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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

May 13, 12:01 PM
Weisselberg allegedly sought to distance Trump from repayment

Michael Cohen said then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg suggested using a non-Trump entity to make the $150,000 payment to AMI to distance Trump from the deal.

“I went to Allen’s Office. I expressed to him that we need funding of $150,000 to consummate this transaction. Allen then said to me, ‘Well, if we do it from a Trump entity, that kind of defeats the purpose,'” Cohen recounted.

Cohen said Weisselberg suggested using a non-Trump entity for the transaction to distance Trump from the deal. Cohen said Weisselberg asked him to “think about ways that we could raise the $150,000.”

“It was in order to keep it separate,” Cohen said.

May 13, 11:56 AM
Cohen addresses why secretly made recording ended

According to Michael Cohen, the recording he secretly made of a 2016 meeting with Trump abruptly ended because he took an incoming phone call on his phone.

“I must have believed it was an important phone call,” Cohen testified.

Cohen added that he believed he recorded enough to prove to Pecker that the $150,000 reimbursement was coming, which he said was the the goal of the recording.

“I didn’t want to record more — I already had enough,” Cohen said.

Jurors saw a phone record from AT&T that suggested Cohen received a call around the time of the recording.

The conversation briefly continued after the recording ended, according to Cohen.

Cohen said he told Trump, “I am going to head over to Allen Weisselberg’s office and I will get back to him with more of an update.”

Jurors briefly saw the metadata for the recording.

“Did you ever alter that recording?” Hoffinger asked.

“No,” Cohen said.

Trump, at the defense table, shook his head “no” at Cohen’s response. The former president appears much more engaged now, thumbing through a stack of papers in his hands.

May 13, 11:51 AM
Cohen’s testimony resumes after break

Judge Juan Merchan restarted the proceedings after the mid-morning break. Before prosecutor Susan Hoffinger resumed her direct examination of Michael Cohen, Merchan instructed the jury that, in regards the secretly made recording the jury just heard, the recording itself is evidence in the case, not the transcript.

“It is the tape itself that is the evidence,” Merchan said, though he said the transcript will be accessible to the jury during deliberations.

Trump, back from the break, appears much more alert, sitting in his chair with his body angled directly toward Cohen as Cohen recounts more of the recording.

Twice, Trump shook his head “no” as Cohen spoke.

May 13, 11:37 AM
Cohen reviews contents of secretly made recording

After Cohen’s recording was played in court, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is replayed sections and asked Cohen about what he said at the time.

“Who is ‘our friend David?'” Hoffinger asked.

“He is referring to David Pecker,” Cohen said.

Asked about the reference to then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, Cohen said, “Because Mr. Trump had previously directed me to speak with Allen Weisselberg about getting this matter settled.”

“Because we are going to need money and going to need to open the LLC and to resolve this issue,” Cohen said about the LLC being formed.

“We were referring to the 150,000 that was advanced by AMI in order to purchase the life rights of Karen McDougal,” Cohen said “He knew already knew based on conversations with David which is why he mentioned the number 150.”

When asked about the comment about Pecker getting “hit by a truck,” Cohen said that Trump was concerned about the National Enquirer’s files about him in case Pecker ever left the company.

“David Pecker was being considered for the CEO position of Time Inc. and the concern was the information — so all the stuff refers to that,” Cohen said

Following this testimony, court was recessed for the mid-morning break.

Cohen, exiting the courtroom, did not appear to look at Trump as he walked by the defense counsel table.

May 13, 11:24 AM
Jury hears secret recording of Trump discussing payment

Michael Cohen testified that he made a recording to prove to National Enquirer publisher David Pecker that Trump would repay him the $150,000 for Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill arrangement.

“I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr. Trump,” Cohen added.

Cohen said he walked into Trump’s office with his phone in his hand, making the recording.

Cohen told the jury that you can hear Trump, himself, and Trump assistant Rhona Graff on the recording.

Asked whether he thought Trump knew he was recording the conversation, Cohen said: “No, ma’am.”

Jurors then heard the recording.

Cohen: Told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I’m going to do that right away. I’ve actually come up and I’ve spoken —

Trump: Give it to me and get me a —

Cohen: And, I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with —

Trump: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

Cohen: — funding. Yes. And it’s all the stuff.

Trump: Yes, I was thinking about that.

Cohen: All the stuff. Because — here, you never know where that company, you never know what he’s —

Trump: Maybe he gets hit by a truck

Cohen: Correct. So, I’m all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be —

Trump: Listen, what financing?

Cohen: We’ll have to pay him something.

Trump: (INAUDIBLE) pay with cash.

Cohen: No, no, no, no, no, I got it.

Trump: Check.

Every member of the jury appeared to look down at their monitor to read along with the transcript of the call as it was played. Cohen, as the call played, shook his head “no” over and over again on the witness stand, apparently in disbelief at rehearing it.

At one point he looked over in Trump’s direction and sighed as the recording continued, then looked over to the jury to watch them take it in.

DA Alvin Bragg appeared to close his eyes and dropped his head as the call played.

May 13, 11:14 AM
Cohen says Pecker pushed for repayment for McDougal deal

“David had asked me when he should anticipate receiving — being paid back the $150,000,” Cohen testified about then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker seeking repayment for the money he spent to catch and kill Karen McDougal’s story for Trump.

“He wanted the $150,000 back because it was too much money for him to hide from the CEO of the parent company, and he had also laid out $30,000 previously, so he was putting pressure on me to speak to Mr. Trump and to get the money back,” Cohen said.

“Was he upset about it?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“Very,” Cohen said.

Cohen met with Pecker for lunch, where Cohen repeated the request for reimbursement. Cohen said he communicated the request to Trump.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

Trump’s attorney Emile Bove, during the testimony, leaned in to whisper something to Trump, prompting him to crane his neck to the side and then sit up in his seat for the first time this morning. He then appeared to drop back down and close his eyes again.

May 13, 11:09 AM
‘Great job,’ Trump responded to McDougal deal, Cohen says

By August 2016, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer shared with Michael Cohen that the deal to catch-and-kill Karen McDougal’s story had been a success.

“The terms were going to be compensation to her in the amount of $150,000 as well as they were going to provide her 24 penned articles that would bear her name, as well as she was going to be on two covers of one of the various magazines that they owned,” Cohen said about the terms of the deal, which Pecker described as “bulletproof.”

Asked to explain what Pecker meant by bulletproof, Cohen said, “That they got it. That this is locked down. We prevented the story from being released.”

Cohen said he communicated the news to Trump, who told him, “Fantastic. Great job.”

As Cohen, time after time, injects what he says are Trump’s own words directly in the alleged catch and kill scheme, Trump, sitting at the defense table, has no reaction. Mostly, his eyes appear closed, his head moving side to side occasionally.

May 13, 11:03 AM
Cohen recounts phone call setting up McDougal plan

Michael Cohen recounted listening to a 2016 phone call between then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump regarding Karen McDougal’s story.

“He had the call put through, and he had a speaker box on his desk. Instead of lifting up the phone, he used the speaker box so I was able to hear,” Cohen recounted. “He asked him how things were going with the matter, and David said we have this under control and we will — we will take care of this.”

“David had stated that it was going to cost them $150,000 to control the story — to which Mr. Trump replied, ‘No problem. I will take care of it.'”

According to Cohen, National Enquirer parent AMI would make the original $150,000 payment, with the plan for Trump to later reimburse them.

May 13, 10:57 AM
Jurors see texts related to McDougal situation

Jurors briefly saw text messages between Cohen and Trump staffer Keith Schiller on June 16, 2016, in which Cohen said he was trying to contact Trump through Schiller to update him on the Karen McDougal situation.

“Where’s the boss?” Cohen texted.

Jurors then saw text messages between Cohen and National Enquirer Editor Dylan Howard, who met McDougal in person to vet her allegations on June 20, 2016.

“Understood, I got this locked down for you, I won’t let it out of my grasp,” Howard texted Cohen.

Cohen said he later had a call with Howard and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to learn about the McDougal meeting.

“That they believed that they had this control, as Dylan had stated to me,” Cohen said about what he learned on the call.

In court, the jury is focused as Cohen recounts the catch and kill efforts. Earlier, some jurors had laughed and flashed a smile at Cohen’s jokes, but they have now returned to their familiar serious faces. Many appear to be taking notes and they’re often looking at Cohen and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger as she questions him.

May 13, 10:51 AM
‘She’s really beautiful,’ Cohen says Trump said of McDougal

Michael Cohen said he contacted Trump “Immediately after I got off the phone with AMI” about former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal shopping her story that she had a year-long affair with Trump, which he denied.

“Hey boss, I got to talk to you,” Cohen recounted telling Trump. “I told him about what I had just learned. I asked him if he knew who Karen McDougal was, knows anything about the story.”

“His response was, ‘She’s really beautiful.’ I said, OK, but right now there’s a story that’s being shopped.”

According to Cohen, Trump directed him to “make sure it doesn’t get released.”

May 13, 10:41 AM
Cohen recounts effort to kill doorman story

Michael Cohen told jurors that he kept Donald Trump in the loop about his effort to kill a false story about Trump having a child out of wedlock, which was shopped by former Trump doorman Dino Sajudin.

“I provided him with all the information,” Cohen said about his conversation with Trump.

“He told me to make sure that the story does not get out. You handle it,” Trump said according to Cohen. “He asked me to speak to [the two employees] and let them know it was taken care of.”

Pecker said he worked with David Pecker and Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer, who purchased the life rights to the story.

“Did you tell them that Mr Trump would be grateful?” Hoffinger asked.

“Absolutely,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he offered feedback on AMI’s contract with Sajudin, suggesting they add a $1 million penalty if Sajudin breached the contract.

When Cohen first became aware of Sajudin’s claim, Cohen said, “I went to [Trump] immediately to advise him that there was a story — because it was a negative story for him — and to get his direction on what he wanted me to do.”

Cohen said he shared the news of Sajudin’s contract with Trump to keep him in the loop and “in order to get credit for accomplishing the task.”

“What was Mr. Trump’s reaction when you told him that?” Hoffinger asked.

“That’s great,” Cohen said Trump responded.

May 13, 10:36 AM
Cohen says he worked with Enquirer to boost Trump

Cohen said National Enquirer parest AMI would send him advanced covers of upcoming editions of the National Enquirer, which frequently showed negative stories about Trump’s political foes — including Hillary Clinton.

Asked what he would do with those copies, Cohen said he “immediately showed it to Mr. Trump.”

“Why?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“So he knew that David was loyal, on board … doing everything he said he was going to do in that August meeting,” Cohen said.
Cohen said Trump’s reaction would typically be akin to: “Fantastic.”

The jury saw an email exchange regarding Cohen personally editing a story about Trump that was going to be in the National Enquirer. It was billed as an exclusive: “The Trump that Nobody Knows.”

“Is this an example of your working with AMI to get stories out that would benefit the Trump campaign?” Hoffinger asled.

“It is an example,” Cohen replied.

May 13, 10:32 AM
Cohen testifies about Trump Tower meeting

Before Trump announced his bid for the presidency, Michael Cohen recalled Trump warning him about stories that might emerge about his past interactions with various women.

“You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Cohen recalled Trump saying.

Cohen recounted the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting where then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Trump and Cohen agreed to the basics of a catch-and-kill scheme.

“What was discussed is the power of the National Enquirer in terms of being located at the cash register of so many supermarkets and bodegas. That if we can place positive stories about Mr. Trump that would be beneficial, and if we could place negative stories about some of the other candidates, that would also be beneficial,” Cohen said.

“What he said was that he could keep an eye out for anything negative about Mr. Trump and that he would be able to help us know in advance what was coming out and try to stop it from coming out,” Cohen said of Pecker, echoing Pecker’s testimony from three weeks ago.

May 13, 10:27 AM
Cohen testifies about Trump’s political aspirations

In 2011, Cohen flagged a poll to Trump that suggested he would be a competitive presidential candidate

“I took that article and I brought to Mr. Trump, and I said what do you think?” Cohen said. “He said it’s interesting, we should look into it.”

Cohen said that he created a website to encourage the run called “”

“It was further proof that his name recognition, his popularity … was so strong,” Cohen said.

Cohen said that Trump backed away from the idea of running in the 2012 race to focus on his other commitments, including his television show.

“You don’t leave Hollywood. Hollywood leaves you,” Cohen recounted Trump saying.

While Trump backed away in 2012, Cohen said Trump made a vow about 2016.

“He promised to me that he would do it in the next election cycle,” Cohen said.

Cohen. on the stand, appears earnest and somewhat morose — different from his bombastic, showy persona on his podcast or on social media. He appears calm and speaks slowly, referring to his former boss as “Mr. Trump.”

May 13, 10:23 AM
Cohen testifies about David Pecker

“Do you know someone named David Pecker?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen.

“I knew David Pecker even before Mr. Trump,” Cohen replied about the then-National Enquirer publisher. He said the two men would communicate by email or by Signal because “sometimes we thought encryption, not having the event traceable, would be beneficial.”

Cohen said he “rarely” interacted with Pecker before 2015. He provided an example of trying to use Pecker to raise for Harlem for Hoops, a charity to which Trump donated.

Before 2015, Cohen testified that the National Enquirer did not purchase stories to kill on Trump’s behalf.

He testified he was not aware of National Enquirer parent company AMI ever buying stories for Trump prior to the 2016 campaign — feeding into prosecutors’ narrative this was a campaign-related scheme.

“Prior to Mr. Trump announcing his run for the presidency, are you aware of AMI ever paying to suppress stories?” Hoffinger asked.
“No ma’am,” Cohen said.

May 13, 10:15 AM
Cohen recalls ‘great times,’ but says he lied for Trump

In an emotional moment, Michael Cohen gave a candid, glowing response when asked what it was like to work for the Trump Organization.

“It was fantastic,” he said. “Working for him during those 10 years was an amazing experience in many, many ways. There were great times, there were several less-than-great times, but for the most part I enjoyed the responsibilities that were given to me. I enjoyed working with my colleagues at the Trump Organization, the Trump children. It was a big family.”

Trump, at the defense table, remained motionless during Cohen’s description. His eyes appear closed.

After speaking positively about his time with the Trump Organization, Cohen acknowledged that he often lied for Trump.

“Because it was needed to accomplish the task,” Cohen said.

May 13, 10:09 AM
Cohen testifies about how Trump didn’t like paper trails

Michael Cohen testified that normally spoke with Trump in person or over the phone. Cohen said he sometimes contacted Trump though his executive assistant Rhona Graff, his “personal attache” Keith Schiller, or Trump’s children.

Like earlier witnesses, Cohen testified that Trump did not use email.

“Mr. Trump never had an email address,” Cohen said. “He would comment that emails are like written papers. He knows too many people who have gone down as a direct result … of emails … that prosecutors could use in a case.”

“By ‘gone down’, you mean getting in some sort of trouble?” Cohen was asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Cohen replied.

Trump, at the defense table, did not react to this questioning.

Cohen said that he frequently reported to Trump when handling sensitive matters.

“As soon as you had a result or answer, you would go straight back and tell him, especially if it was a matter that was troubling to him,” Cohen said.

“If you didn’t immediately provide him with the information … that wouldn’t go over well for you,” Cohen added.

May 13, 10:05 AM
Cohen says he worked closely with Trump

Prosecutors appear to be laying the groundwork for how closely Trump and Michael Cohen worked together. Cohen said his office was at one point “maybe 50 or 60 feet” away from Trump’s.

Cohen also told the jury they spoke “every single day, multiple times per day.”

Cohen is answering questions in the same animated fashion that he often displays on TV. Asked if he threatened companies and people with lawsuits on behalf of Trump, Cohen didn’t miss a beat: “Yes,” he said, his eyebrows raising. Occasionally, he glances over to the jury.

Trump, at the defense table, is sitting back in his chair with his head slightly tilted. He does not appear to be directly looking at Cohen.

May 13, 10:00 AM
Cohen testifies that he renegotiated Trump’s bills

According to Michael Cohen, one of his frequent jobs was renegotiating bills on Trump’s behalf.

“A law firm would send an invoice. He didn’t believe that the invoice was fair, reasonable or justified, so he would give me the task of renegotiating a specific bill,” Cohen said.

Cohen recounted his work repaying approximately 50 vendors related to Trump University at a discounted rate. All but two of the fifty vendors agreed to the discounted rate.

“They just went away,” Cohen said of the two vendors.

“Did you pay then?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“No, ma’am,” Cohen responded.

Cohen said Trump told him the outcome of the negotiation was “fantastic” and “great.”

“How did that make you feel?” Hoffinger asked.

“Like I was on top of the world,” Cohen responded.

May 13, 9:53 AM
Cohen says Trump hired him after he did legal favors

Cohen told jurors that he began working for Trump after helping Trump with a series of legal favors.

“We ended up overtaking the board and resolving the issue which was to Mr. Trump’s satisfaction,” Cohen said about the first favor related to a board at a Trump property. “He liked the way that occurred and then continued to ask me if I would assist in other legal issues or matters he had.”

“Did he pay you for that work?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.

“No, ma’am,” Cohen said

According to Cohen, Trump offered him a job after he presented Trump a $100,000 bill for legal costs related to the earlier favors.

“Would you want to come work for me?” Cohen recounted Trump saying. “I was honored, I was taken by surprise, and I agreed”

When asked about the $100,000 legal bill, Cohen said Trump “asked if I would like to get fired on the first day.” The bill was never paid, according to Cohen, who immediately left his law firm to work for the Trump Organization as Trump’s special counsel and a senior vice president.

When asked about the kind of work Cohen did for Trump, Cohen responded, “It was whatever concerned him — whatever he wanted.”

Cohen said he reported “just to Mr. Trump.”

May 13, 9:47 AM
Cohen identifies Trump in court

Michael Cohen briefly introduced himself to the jury, telling them how his father immigrated to California after surviving the Holocaust.

“Four children later, here I am,” Cohen said about his parents.

Cohen told the jury that he went to law school at the urging of his family, though he did not want to practice law.

“I wanted to go to Wall Street,” Cohen said.

He briefly explained how he acquired wealth with real estate investments and taxi medallions.

“I ended up going into business with a friend of mine who had grown up with me and we started purchasing buildings,” Cohen said.

Cohen stood up in the witness box so he could identify Trump in the courtroom.

“He is wearing a blue and white tie,” Cohen said while looking toward Trump.

May 13, 9:43 AM
Cohen takes the stand

“The people call Michael Cohen,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.

Michael Cohen entered the courtroom and took his seat in the witness box.

Donald Trump stared straight forward as Cohen walked into the courtroom. He did not appear to look toward Cohen.

May 13, 9:42 AM
Judge denies state’s request regarding Weisselberg

Judge Merchan began by denying the state’s request to enter into evidence former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s separation agreement with the company.

“It would come in as a business record, but I am not going to allow it in,” Merchan said. “It doesn’t prove any element of the offense, it doesn’t move the ball in any way.”

Prosecutors sought to introduce the agreement — which allotted Weisselberg $2 million after he left the Trump Organization– to explain why Weisselberg was not testifying at the trial. Weisselberg is currently serving a five-month sentence on Rikers Island for perjury.

Trump, meanwhile, has been waiting patients at the defense table for the jury to enter, which is taking a bit longer than usual.

“Where’s the jury?” one individual in his entourage could be heard whispering.

May 13, 9:35 AM
Proceedings are underway

Judge Juan Merchan took his seat on the bench and opened the day’s proceedings.

Each of the lawyers made brief introductions before Merchan addressed Trump in his usual fashion.

“Good morning, Mr. Trump,” Merchan said from the bench.

May 13, 9:28 AM
Trump, Bragg enter courtroom

Donald Trump has entered the courtroom. He looked around the room as he made his way to the front.

The former president is joined by his attorneys, as well as numerous associates and Secret Service.

Eric Trump and attorney Alina Habba are seated together in the first row, immediately behind Trump. Behind them in the second, which is completely full, are Trump’s legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, Natalie Harp, and JD Vance.

Campaign team members Jason Miller and Karoline Levitt are seated in the very back of the courtroom.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also entered the courtroom.

May 13, 9:17 AM
Prosecutors enter courtroom

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office have entered the courtroom.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, who is expected to lead Michael Cohen’s direct examination, placed a hefty three-inch binder at the lectern before returning to the counsel table.

May 13, 9:09 AM
Dozens of reporters crammed into courtroom

The courtroom in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse is packed with reporters and security ahead of Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Approximately 70 reporters are crammed into the gallery of the courtroom, seated on wooden benches that seat six per row. Five members of the public are seated in the back of the gallery behind the prosecution counsel table and jury box, and five court officers are scattered throughout the courtroom.

On the right side of the courtroom, earlier witnesses Jaden Jarmel-Schneider and Georgia Longstreet are seated near computer monitors. Both work as paralegals for the Manhattan district attorney’s office and testified as part of the prosecution’s case.

Jarmel-Schneider introduced phone records and a summary exhibit about the falsified documents into evidence, while Longstreet introduced Trump’s social media posts into evidence.

May 13, 8:58 AM
Members of public wait overnight for seat in courtroom

Several members of the public waited overnight to secure a spot in the courtroom for Michael Cohen’s testimony, traveling from as far as Los Angeles for the momentous day in court.

Michael Powers told ABC News that he joined the line at 2:30 p.m. yesterday to secure his spot in court, though he enlisted the help of professional line sitters to hold the spot overnight. He rejoined the line at 5:00 a.m.

“It’s history in the making,” Powers said. “This isn’t gonna happen very often.”

Powers said he prioritized seeing Michael Cohen’s testimony due to its importance to the prosecution’s case.

“I find him credible” Powers said. “He’s lied in the past, but he lied for Donald Trump in my opinion, so I think he’ll be a good witness.”

Other members of the public waited overnight without the use of line sitters, including Chris Sagastizabal, who joined the line at 6:45 p.m. on Sunday with two friends.

“I changed my work schedule,” Sagastizabal said.

Five members in the public have been seated in the courtroom this morning, with several others seated in a nearby overflow room.

May 13, 7:59 AM
Cohen arrives in court

Michael Cohen has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of today’s expected testimony.

Proceedings are scheduled to get underway at 9:30 a.m. ET.

May 13, 7:01 AM
Star witness Michael Cohen expected to take the stand

Michael Cohen, who for nearly a decade was Donald Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney, and self-described “attack dog with a law license,” is scheduled to take the stand this morning as the prosecution’s star witness in Trump’s criminal hush money trial.

According to prosecutors, Cohen was in the room in when Trump and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker agreed to a catch-and-kill scheme to hide negative information about Trump from 2016 voters, and Cohen himself made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. The former president, who has denied the encounter took place, is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to his company’s reimbursement to Cohen in 2017.

But Cohen’s value to the prosecution’s case could be endangered by the disbarred lawyer’s credibility issues. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance allegations, and lying to Congress in what Cohen says was an effort to protect Trump. The former president’s lawyers have also argued that Cohen perjured himself again when he testified at Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, and accuse Cohen of making his livelihood off books and podcasts that antagonize Trump.

Cohen is the final key witness in the prosecution’s case, after which the defense will present its case.

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(MIAMI) — Donald Trump Jr. visited Peter Navarro in a Miami federal prison, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Navarro, the former Trump White House adviser, was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He is currently being housed at Federal Prison Camp in Miami, Florida.

Trump Jr. confirmed the visit to ABC News.

“It’s important to show support,” he said.

Trump Jr. told ABC News Navarro is in “good spirits” and believes he’s been wrongfully convicted.

Navarro claimed at a news conference in March that the case against him an “unprecedented assault on the constitutional separation of powers.”

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of his sentence and he was forced to report to prison in March to serve his four-month confinement.

At the news conference, Navarro mentioned former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress case and how Bannon was allowed to remain free from prison while he appeals his case.

Bannon lost his appeal that his conviction be tossed out in the House Jan. 6 committee case and he is scheduled to report to prison at an unspecified date.

 

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(NEW YORK) — In northern Wisconsin, April Stone is carrying on a centuries-old Ojibwe practice of basket making. She uses wood from the black ash tree, a cultural keystone species that’s now under threat from the invasive emerald ash borer.

Yet for Stone and other tribal artisans, protecting black ash trees – and their cultural and ecological value – is critical. Basket making, she said, empowers and connects people.

“This kind of work teaches humility and patience and respect and courage and love and wisdom, all of those sacred lessons that helped our people continue on in their existence for thousands and thousands of years,” Stone said.

The emerald ash borer has proliferated across 36 states, the District of Columbia and five Canadian provinces, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The green, wood-boring beetle – native to Asia and which was first discovered in the U.S. in 2002 – is considered one of the most destructive invasive species in North America, killing trees within three to five years of infestation, the federal agency reports.

Experts say that while adult beetles cause minor damage, their larvae are killing black ash trees by feeding on the inner bark, which disrupts the flow of water and nutrients the tree needs to live.

Many Ojibwe basket makers and harvesters pound logs from trees to produce materials that are used in a variety of woodworking projects, like making lacrosse sticks and snowshoe frames. By a recent estimate, 98% of Indigenous people in areas where black ash grows will experience the loss of more than 75% of their tree population by 2035. In the U.S., black ash trees grow primarily from Maine to Wisconsin, in a band that wraps to the south of the Great Lakes.

The decline of black ash trees is also a concern to Tyler Everett, a citizen member of the Mi’kmaq Nation in northern Maine. Everett is the tribal forest adaptation technical assistant with United South & Eastern Tribes, a nonprofit serving 33 federally recognized tribal nations.

Everett said basket makers alerted regional leaders to the emerald ash borer’s devastating impact on black ash trees. That inter-tribal communication, he added, moved the needle on awareness.

“The knowledge that basket makers and ash harvesters have about this tree needs to be passed on, and we have to have new basket makers and ash harvesters learning this cultural practice. It’s hard to see that happen when the trees are not surviving,” Everett said.

A further challenge: black ash is a species that’s vulnerable to climate change, according to a 2023 report from the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC). The U.S. Forest Service told ABC News in an email that black ash trees are typically managed during the winter, “so people and equipment can enter the stands on top of snow, which avoids damaging the fragile lowland soils where black ash grow.”

However, climate change is causing warmer winters, which in turn has “reduced the snowpack, limiting opportunities to safely manage these stands,” the U.S. Forest Service said, making it more difficult to slow the spread of emerald ash borer.

Chris Swanston, the director of the Forest Service Office of Sustainability and Climate, said the agency is “undergoing a genuine paradigm shift” in its land management and adaptation approaches because of climate change.

“The snow is not there like it used to be,” Swanston said.

He said it’s estimated that black ash trees face about a 95% mortality rate in the next 25 years because of the emerald ash borer, which has killed millions of ash trees in recent years.

“The reason that people are worried about emerald ash borer is because it seems like an almost unstoppable force,” Swanston said.

The effects of infestation can go undetected for two years, hindering forest managers from quickly identifying and eradicating it. The invasive pest has infiltrated nearly 60 percent of the native range of black ash, a recent study found.

In addition to their cultural importance, black ash is a wetland species that regulates water levels, and their loss reduces biodiversity.

“You definitely throw off the interrelationships of different wildlife species, in addition to essentially losing a forested landscape,” Swanston said of the impacts of fewer black ash trees.

Despite logistical hurdles, there are some promising strategies underway to preserve and repopulate black ash trees. Many tribal members and foresters are collecting ash seeds in hopes of harvesting them both for future research and rematriation efforts, the latter referring to reuniting them with tribal nations. Others like Everett, who are part of the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) group, are researching varieties of black ash that are genetically more resistant to the emerald ash borer.

Swanston said the U.S. Forest Service is strongly engaged with tribal nations across the country, working together to learn from their experience. Still other mitigation efforts include introducing non-native predators of the emerald ash borer, such as stingless wasps.

“It’s kind of a race for time,” Swanston said. “Can the wasps push back the emerald ash borer before the emerald ash borer wipes out so much ash that there’s no coming back?”

Back in Wisconsin, on the Bad River reservation, April Stone said in Ojibwe oral history, humans are the fourth order of creation, and everything in the natural world – like birds, the sky, and trees – comes before them. She said even with the emerald ash borer’s destructive presence, there is a bigger question to consider: the human impact on the landscape.

Still, she finds reason for optimism close to home.

“I can feel pretty good about the future of the ash trees when I’m walking around and I see all the little saplings coming up. I feel hopeful when I see that,” Stone said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Monday might be the first time the jury in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial sees Michael Cohen in person, but they have heard plenty about the former president’s one-time “fixer.”

Witness after witness over the last three weeks have offered their opinions on Trump’s former lawyer, whose credibility with the jury could swing the outcome of the trial.

Cohen serves a linchpin role in the state’s case as the only witness present during some of the discussions that prosecutors say tie Trump to a scheme to falsify business records in an effort to influence the 2016 election. Prosecutors argue that Trump disguised payments to Cohen in 2017 to prevent voters from learning allegations of a long-denied sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson compared Cohen to the excitable dog from the animated film Up — including by shouting “Squirrel!” in open court — while Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks took a swing at Cohen’s reputation as a “fixer.”

“I used to say that he liked to call himself a ‘fixer” or ‘Mr. Fix It,’ and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to come and fix it,” Hicks testified.

Prosecutors attempted to inoculate Cohen during their opening statements by arguing that he acted on Trump’s orders and has since come clean with his criminal conduct.

“Michael Cohen, like other witnesses in this trial, has made mistakes in his past,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement. “I suspect the defense will go to great lengths to get you to reject his testimony precisely because it is so damming.”

As expected, defense lawyer Todd Blanche hammered at Cohen’s credibility during his opening statement, and defense lawyers are expected to lean into their cross-examination of Cohen over the coming week.

“He has a goal, an obsession with getting Trump, and you’re going to hear that,” Blanche told jurors. “I submit to you that he cannot be trusted.”

But statements about Cohen from multiple witnesses — about his personal identity, professional work, and honesty — add another dimension to Cohen’s complicated reputation.

Early in the trial, jurors heard from Cohen’s former banker, Gary Farro, who said Cohen’s reputation preceded him.

“I can only tell you what I was told — that I was selected because of my knowledge and my ability to handle, um, individuals that may be a little challenging,” Farro said after being asked why he was assigned to work with Cohen. “Frankly, I didn’t find him that difficult.”

Farro said that whenever he got a call from Cohen, “it was always something that was urgent,” and that Cohen liked to boast about his relationship with Trump.

“Did he talk about that frequently?” prosecutor Becky Mangold asked.

“Yes. He was very excited to be working for him,” Farro said.

Davidson similarly told the jury about how Cohen leaned heavily on his relationship with Trump during their negotiations to purchase Daniel’s story ahead of the 2016 election.

“Every single time I talked to Michael Cohen he leaned on his close affiliation with Donald Trump,” Davidson testified. “I don’t know if it was ever explicitly said, ‘I am negotiating this matter on behalf of Donald Trump.’ It was part of his identity and he let me know it every opportunity he could.”

Cohen never formally held a role on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but Hicks said that Cohen made media appearances on behalf of Trump and was looped into certain campaign matters.

“He would try to insert himself at certain moments, but he wasn’t supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity,” Hicks told jurors.

According to prosecutors, Cohen’s chief contribution to Trump’s 2016 campaign was coordinating a catch-and-kill scheme with David Pecker of the National Enquirer and Trump. Pecker told jurors that Cohen invited him to an August 2015 meeting where the scheme originated, and would contact Cohen if he spotted a negative story about Trump.

“I received a call from Michael Cohen telling me that the boss wanted to see me,” Pecker told jurors about the August 2015 meeting. “When I spoke to Michael Cohen, that’s how he would refer to Donald Trump, as the boss.”

According to prosecutors, that scheme ultimately resulted in two hush money payments from National Enquirer parent company AMI — to purchase a false story about Trump fathering an illegitimate child for $30,000 and a separate story about Trump’s alleged affair with former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, which he has denied, for $150,000. Pecker also said he notified Cohen about the option to purchase Daniels’ story of an alleged affair with Trump, which Cohen did in the days ahead of the 2016 election for $130,000.

Pecker told jurors about growing frustrated with Cohen after he repeatedly delayed the Stormy Daniels payment, and that Cohen erupted when Pecker backed out of a plan for the Trump Organization to reimburse AMI for the $150,000 McDougal payment due to legal concerns, putting the future of the catch-and-kill arrangement in jeopardy.

“He was very, very, angry, very upset, screaming basically, at me. And I said, ‘I am not going forward with this agreement — rip it up,'” Pecker recounted. “Michael Cohen said, ‘The boss is going to be very angry at you.'”

Keith Davidson told jurors that he grew tired of Cohen delaying his payment to Daniels in 2016, telling the jury that Cohen made excuses including blaming computer issues, missing emails, the observance of a Jewish holiday, and Trump’s busy schedule on the campaign trail.

“You can’t believe what we’re going through. The Secret Service is in here — they have so many goddamn firewalls. I can’t get s—. It’s not my fault. You’re going to have to resend the agreements again. I never got your emails,” Davidson recounted Cohen saying, describing the former lawyer as a “jerk” and “pants-on-fire kind of guy.”

The jury also heard a recording that Cohen surreptitiously made during a phone call with Davidson where Cohen complained about Trump.

“He said something to the effect of: ‘Jesus Christ, can you f—— believe I’m not going to Washington. After everything I’ve done for that f—— guy, I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s a– so many times, you don’t even know,'” Davidson testified.

He added that Cohen was “depressed and despondent” at the time because Cohen was not given a position in the Trump administration. According to Davidson, Cohen had mentioned the idea of being attorney general or chief of staff.

“I thought he was going to kill himself,” Davidson said.

Hope Hicks testified that when she learned about the Daniels hush money payment in 2018, Trump told her Cohen made the payment “out of the kindness of his own heart” to protect his boss — a contention that Hicks discredited by telling the jury what she thought of Cohen.

“I would say that would be out of character for Michael,” Hicks said. “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person. He’s the kind of person who seeks credit.”

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(NEW YORK) — As they sat in the lobby of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, D.C., last month, Garnell Whitfield Jr. and others who have lost relatives nationwide to gun violence listened as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland helped dedicate an exhibit honoring those killed.

Garland spoke of some of the victims on the new “Faces of Gun Violence Memorial” wall, including Whitfield’s 86-year-old mother, Ruth, describing her as a “mother, grandmother and great grandmother whose door and pantry were always open to family and friends.” He said the wall will serve as a reminder to ATF employees of who they are fighting for each day.

“That in and of itself is progress that they would understand the need to be more empathetic and to realize the impact of gun violence on the people that they’re trying to protect and serve,” Whitfield, the retired Buffalo, New York, fire commissioner, told ABC News.

This week marks two years since a self-described white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo. In addition to Whitfield’s mother, the other victims were Roberta Drury, 32; retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter Jr., 55; Heyward Patterson, 67; Pearl Young, 77; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72; Margus Morrison, 52; and Andre Mackniel, 53.

“I will always carry the scar of 5/14 and what happened to my mother. I’ll always miss her. So, I don’t expect to be healed,” Whitfield said. “I know that’s something everybody talks about. I think that’s kind of an unrealistic expectation.”

One of the major hurdles to overcoming his grief, he said, is that such racially motivated killings and other hate crimes targeting Black people continue to rise across the country.

An ABC News analysis of the most recent FBI data shows that of the more than 8,500 hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022, Black people were targeted in 52.3% of the offenses. Between 2021 and 2022, the numbers rose from 2,217 to 3,421, making Black people four times more likely to be targeted than the overall U.S. non-Hispanic Black population.

Hate crimes targeting Black people under the age of 18 rose 10% in 2020, 12% in 2021 and 14.6% in 2022, according to the data.

Among the hate crimes committed since the Buffalo mass shooting was a racially motivated attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, that left three Black people dead on May 26, 2023. On Nov. 22, 2023, a white gunman wounded two Black and two white shoppers at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, in what police said was a racially motivated shooting. The gunmen in both rampages died by suicide, according to police.

In February 2023, a Florida man and a Maryland woman, both alleged to be white supremacists, were arrested and accused of plotting to attack multiple energy substations with the purpose of destroying Baltimore, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Officials said the pair was fueled by a racist extremist ideology as they “conspired to inflict maximum harm on the power grid” and “lay this city to waste.” Both suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are awaiting a trial.

“Honestly, we shouldn’t even have to look at the FBI statistics to know that Black people in America are still victims of subjugation, of discrimination, of racism, of hate,” Whitfield told ABC News. “The fact that’s still the case all these years later tells you a lot about this country and what its intent is for us.”

*’It was a modern-day lynching’
About two months before the massacre at a Tops store in the predominantly Black East Side neighborhood of Buffalo, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching law, named after a Black teenager who was kidnapped, beaten and killed in Mississippi in August 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman. The law defines lynching as a hate crime and increases the maximum penalty to 30 years imprisonment for anyone convicted of conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

To date, no one has been charged under the law.

“There was a reason why it took nearly 200 years to pass an antilynching law in Congress. It’s because the power of lynching is so much embedded into the society,” Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a professor of law and Africana studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told ABC News.

Browne-Marshall said lynchings were committed to strike fear in Black communities, to “send a message to the community that white men are in charge.”

Browne-Marshall described the Emmett Till Antilynching law as “powerful,” but said prosecutors have been reluctant to apply it to criminal hate crime cases.

“So few prosecutors are doing their jobs when it comes to lynching. We as Americans have ignored the power of the prosecutor to bring charges,” she said.

Browne-Marshall said prosecutors in such high-profile cases as Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was chased down and killed by three white vigilantes in 2020 near Brunswick, Georgia, initially balked at pursuing charges until widespread protests forced them to take action.

“Without protest, the prosecutors are sitting back and allowing these cases to be put under the rug,” Browne-Marshall said.

But federal prosecutors countered they are using an arsenal of federal hate crime laws to seek justice for victims of racially motivated crimes.

In the Arbery case, the defendants — Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan — were convicted on state charges of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a shotgun, aggravated assault with a pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony. They were all sentenced to life in prison, the McMichaels without the possibility of parole. They were also convicted of federal hate crime charges, including using violence to intimidate and interfere with Arbery because of his race and because he was using a public street. The McMichaels were given additional life sentences, while Byran received a 35-year prison sentence.

“Protecting civil rights and combatting white supremacist violence was a founding purpose of the Justice Department, and one that we will continue to pursue with the urgency it demands,” Attorney General Garland said following the sentencing of the McMichaels and Bryan.

“Racially-motivated acts of violence are abhorrent and unlawful, and have no place in our society today,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said earlier this month after a 52-year-old North Carolina man was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release for an unprovoked attack on a Black motorist he shouted racial slurs at and physically assaulted. The attacker, who prosecutors said displayed a Ku Klux Klan flag at his home, was also convicted of physically assaulting a Hispanic neighbor in a hate-filled assault.

“The severe sentence imposed for these vicious hate crimes should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable,” Clarke added. “The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to investigating and prosecuting hate crimes wherever they occur in our country.”

Payton Gendron, the gunman in the Buffalo massacre, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to 15 state charges, including 10 counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. In January, federal prosecutors announced they would pursue the death penalty against Gendron.

A federal grand jury indicted the Buffalo gunman with 27 federal charges, including 14 violations of the Shepard-Byrd Act, a landmark anti-hate crime law signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. The law was named after Matthew Shepard, a gay student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a Black man killed in 1998 by white supremacists who abducted him, beat him and dragged him by a chain from the back of a pickup truck.

Garnell Whitfield and Browne-Marshall argued that the Emmett Till Antilynching law should be expanded to include racially motivated mass shootings.

“It was meant to strike fear into our communities, to start a race war and further subjugate us, keep us in our place. So, yes, it was a modern-day lynching,” said Whitfield, adding that the only difference was that the killer used an AR-15 rifle instead of a rope.

While the antilynching law requires proof of a conspiracy, both Whitfield and Browne-Marshall alleged that some social media companies facilitated the teenage killer’s white supremacist radicalization by allowing racist propaganda to fester on their platforms.

“This is a conspiracy. It’s the oldest conspiracy we know – white supremacy,” Whitfield said.

But no precedent has been set for criminally charging a social media company as a co-defendant in a mass shooting, and prosecutors have found no evidence the Buffalo shooter entered into an “agreement” with any social media company to carry out his attack, a requirement of federal conspiracy.

In May 2023, Whitfield and other relatives of those killed in the Buffalo attack filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Buffalo in an attempt to hold several social media companies responsible for aiding the killer in his attack.

The gunman was “motivated to commit his heinous crime by racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist propaganda fed to him by the social media companies whose products he used,” the lawsuit argues, adding that the teenager did not appear to have been raised in a racist family, did not live in a racially polarized community and had no reported personal history of negative interactions with Black people.

Some social media companies named in the lawsuit denied the allegations it is aiding the indoctrination of users of their platforms in white supremacy. Twitch, the Amazon-owned social media gaming site the Buffalo gunman used to live stream the shooting, said in a statement that it closely monitors its site and took down the livestream of the Tops rampage in two minutes.

“We take our responsibility to protect our community extremely seriously, and trust and safety is a major area of investment,” Twitch said in its statement in response to the lawsuit, adding it was continuously examining the Buffalo shooting and “sharing those learnings with our peers in the industry to support a safer internet overall.”

Google, the parent company of YouTube, which was also named in the lawsuit, also issued a statement denying the allegations, saying, “Through the years, YouTube has invested in technology, teams, and policies to identify and remove extremist content. We regularly work with law enforcement, other platforms, and civil society to share intelligence and best practices.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said on its website in February, “We define a hate speech attack as dehumanizing speech; statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt or disgust; cursing; and calls for exclusion or segregation. We also prohibit the use of harmful stereotypes, which we define as dehumanizing comparisons that have historically been used to attack, intimidate, or exclude specific groups, and that are often linked with offline violence. We also prohibit the usage of slurs that are used to attack people on the basis of their protected characteristics.”

The Buffalo lawsuit followed the release of a scathing report by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, alleging several online platforms played roles in the Buffalo mass shooting by radicalizing the killer as he consumed voluminous amounts of racist and violent content and allowing him to broadcast the deadly attack.

*The KKK is ‘alive and well’
Advocates against racism are also getting support from some unlikely people. Scott Shepherd — the former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, told ABC News that when he first heard of the Buffalo mass shooting, “it made me sick.”

The 64-year-old Shepherd, who describes himself as a “reformed racist” and now advocates against racial hate, said he also felt guilt.

He said many of the same practices he used to recruit KKK members are still being followed. But instead of rallies and cross burnings, white supremacist groups today use the internet to grow and indoctrinate their ranks, Shepherd said.

“It’s not the robes and hoods, it’s the mentality. And that mentality is what we’ve got to address,” Shepherd said. “As I’ve said before, the internet is a great thing. But that’s one of the tools that’s being used to radicalize these kids.”

*’There’s nothing special about this day’
On Tuesday, a monument titled “Unity” will be unveiled outside the Tops store where the Buffalo mass shooting occurred. A moment of silence will be held at 2:28 p.m. ET marking the time the massacre unfolded followed by a tolling of the bells, officials said.

The 5/14 Memorial Commission will also reveal the design picked for a second monument to be erected in Buffalo that is being funded by the state.

But Whitfield said that for him, the day will be no different from any other.

“So 5/14 may be significant for some, it’s two years now since then. But it’s no more significant on 5/14 than it is on 5/13 or 5/12, or today. I have to live the rest of my life without my mother and with what happened to her,” Whitfield said.

Whitfield said he’ll continue to speak out against white supremacy and is motivated to be as “consistent and determined” in that work as white nationalists are in their deeds.

“Every day since then [5/14] and for the rest of my life, I will honor my mother by doing this work,” Whitfield said. “There’s nothing special about this day coming up because I’ve tried to live according to these principles every day. That’s how I’m going to honor my mother and my ancestors.”

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

May 13, 8:58 AM
Members of public wait overnight for seat in courtroom

Several members of the public waited overnight to secure a spot in the courtroom for Michael Cohen’s testimony, traveling from as far as Los Angeles for the momentous day in court.

Michael Powers told ABC News that he joined the line at 2:30 p.m. yesterday to secure his spot in court, though he enlisted the help of professional line sitters to hold the spot overnight. He rejoined the line at 5:00 a.m.

“It’s history in the making,” Powers said. “This isn’t gonna happen very often.”

Powers said he prioritized seeing Michael Cohen’s testimony due to its importance to the prosecution’s case.

“I find him credible” Powers said. “He’s lied in the past, but he lied for Donald Trump in my opinion, so I think he’ll be a good witness.”

Other members of the public waited overnight without the use of line sitters, including Chris Sagastizabal, who joined the line at 6:45 p.m. on Sunday with two friends.

“I changed my work schedule,” Sagastizabal said.

Five members in the public have been seated in the courtroom this morning, with several others seated in a nearby overflow room.

May 13, 7:59 AM
Cohen arrives in court

Michael Cohen has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of today’s expected testimony.

Proceedings are scheduled to get underway at 9:30 a.m. ET.

May 13, 7:01 AM
Star witness Michael Cohen expected to take the stand

Michael Cohen, who for nearly a decade was Donald Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney, and self-described “attack dog with a law license,” is scheduled to take the stand this morning as the prosecution’s star witness in Trump’s criminal hush money trial.

According to prosecutors, Cohen was in the room in when Trump and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker agreed to a catch-and-kill scheme to hide negative information about Trump from 2016 voters, and Cohen himself made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. The former president, who has denied the encounter took place, is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to his company’s reimbursement to Cohen in 2017.

But Cohen’s value to the prosecution’s case could be endangered by the disbarred lawyer’s credibility issues. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance allegations, and lying to Congress in what Cohen says was an effort to protect Trump. The former president’s lawyers have also argued that Cohen perjured himself again when he testified at Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, and accuse Cohen of making his livelihood off books and podcasts that antagonize Trump.

Cohen is the final key witness in the prosecution’s case, after which the defense will present its case.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — For nearly a decade, Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s trusted adviser, personal attorney, and self-described “attack dog with a law license.”

But Monday morning, Cohen is set to serve as the star witness in Trump’s New York criminal hush money trial, potentially delivering testimony that could cement the Manhattan district attorney’s case and send Cohen’s former boss to prison.

Prosecutors hope his testimony will support their allegations of criminal conduct against Trump in front of a jury that has already heard from 19 different witnesses and seen 200 pieces of evidence. While the jury has seen Trump’s signatures on the allegedly fraudulent checks at the center of the case, some witnesses have seemingly distanced Trump from the alleged unlawful conduct — leaving Cohen with the burden of pinning Trump to the crime.

According to prosecutors, Cohen was in the room when Trump and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker agreed to a catch-and-kill scheme to illegally hide negative information about Trump from 2016 voters; coordinated with Pecker to kill two stories about Trump; and himself made a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The former president, who has denied the encounter took place, is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to Cohen’s reimbursement in 2017.

While prosecutors have already warned the jury that many witnesses have “baggage” and have asked jurors to “keep an open mind,” Cohen’s value to the prosecution’s case could be endangered by the disbarred lawyer’s credibility issues. Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress in what Cohen says was an effort to protect Trump. The former president’s lawyers have argued that Cohen perjured himself again when he testified at Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, and accuse Cohen of making his livelihood off books and podcasts that antagonize Trump.

“He has a goal, an obsession with getting Trump, and you’re going to hear that,” defense lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors during his opening statement. “I submit to you that he cannot be trusted.”

Prosecutors have attempted to preempt the defense’s attacks on Cohen by emphasizing that he was acting on Trump’s orders when he committed crimes and has since atoned for his actions.

“You’ll also learn that Cohen has publicly committed to making sure the defendant is held accountable for his role in this conspiracy,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors, later adding, “I suspect the defense will go to great lengths to get you to reject his testimony precisely because it is so damning.”

Vital testimony

Cohen’s importance as a witness largely stems from his deep involvement in the alleged criminal conduct, allegedly coordinating the catch-and-kill scheme with Trump and Pecker and devising the repayment scheme with Trump and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

During his opening statement, Colangelo mentioned Cohen’s name over 90 times, ultimately telling jurors that Cohen’s role was “to take care of problems for the defendant.”

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche similarly focused on the conduct of the so-called “fixer” during his opening statement, mentioning Cohen over 30 times. Blanche argued that once Cohen pleaded guilty to federal crimes in 2018, he decided “to blame President Trump for virtually all of his problems.”

“You’ll learn that Mr. Cohen has misrepresented key conversations where the only witness who was present for the conversation was Mr. Cohen and, allegedly, President Trump,” Blanche argued.

According to prosecutors, Cohen and Trump participated in the August 2015 meeting where Pecker agreed to serve as the “eyes and ears” of Trump’s presidential campaign by looking out for negative stories about Trump related to women. Pecker testified that he coordinated with Cohen after identifying two negative stories that the National Enquirer eventually spent $180,000 to kill on Trump’s behalf.

During Cohen’s testimony, jurors will likely hear a secret recording of a conversation between Cohen and Trump in September 2016 where Cohen discussed repaying Pecker for an $150,000 payment that National Enquirer parent company AMI made for the exclusive rights to former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal’s allegations of an affair with Trump, which he denies.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David,” Cohen said in the recording, which the jurors briefly heard during the testimony of a custodial witness.

“So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump said later in the recording.

While that meeting was memorialized with a surreptitious audio recording, the jury will have to rely on Cohen’s recollection for most of his meetings with Trump, including his conversation with Trump once Cohen learned that Stormy Daniels was shopping around her allegations of an affair.

In his 2020 book “Disloyal,” Cohen wrote that Trump approved the payment to Daniels despite being “torn” about the personal and political dilemma.

“A hundred and thirty thousand is a lot less than I would have to pay Melania,” Cohen recounted Trump saying. “If it comes out, I’m not sure how it would play with my supporters. But I’d bet they think it’s cool that I slept with a porn star.”

Prosecutors allege that Cohen discussed with Trump and Weisselberg his plan to pay Daniels out of his own pocket and later get reimbursed.

“But before putting up his own money, Cohen confirmed with Trump that Trump would pay him back,” Colangelo said. “And at Trump’s request, Cohen agreed to lay out his own money for the payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet.”

Jurors are expected to see a record of two telephone calls on October 26, 2016, when Cohen allegedly confirmed the plan with Trump before creating the shell company to pay Daniels.

“Cohen made that payment at Donald Trump’s direction and for his benefit, and he did it with a specific goal of influencing the outcome of the election,” Colangelo said.

Prosecutors also allege that Cohen and Weisselberg met with Trump in 2017 to confirm the plan to repay Cohen $420,000 for the Daniels payment and other expenses — a payment that would result in the 34 allegedly falsified records that sit at the center of the case.

Trump’s ‘pit bull’

Michael Cohen began working for Donald Trump in 2007 after he helped perform a series of legal favors for the then-reality television star.

At the time, Cohen had considered himself partially retired after amassing a small fortune as a private lawyer and an owner of multiple lucrative taxi medallions — but he said the offer from Trump excited him.

“I’d read ‘The Art of the Deal’ when it was published in the 1980s, not once but twice, and I considered the book to be a masterpiece,” Cohen wrote. “Secretly in my heart of hearts, I thought I possessed some of Trump’s best qualities.”

A resident of Trump Park Avenue, Cohen first helped Trump resolve a dispute with the building’s condo board before helping Trump settle issues with Trump International Resort’s casino board and performing other legal favors.

By 2007, Trump offered Cohen a job at the Trump Organization. Cohen accepted the role of Executive Vice President and Special Counsel to Donald Trump and moved into an office formerly occupied by Ivanka Trump.

Cohen described his own role within the company as “Trump’s spokesperson, thug, pit bull and lawless lawyer,” and once bragged that he would take a bullet for Trump.

“Over time, as Trump became a patriarchal figure to me and I fell under the trance-like spell of the real estate tycoon, I would come to understand that questions of right and wrong didn’t matter to Trump in the slightest — all that counted to him, and then to me, was winning and displaying blind loyalty,” Cohen wrote.

Cohen’s 2018 guilty plea

Cohen never formally served on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, though prosecutors say he served an integral role in the catch-and-kill scheme that helped Trump hide negative information from voters.

Cohen left the Trump Organization in 2017 to serve as the personal attorney to President Trump, though one witness testified that Cohen not getting a job in the Trump administration left him “depressed and despondent.”

“He said something to the effect of, ‘Jesus Christ, can you f—— believe I’m not going to Washington? After everything I’ve done for that f—— guy, I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s ass so many times, you don’t even know,” Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson testified.

In a 2017 phone call with Davidson that Cohen secretly recorded, he vented about his relationship with Trump and the actions he took on Trump’s behalf ahead of the 2016 election.

“For me, this has not, you know, this has not been easy … What would you do if you were me?” Cohen said. “Would you write a book, would you break away from the entire Trump, you know, we’ll call it doctrine, you know, would you go completely rouge?”

In April 2018, federal agents raided Cohen’s home and office after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into the Trump campaign.

At the time, Trump defended Cohen, calling the raid a “disgraceful situation.” In an April 2018 tweet — which the jury saw on Friday — Trump complained that reporters “are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip.'” Prosecutors argue that the tweet was part of a coordinated pressure campaign from Trump to prevent Cohen from cooperating with authorities.

By August 2018 — after Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finances related to the 2018 election — Trump changed his tone on Cohen, suggesting he made “up stories in order to get a ‘deal.'”

“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump said in a tweet shown to jurors.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, eventually serving more than 13 months behind bars and completing his sentence in home confinement. Before he reported to prison, he testified before Congress about Trump’s business conduct, ultimately leading to the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against Trump.

Cohen’s last time on the stand

Cohen himself served as a vital witness in Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, testifying that Trump inflated his net worth to increase his position on the Forbes ranking of billionaires. The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, ordered Trump to pay a fine of nearly half a billion dollars with interest, after determining that the former president had engaged in a decade of business fraud.

Defense lawyers in Trump’s hush money case have argued that Cohen perjured himself again during his testimony in the civil fraud trial, further diminishing his credibility.

“And when are they going to look at all the lies that Cohen did in the last trial? He got caught lying in the last trial,” Trump said after the opening statements in his criminal trial.

In a February 2024 ruling, Judge Arthur Engoron acknowledged that while Cohen’s credibility was “significantly compromised” and the “animosity between the witness and the defendant is palpable,” his testimony was credible because it was backed by evidence.

Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money trial have similarly argued that while Cohen might have baggage, the evidence and testimony from the other witnesses will back up his testimony.

“A less-forgiving factfinder might have concluded differently, might not have believed a single word of a convicted perjurer,” Judge Engoron wrote in his decision in the fraud case. “This factfinder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means that you can never tell the truth. Michael Cohen told the truth.”

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(CLEVELAND) — A late night shooting inside an Ohio movie theater has left one man dead, police said.

The shooting took place at approximately 11 p.m. when the Massilon Police Department were notified of a shooting inside a Regal Cinemas movie theater in Massilon, Ohio — some 50 miles south of Cleveland.

“Massilon Police Officers responded and found a male deceased near the front lobby,” authorities said in their statement early Saturday morning detailing the shooting. “The victim was identified to be Daron Davis, 27, from Canton Ohio.”

Shortly after 11:30 p.m., police say a suspect was taken into custody outside the Massilon Police Department. Authorities did not disclose the identity of the suspect or reveal a possible motive in the killing.

Additional details on the shooting were not immediately available and the investigation is currently ongoing.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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(SAN DIEGO) — Scientists may have found the answer to manufacturing plastics products that actually break down without forming into microplastics, or tiny pieces of plastics that could linger for thousands of years.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and materials company Algenesis said they found a way to construct plastic with polyurethane, a “bio-based” polyurethane polymer that could compost and break down in the natural environment, compared to typical petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing, according to a study published in Scientific Reports earlier this year.

But the big question is whether the algae-based material would break down into microplastics — microscopic pieces of plastic smaller than one micrometer in size, or less than one-seventieth the width of a human hair.

“The argument then was always put back to us, ‘How do you know they’re just not making microplastics?'” Skip Pomeroy, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at U.C. San Diego and one of the authors of the study, told ABC News.

So the researchers set a goal to prove their substances don’t make microplastics over time because they’re really being broken down by the microbes in the environment, Pomeroy said.

They found a strain of bacteria in compost that could live completely off of the polyurethane-made plastics, Michael Burkart, another U.C. San Diego chemistry researcher and co-author of the paper, told ABC News.

“In the past, we thought that maybe we needed multiple different microbes working together to biodegrade these materials,” Burkart said. “But no, we found a single bacterial strain that could live off these things, and so that that really means that these materials that we’re making are truly, completely biodegradable.”

The organisms that break down the bio-based plastic think the material is similar to leaves or wood that they would find in a normal compost, Burkart said. And the process — from manufacturing with algae-based materials to break-down — is 100% renewable, according to the research.

The study shows that their plant-based polymers can biodegrade past the microplastic level in under seven months. Examination of samples after 90 days of aerobic composting showed a 68% decrease in the number of particles. After 200 days, a 97% overall reduction from the starting count was observed, according to the paper.

Burkart said part of the reason why adoption of plastic made of a bio-based polymer is because people were skeptical that it could work.

“Some people didn’t believe us,” Burkart said. “They didn’t think that what we were doing — that we were actually making truly biodegradable materials or that or that it was even possible at all.”

Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymer, the researchers said. Microplastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down completely.

“We do not need to be using these materials that are going to live forever,” Burkart said. “We really can now start replacing all of these materials we have around us into things that are a lot more sustainable.”

However, cost is currently a prohibitive issue to widespread use, the researchers said. While petroleum is readily available to siphon from the ground, widespread infrastructure for algae farming will be needed for plastics made of the bio-based polymer to become used en masse, Burkart said.

However, the process the researchers devised can also be applied to other plant-based material, Burkart said.

The researchers hope their new process can eventually be implemented widely for food packaging, Pomeroy said.

“But if you’re going to ask me, ‘Could we do this with anything?’ I’m pretty sure we could do this with most anything,” he said

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(GOLDEN, Colo.) — One of three Colorado teenagers charged in connection with a rock-throwing spree that killed a 20-year-old driver last year has pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, officials said Friday.

Seven vehicles were hit by large landscaping rocks on the night of April 19, 2023. Three people were injured and one — Alexa Bartell, the final victim — was killed, prosecutors said.

Three then-18-year-old seniors were charged with 13 counts — including first-degree murder with extreme indifference — in connection with the incident.

One of the teens — Zachary Kwak, now 19 — pleaded guilty Friday to three new charges in connection with the rock-throwing attack, according to the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case.

Kwak pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit assault in the second degree. Kwak’s original charges were dismissed as a result of his plea, the district attorney’s office said.

“As part of today’s plea, Kwak agreed that with regard to the death of Bartell, the defendant acted knowingly, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, by engaging in conduct which created a grave risk of death,” the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Kwak’s attorneys had no comment on the plea deal.

Kwak faces 20 to 32 years in prison as a “result of his plea and cooperation,” the district attorney’s office said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 3, following the resolution of the cases involving the other two teens charged in the rock-throwing spree, Joseph Koenig and Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik.

First-degree murder with extreme indifference carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

The three teens were all being tried separately. Karol-Chik’s trial is scheduled to start on June 7, while Koenig’s trial is set to start on July 19.

Both pleaded not guilty to their charges.

Karol-Chik allegedly told police while in custody that all three teens threw rocks at cars and they were “excited” when they hit them, according to court documents.

When Kwak was questioned, he allegedly said he took a photo of Bartell’s car because he “thought Joseph or Mitch would want it as a memento,” according to court documents.

After Bartell’s death, Kwak allegedly said Koenig and Karol-Chik talked about being “blood brothers,” and said they agreed to never speak of the incident again, according to court documents.
 

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