragging about sexually assaulting women, an attorney and tabloid editor brokering deals to keep damaging stories about him out of the press thought his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election were over, his hush money trial heard on Tuesday.

Keith Davidson – a former attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels who ultimately negotiated the $130,000 sale of her story to Mr Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen – testified that interest in his client’s story “reached a crescendo” after the 2005 Access Hollywood tape leaked just weeks before Election Day in 2016.

Here’s more from Alex Woodward, who is covering proceedings for us at Manhattan Criminal Court.

The attorney who represented a former Playboy model who alleged a months-long affair with Donald Trump had offered a “blockbuster” story to a tabloid editor, kicking off negotiations that helped his 2016 campaign bury a potentially embarrassing story in the months before Election Day.

Jurors in the former president’s hush money trial on Tuesday saw a series of text messages between attorney Keith Davidson, who represented Karen McDougal at the time, and then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard, who brokered a deal with publisher David Pecker to buy the rights to Ms McDougal’s story for $150,000.

“I have a blockbuster trump [sic] story,” Davidson wrote to Howard on 7 June 2016, according to messages shown in court.

Alex Woodward has the story.

He just will not learn his lesson, will he?

Those posts all popped up on Truth Social yesterday not long after Judge Juan Merchan, who will be considering four more potential gag order violations when court resumes on Thursday, had fined him $9,000 for nine offending social media posts and warned the defendant he could face jail time if he keeps reoffending.

Incredibly, Trump was not deterred by the judge’s fine and is already fundraising off it!

Per Politico, his campaign wrote in an email to supporters yesterday:

“A Democrat judge JUST HELD ME IN CONTEMPT OF COURT!

“I was fined $9,000 for 9 gag order violations. THEY WANT TO SILENCE ME! They think they can BLEED ME DRY and SHUT ME UP, but I’ll NEVER stop fighting for YOU.”

And, as if that weren’t enough, after court on Tuesday the defendant also took the opportunity to claim, yet again, that the E Jean Carroll defamation ruling against him was also bogus because he had never met her, potentially defaming her yet again.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on the justice’s threat.