(LAS VEGAS) — Nevada abortion rights supporters said Monday they have enough signatures on a petition to qualify for a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the organization behind the petition, said it has collected more than 200,000 signatures from voters in all 17 counties, double the 102,362 threshold required to qualify for the November 2024 election.
The amendment would give individuals “a fundamental right to abortion performed or administered by a qualified health care practitioner until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions.”
The Nevada Secretary of State’s office will need to validate the signatures on the petition for the ballot measure before the proposed amendment is certified.
The group had also been pursuing a second broader measure that would grant all residents the right to make decisions regarding “all matters relating to pregnancy” including abortion, abortion care, birth control, vasectomies, tubal litigation and infertility care.
In November 2023, a lower court blocked the petition from moving forward, ruling that it is misleading and violated the single subject rule, which requires an initiative petition proposing a constitutional amendment to contain a single subject.
However, in April 2024, the state Supreme Court reversed the decision, arguing the terms all fell under the umbrella of “reproductive rights.”
“[A]ll the medical procedures considered in the initiative petition concern reproduction. To assert that they could not all be addressed together because they are separate procedures is improper,” the opinion read.
Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom said it currently plans to pursue the narrower measure.
In Nevada, abortions are permitted at 24 weeks’ gestation or later, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that studies sexual and reproductive rights.
Additionally, Nevada law protects anyone entering or exiting abortion clinics from harassment and physical harm. In 2023, an interstate shield law was also passed, protecting abortion providers from investigations by other states.
Abortion rights advocates say codifying protections in the state constitution will build upon existing protections and make it harder for them to be overturned as the national landscape of abortion access changes.
President Joe Biden has vowed to defend women’s reproductive rights and fight for legal access to abortion on the national level.
“As anti-abortion extremists continue to attack our fundamental rights — from abortion to birth control to fertility treatments — this decision recognizes that reproductive freedom includes all reproductive health care,” a statement released by Reproductive Freedom for All Nevada, a group that is part of the ballot campaign, said last month.
Nevadans For Reproductive Freedom did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — After calling 20 witnesses and showing jurors over 200 pieces of evidence, prosecutors in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial have rested their case against the former president.
Across four weeks of testimony, prosecutors have laid out their case against Trump by telling a story of sex, schemes and lies related to the 2016 election.
The Manhattan district attorney’s case against the former president begins in 2006, when adult film actress Stormy Daniels alleges she had sex with Trump at a golf tournament in California, which Trump denies.
Ten years later, after the real estate mogul and reality-television star became the Republican presidential nominee, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen said he purchased the rights to kill Daniel’s story — at the direction of Trump himself — to avert a political catastrophe just days from the 2016 election.
Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified business records in 2017 when he repaid Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels, labeling the payment as a legal expense pursuant to a retainer agreement. Trump had pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
“I was paying a lawyer and I marked it down as a legal expense,” Trump told reporters during the first week of the trial. “Legal expense — that’s what you’re supposed to call it.”
Trump’s attorneys were expected to present a brief defense case before the jury hears closing statements and begins deliberating.
Paying for silence To start building their case, prosecutors began with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, whom they allege engaged in a conspiracy with Trump and Cohen to hide information from voters. Pecker and Cohen are not charged in this case.
“They asked me what can I do and what my magazines could do to help the campaign,” Pecker testified about a meeting with Cohen and Trump in August 2015 where he agreed to serve as the “eyes and ears” of Trump’s presidential campaign.
In addition to publishing negative stories about Trump’s opponents and flattering stories about Trump himself, Pecker said he agreed to be on the lookout for negative stories about Trump related to women.
“If I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear anything about women selling stories … I would notify Michael Cohen and then he would be able to have them killed in another magazine or have them not be published,” Pecker testified.
Though Pecker said he never previously purchased stories with the explicit purpose of killing them for Trump, he did exactly that twice during the 2016 campaign. His company paid $30,000 for the rights to a false story that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock, and $150,000 to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s allegations of a months-long affair with Trump, which Trump denies.
Pecker testified that he made both payments to help honor his agreement with Trump and help his campaign; however, Pecker pushed back when Cohen asked for his help making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in October 2016 in exchange for her silence.
“I said, we already paid $30,000 to the doorman, we paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, and I am not a bank. I am not paying out any further disbursements among us,” Pecker testified.
Corroborating Cohen Prosecutors ended their case by calling Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who orchestrated the catch-and-kill scheme with Pecker and made the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
Cohen testified that he was acting on Trump’s orders when he worked to kill negative stories about his boss, and that he kept Trump apprised of every step along the way, telling jurors “everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off.”
“He said to me, ‘This is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to hate me,'” Cohen testified about Trump’s response to Daniels’ allegations in October 2016. “‘Guys may think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.”‘
Cohen told jurors about multiple phone calls and in-person meetings with Trump where they set a plan to purchase Daniels’ story for $130,000 in the days before the election on the promise that Trump would repay Cohen the following year.
Cohen said he initially attempted to delay the payment to Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson, who testified that Cohen nearly derailed the deal with his constant excuses and delays.
“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” Davidson testified, telling jurors that Cohen ultimately opted to make the payment out of his own pocket.
Donald Trump’s former White House communications director Hope Hicks testified that Trump told her in 2018 that that he preferred the story not come out before the election and that Cohen made the payment “out of the kindness of his own heart” — a contention Hicks said she doubted because Cohen was “the kind of person who seeks credit.”
“I think Mr. Trump’s opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now, and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election,” Hicks testified.
Prosecutors acknowledged to jurors that witnesses like Cohen — who pleaded guilty to federal crimes and has admitted to lying under oath — come with “baggage,” so Cohen’s testimony was accompanied by emails, phone records, text messages to corroborate his account.
Cohen said he decided to plead guilty and flip on Trump in 2018 after the FBI raided his office and hotel room — despite what prosecutors allege was a “pressure campaign” by Trump to discourage Cohen’s cooperation with authorities.
“I regret doing things for him that I should not have — lying, bullying people in order to effectuate a goal,” testified Cohen, who said he repeatedly lied for Trump to maintain his loyalty to him, including lying during an appearance before Congress that resulted in prison time.
Following the paper trail Between dramatic testimony from witnesses like Stormy Daniels and Hope Hicks, prosecutors called witnesses to focus on the paper trial of documents that form the basis for the 34 criminal counts in the case.
Cohen told jurors that he and then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg met with Trump just days before his Inauguration, where they laid out a plan for Cohen to be repaid for the Daniels payment through twelve $35,000 payments for legal services.
“He approved it, and he also said, ‘This is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.,'” Cohen testified about Trump during the meeting.
Former Trump Organization Controller Jeffrey McConney told jurors that he met with Weisselberg to confirm the repayment plan, showing jurors handwritten notes memorializing the meeting.
McConney said he received the invoices from Cohen — for monthly payments for legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement — which he approved and sent to Trump Organization accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff.
Tarasoff testified that she processed the invoices and generated checks, which she then passed to Trump Organization junior bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio.
Manochio said that she then mailed the checks in a manila folder to the White House, where Trump’s executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout received the checks, handed them to Trump for his signature, then mailed them back to Trump Tower in New York.
Witnesses offered differing descriptions of Trump’s approach to signing checks; Tarasoff said he would normally review the invoices and sometimes reject checks, while Westerhout said Trump often signed checks automatically.
In total, the jury saw each of the allegedly falsified documents, including 11 checks — nine of which were signed by Trump — 11 invoices from Cohen, and 12 vouchers generated by the Trump Organization.
Trump’s own words Though Trump might not testify during the trial, jurors heard from the former president as prosecutors highlighted quotes from his books and statements made during his campaign rallies.
Prosecutors played a video from an Oct. 22, 2016, campaign rally to demonstrate that Trump was worried about the impact of allegations from women harming his presidential campaign — the same concern prosecutors say motivated Trump to buy Daniels’ silence.
“These are all horrible lies, all fabrications, and we can’t let them change the most important election in our lifetime. If 5% of the people think it’s true and maybe 10% think, we don’t win,” Trump said.
Prosecutors also introduced quotes from three of Trump’s books to advance their arguments about Trump’s conduct.
Quotes about Trump’s frugality — including one quote to “always question invoices” — emphasized that Trump took a hands-on approach to managing expenses, while quotes about his emphasis on loyalty helped advance prosecutors’ arguments about Trump’s “pressure campaign” against some witnesses in the case.
“My motto is always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades,” Trump wrote in one book.
(LOUISVILLE, K.Y.) — No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler’s arraignment has been postponed nearly two weeks following his arrest on charges alleging he ignored police traffic signals and assaulted a police officer while in Louisville, Kentucky, for the PGA Championship.
The athlete was driving near the Valhalla Golf Club Friday morning when he allegedly drove past a police roadblock and injured an officer with his vehicle, according to the police report. He was arrested hours before his second-round tee time at the PGA Championship.
Scheffler, 27, was initially scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning on charges of second-degree assault of a police officer — a felony — as well as third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic, according to police. The arraignment has been postponed to June 3 at 9 a.m., online court records show.
The district judge presiding in the case granted on Monday the defense’s motion to continue the arraignment “over the objection of Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell,” a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, Josh Abner, said in a statement to ABC News. “Our office continues to gather information in the case.”
Scheffler’s attorney, Steve Romines, said in a statement to Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS that they plan to plead not guilty to the charges.
Scheffler was arrested about an hour after a deadly accident near the golf course. Around 5 a.m. Friday, a man was fatally struck by a shuttle bus as he tried to cross a road near the course holding the PGA Championship, according to a statement released by the Louisville Metro Police Department. The victim was identified as PGA Championship Tour volunteer John Mills.
The roadblocks and confusion over the accident allegedly led Scheffler to drive past police who were on site, according to reports from ESPN. Scheffler allegedly refused to comply with a police officer’s request to stop and “accelerated forward,” dragging the detective to the ground, according to the police report. The officer was taken to the hospital after suffering “pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee.”
Scheffler called the incident a “big misunderstanding.”
“This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers,” Scheffler said in a statement on social media. “It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.”
Romines told WHAS that Scheffler was following orders from one officer and there was a “miscommunication” with the officer who attempted to stop him.
“In the confusion, Scottie is alleged to have disregarded a different officer’s traffic signals resulting in these charges,” Romines said in the statement. “Multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed that he did not do anything wrong but was simply proceeding as directed. He stopped immediately upon being directed to and never at any point assaulted any officer with his vehicle.”
ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who witnessed the altercation between Scheffler and police, described the scene on social media, writing, “[A] police officer attempted to attach himself to Scheffler’s car, and Scheffler then stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla. The police officer then began to scream at Scheffler to get out of the car. When Scheffler exited the vehicle, the officer shoved Scheffler against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.”
There is no body camera footage of the incident between Scheffler and police, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told reporters on Saturday. However, another angle of the incident, from a “fixed camera” across the street, does exist and will be released in the coming days, he noted.
The Louisville Metro Police Department will conduct an internal investigation of Scheffler’s arrest, Greenberg told WHAS on Monday.
“If there are violations of policies that took place, they will be very clear with that and we will deal with that appropriately,” Greenberg told the station.
Scheffler was released from jail and returned to the course about an hour before his 10:08 a.m. tee time on Friday. He ended up finishing tied for eighth place in the PGA Championship — the second major of the year.
“Saturday morning, I think it finally hit me what happened,” he said during Sunday’s press briefing following the final round, calling the tournament “hectic.” “I did my best to leave that behind me and come out here and compete and do what I love.”
The PGA of America said in a statement Friday that it is “fully cooperating as local authorities review what took place.”
“Our primary concern today remains with the family of John Mills, who lost his life in a tragic accident early this morning while reporting to work,” the statement said.
Scheffler has won four tournaments on the tour this year, including a dominant performance at The Masters in April — his second Masters win and second major victory as well. He also won back-to-back marquee events in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship.
(LOS ANGELES) — Students enrolled in Prof. Daniel Nathanson’s business class at UCLA do not take tests or pore over books. They are not immersed in the usual 40-page case studies that often dictate the curriculum.
Instead, Nathanson has help from an AI tool to enhance interaction in his classroom. The tool gets students through real-life business scenarios in small groups, offers individualized quizzes, and leads group discussions on big business concepts.
Nathanson, the first college professor to use the Breakout Learning AI tool, says the software is used both to prevent students from using generative AI to cheat, and is incorporated into the lesson to ensure the students’ comprehension of the material.
“It enabled me to say where they need a level set, where they are and adjust my lecture to meet their needs,” Nathanson said of the learning tool, which is now used at more than 100 universities, including Yale, Cornell and MIT.
Nathanson says he plugs in what he wants the AI to teach the students.
When asked, none of the students thought AI’s grading was better than that of humans. Nathanson also doesn’t use the scores from AI when calculating final grades, but only as a way to assess their comprehension of the course material.
The business scenarios, voiced by actors, bring to life the experiences of corporate leaders like former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who died in 2020, and his team, making the learning experience truly immersive and relevant.
“We want to lift up the idea of small group discussion as the primary format for learning,” said Ramit Varma, who, along with Steven Walters, founded Breakout Learning. “We’ve been learning in small group formats for thousands of years.”
Breakout Learning transcribes the spoken words and then runs it through OpenAI, which generates a summary and matches it against a grading rubric to determine an individual engagement score and two group performance scores.
The company’s website emphasizes using AI for grading and facilitating conversations, claiming it can simplify the former.
In one experiment, educators and the owners of Breakout Learning went through the course with the students during a test to evaluate the grading system. One student, Georgia, was engaged, collaborative and considerate of her colleagues. It seemed clear that she would rank among the highest scores.
However, she ranked near the lowest.
“That particular student scored the highest in group; what they saw was an engagement score, which was actually a misfire in the software that actually is not the actual metric that we use to measure quality,” Walters said.
Breakout Learning stated that after observing the session with the students, they completely removed this specific scoring system. They are now focusing solely on comprehension scores rather than engagement.
While questions linger about using AI as a grading tool, the students still support the program.
“Thus far into its development, probably a B+,” Georgia said, grading the software. “There’s always room for improvement. AI again is very new. We’re just seeing the beginnings of something great.”
A USC professor agrees with the students and believe that in the next decade UCLA won’t be an anomaly. They think most classrooms in America will use some form of artificial intelligence. Other educators, however, believe AI needs to be thoroughly tested before being used as a main teaching tool in classrooms.
“If I’m a student, and I’m like, ‘well, computers just going to grade me,’ then am I going to put forth 100% of my effort?” said USC Associate Professor Stephen Aguilar. “Or am I going to use some other AI to basically talk to their AI so it just becomes an AI talking to AI? And I think that that’s one of the dangers of doing too quickly without really understanding or figuring out what our values are relative to new AI technologies.”
(NEW YORK) — As emergency crews in three states began mopping up and assessing damage from a series of tornadoes on Sunday, more severe weather is being forecast for a large swath of the Midwest.
More than 230 severe storms were reported on Sunday, including 13 twisters confirmed by the National Weather Service that struck in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
There were no immediate reports of deaths, but several people were injured in the storms and more than 30 structures were destroyed or damaged, officials said.
A large funnel cloud touched down Sunday in Yukon, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, causing major damage to several buildings and ripping the roof off at least one home.
Two people were hospitalized after being injured in a tornado that destroyed their home in Hydro, Oklahoma, about 63 miles west of Oklahoma City, according to the Blaine County Sheriff’s office. A nursing home was also damaged in Hydro, according to a statement Monday from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
In Custer City, Oklahoma, about 90 miles west of Oklahoma City, a twister knocked down powerlines, destroyed several buildings and picked up trailers, tossing them around like toys, officials said. At least 10 homes were damaged in Custer City and Hydro, according to emergency management officials.
At least 20 structures were damaged in Canadian County in suburban Oklahoma City, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
More than 5,700 homes and businesses remained without electricity on Monday, most of them in Custer and Tulsa counties, officials said.
Severe weather from at least four tornadoes in Kansas caused widespread power outages and destroyed several buildings.
Russell, Kansas, about 150 miles northwest of Wichita reported “significant” damage from a strong storm that hit Sunday.
“At least three structures have been leveled,” the City of Russell said in a Facebook post, adding that crews were working Monday to restore electricity to several areas of the city.
A tornado also touched down in eastern Colorado near Fleming on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Residents also posted photos on Facebook of baseball-size hail near Fleming.
More severe weather is expected through Wednesday in Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Potentially damaging winds and large hail, especially in Nebraska and Colorado, are forecast for Monday.
Severe weather is expected once again on Tuesday from Oklahoma to Michigan, including the Oklahoma City area, Kansas City, Missouri, Des Moines, Iowa, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Green Bay, Wisconsin and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Severe weather is forecast to spread from to Texas and Ohio, with large hail expected for Dallas.
Hot weather is also expected Monday for Texas, where temperatures are forecast to reach 98 in Amarillo and 104 degrees in Del Rio. On Tuesday, potential record heat is expected to spread into the Midwest, with St. Louis expecting a high of 93 degrees.
Later this week, hot weather is expected to reach the Northeast, where Binghamton, New York, is forecast to hit a record high of 86 on Wednesday and New York City could see 80-degree weather.
(NEW YORK) — “ABC News Live” Anchor Linsey Davis is accustomed to seeking the truth and reporting it.
That instinct for fact-finding transcended recently to Davis’ personal family history, with a genealogist from the 10 Million Names Project helping the Emmy-winning journalist track down an ancestor born in the early 1800s.
ABC News has partnered with the 10 Million Names Project, which aims to break down the genealogical “brick wall” that makes it difficult for Black Americans to retrieve ancestral documents and history, including names, from before 1870. The project seeks to identify every individual enslaved before 1865 in the present-day United States.
10 Million Names genealogist Kenyatta Berry revealed to Davis that her great-great-great paternal grandfather was the first in her family to register to vote, and very likely among the first Black Americans to cast a ballot.
“Like many African Americans, I don’t have any information about my family ancestry going back more than a few generations,” Davis said. “It’s one of the many tragic legacies of slavery: not knowing the full details of our roots.”
Davis headed to Georgia, where her great-great-great-grandfather, Tobe Murray, was born. She first visited the Georgia Archives in Morrow County, which maintains a massive collection of the state’s most important historical documents.
Murray, Davis’ great-great-great-grandfather, was born in 1829 and was likely formerly enslaved. Several historic registration records kept at the archives showed Davis proof that Murray registered to vote under dangerously difficult circumstances.
Davis was able to hold the same book that Murray touched in June of 1867 and saw where he wrote an “X” to mark his signature to register to vote, since he most likely couldn’t read or write.
Murray marked his name with an “X” after a clerk wrote his name in cursive, according to an expert at the Georgia Archives.
Following Emancipation in 1863, most free Black Americans lived among hostile white communities, according to historians. They were denied education and fair wages and lived primarily in rural poverty, facing constant threats of violence.
However, in 1867, it was not unusual for Murray to be registered to vote, since Congress had passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, allowing Black men in Southern states to vote and hold office for the first time.
As Davis and Professor Susan O’Donovan dug deeper, they discovered that Murray was most likely a farmer and still a registered voter in 1898, more than 30 years after he first registered.
“I really didn’t think at that time that quite often a Black male, especially someone if we believe he was enslaved, would then have the wherewithal to say, ‘you know what, I’m going to go forward and get my rights and act on this’ and carry it out in the midst of, you know, all of the brainwashing that that went on at the time, that you’re a second-class citizen or less now,” Davis said.
The Union victory in the Civil War led to the freedom of about four million enslaved people. However, challenges persisted during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, and freed Black people in the South faced uncertainty.
White Southerners regained control and enforced laws, known as the Black Codes, to restrict the activities of freed Black people and ensure their availability as a labor force.
The 15th Amendment, adopted in 1870, prohibited denying voting rights based on race, color or previous servitude. During Reconstruction, Black Americans were elected to Southern state governments and the U.S. Congress.
Newspaper articles from the 1870s displayed the language and tone mostly white editors used at the time when writing about elections and political campaigns.
“The Negroes voted solidly, blindly, and in full force behind the Independent candidates,” an early Morgan County newspaper wrote. “They were organized better, voted more unanimously and with more determination than ever since they have been given the ballot.”
Persistent and overtly-racist voter suppression tactics continued in Georgia and throughout the South in the following decades, according to historians.
La’Neice Littleton, a historian at the Atlanta History Center, says that despite suppression, the Black community has been fighting for the sacred right to vote generation after generation.
“Time changes, but attitudes don’t,” Littleton said “…and so we see a consistent fight on the part of Black citizens to organize, mobilize, strategize, and exercise their right to vote and participate in democracy.”
Times have certainly changed since 1867. In fact, according to Georgia state registration files, there were almost 1.7 million new voters in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
During her trip, Davis met up with young canvassers of the New Georgia Project in Georgia, where voting-rights activists continue to be a formidable force, working to encourage voting in November’s election.
New Georgia Project CEO Kendra Cotton and the young and inspired team went door to door, reminding fellow citizens that voting is a right, a privilege and a duty. It’s an opportunity to be counted as equal Americans.
“We want our voters showing up and making their voices heard, because we fundamentally believe that the best way to get good progressive policy in the state is not to beg for it from folks who don’t share your values, but it’s to vote in people who already do,” Cotton said.
Davis said her visit to Georgia meant a lot to her. She learned about a missing part of her own history, saw the struggle her great-great-great-grandfather had to go through, and realized that even though things are better today, the job is not finished.
“I didn’t actually think I would be emotional about it,” Davis said. “But being with this kind of living document that I can only imagine, you know, what Tobe had to endure and I can’t help but feel pride.”
(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 20, 9:52 AM Defense suggests Cohen had distractions dealing with Daniels
Defense attorney Todd Blanche suggested that Michael Cohen was juggling multiple other issues in October 2016, at the same time he was arranging the Stormy Daniels hush money payment.
Cohen testified that was resolving issues with his taxi medallion business, handling a loan for one of his investment properties, assisting with the National Diversity Coalition, and helping Tiffany Trump deal with an instance of extortion.
“You agree with me, right, that you had a lot going on both in your personal life and with President Trump in those first two weeks of October?” Blanche asked.
“Yes sir,” Cohen said.
Blanche also reminded jurors that Cohen was dealing with harassing phone calls at the time — referencing his line of questioning last week when he suggested Cohen lied about the purpose of a phone call to Trump’s security guard Keith Schiller on Oct. 24, 2016.
May 20, 9:43 AM Cohen asked about communication with reporters
Defense attorney Todd Blanche opened today’s questioning by asked Cohen about his communication with reporters.
“Since that time [when your last testimony ended], how many reporters have you talked to?” Blanche asked.
Cohen said he’s spoken to reporters “who called to say hello, to see how I’m doing,” but that he didn’t talk about the case.
“Didn’t speak at all about your testimony last week?” Blanche asked.
“Correct,” Cohen responded.
As Cohen resumed his testimony, jurors appeared attentive, with several taking notes. Trump sat slouched at his chair with his eyes closed.
May 20, 9:38 AM Michael Cohen retakes witness stand
Following the break, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has entered the courtroom.
He took his seat in the witness box to resume his cross-examination as Trump looked on.
May 20, 9:24 AM Attorneys conference at bench on discovery issue
Defense attorney Todd Blanche asked to approach the bench about an ongoing discovery issue.
Both legal teams leaned in as Blanche spoke to the judge.
With the sidebar completed, the judge called for a ten-minute break.
May 20, 9:09 AM Judge won’t let defense expand expert witness’ testimony
Judge Merchan denied a request from defense lawyers to broaden the scope of testimony from their expert witness Bradley Smith, who is an expert on campaign finance regulations.
On Thursday, defense lawyers asked Merchan to allow Smith to testify about various terms related to federal campaign finance laws. Merchan denied the request, citing long standing precedent prohibiting witness testimony about the law.
“An expert is not permitted to present or interpret the law,” Merchan said.
Merchan also expressed concerns about Smith’s testimony prompting a “battle of the experts” between Smith and an expert called by prosecutors, which Merchan said would confuse the jury.
Merchan said that Smith could still testify, as long as he follows the limits imposed in his pretrial ruling on the case’s motions in limine.
“The court will monitor this testimony closely to ensure full compliance,” Merchan said in a pretrial ruling. “Any deviation from this ruling could result in sanction up to and including striking the expert’s entire testimony.”
May 20, 8:59 AM Judge rejects defense request to admit email as evidence
Judge Merchan has begun hearing arguments about the admissibility of some defense exhibits, including an email communication between Michael Cohen and his one-time attorney Bob Costello’s law partner Jeffrey Citron.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that the exhibit could be used to impeach Cohen’s testimony.
Judge Merchan said he will not allow the email into evidence. Prosecutors argued that the email was hearsay and cannot fairly offer a window into Cohen’s state of mind.
“There is another layer there of hearsay,” Merchan said about the email. “I don’t see any probative value for impeachment purposes here at all.”
May 20, 8:53 AM Judge says summations will likely happen next Tuesday
“Good morning Mr. Trump,” Judge Juan Merchan said as he gaveled in the proceedings.
“It’s become apparent that we are not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,” the judge said after taking the bench.
Merchan said it’s more likely summations will take place next Tuesday, after procedural matters and the Memorial Day break.
“Either have a long break now or a long break then, and unfortunately the calendar is what it is,” the judge said.
May 20, 8:41 AM Trump, prosecutors enter courtroom
Prosecutors have entered the courtroom for Day 19 of the trial.
Trump has arrived with his entourage.
Before entering, the former president addressed reporters but ignored their questions about whether he’ll testify in the trial.
May 20, 6:00 AM Prosecution expected to rest its case Monday morning
Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand Monday morning for the final time before prosecutors rest their case against the former president in his criminal hush money trial.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case later Monday morning.
Defense attorneys have not yet declared who they plan to call to testify — including whether Trump will testify in his own defense.
Cohen, the prosecution’s last major witness, is scheduled to complete his cross-examination by Trump’s defense team Monday morning.
Proceedings are scheduled to get underway at 8:45 a.m. ET with arguments over the admission of additional exhibits, after which the jury is expected back in court at 9:30 a.m.
(BALTIMORE) — The battered cargo ship that’s been partially blocking the entrance to one of America’s busiest ports for two months is expected to be refloated and moved into port on Monday, officials said.
The Dali, a 984-foot container ship traveling under a Singaporean flag, crashed in March into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. The crash disrupted marine traffic at the seaport, which is among the largest in the Mid-Atlantic.
“Optimum conditions call for the transit of the DALI to commence at high tide, predicted to be Monday at 5:24 a.m.,” officials said in a statement on Sunday. “The vessel will be prepared at 2 a.m., allowing it to catch the peak high tide for a controlled transit.”
Officials said they expected to spend about 18 hours getting the ship ready to refloat. The process, which began on Sunday, included removing some anchors and mooring lines that had been attached to the ship after the crash.
Officials were also expecting to remove some or all of the 1.25 million gallons of water that had been pumped into the Dali to ballast the Dali during the bridge removal, according to a plan released by the Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command on Sunday.
Up to five tugboats were expected to help move the ship about 2.5 miles to the local marine terminal, officials said. That trip is expected to take about 3 hours, officials said.
Crews had last week done a controlled demolition of much of the remains of the Francis Key Scott Bridge, which had been turned into a tangle of steel girders that rested on the seafloor and rose out of the water.
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen will return to the witness stand for the final time before prosecutors rest their case against the former president in Trump’s criminal hush money case Monday.
Cohen last week described Trump as being deeply involved in a scheme to hide information from voters ahead of the 2016 election, but a stinging line of cross-examination may have damaged Cohen’s overall credibility with the jury.
Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment that Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost Trump’s electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
Prosecutors could rest their case by lunchtime Monday, and defense attorneys have not yet declared who they plan to call to testify — including whether Trump will testify in his own defense.
Defense lawyers have suggested they might call Bradley Smith — an expert on federal campaign finance laws — and have left the door open to call rebuttal witnesses.
Judge Juan Merchan asked both sides to be prepared to deliver closing arguments as early as Tuesday morning.
During his cross-examination of Cohen on Thursday, defense attorney Todd Blanche accused him of lying about an alleged phone call with Trump related to the Stormy Daniels’ hush money payment.
Cohen testified that on Oct. 24, 2016, he placed a phone call to Trump’s security guard Keith Schiller, who passed the phone to Trump so he and Cohen could “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it.”
On Thursday, Blanche presented evidence to suggest that Cohen lied about the purpose of the phone call, arguing that Cohen actually called to complain to Schiller about a teenage prank caller.
Jurors saw text messages between Cohen and the prank caller from the same day as the alleged phone call between Cohen and Trump.
“This number has just been sent to secret service for your ongoing and continuous harassment to both my cell as well as to the organizations main line,” Cohen texted the teenager.
“It wasn’t me,” the 14-year-old prank caller replied. “My friend told me to call.”
Jurors also saw text messages between Cohen and Schiller ahead of their phone call at 8:02 p.m.
“Who can I speak to regarding harassing calls to my cell and office. The dope forgot to block his call on one of them,” Cohen texted Schiller.
“Call me,” Schiller texted Cohen at 8:02 p.m..
When confronted with the alleged inconsistency, Cohen stood by his initial testimony, arguing he spoke to Trump about the hush-money payment in addition to talking to Schiller about the prank caller.
“That was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump on that night, you talked to Keith Schiller about what we just went through; you can admit it?” Blanche confronted Cohen while raising his voice.
“No, sir, I can’t. I am not certain that is accurate,” Cohen responded.
While the cross-examination may have broadly damaged Cohen’s credibility, the specific phone call emphasized by Blanche was just one of many conversations between Cohen and Trump related to the Daniels’ payoff. Cohen testified that he had multiple other phone calls and in-person meetings with Trump — in both Trump Tower and the Oval Office — where Cohen claimed they discussed how to approach Stormy Daniels’ allegations, the plan for Cohen to make the payment, and the scheme to reimburse Cohen in 2017.
Trump, for his part, has repeatedly signaled his willingness to testify during the trial.
“I would have no problem testifying,” Trump told ABC News on March 25. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I would testify, absolutely,” Trump said on April 12. “It’s a scam. It’s a scam. That’s not a trial. That’s not a trial. That’s a scam.”
However, Trump appeared to back away from the idea earlier this month, falsely telling reporters that the limited gag order in the case — which prohibits extrajudicial statements about witnesses and jurors — prevents him from testifying.
The next day in court, Judge Juan Merchan directly addressed Trump to clarify that he has an “absolute right” to testify and that the gag order does not apply to his statements in court.
“I want to stress, Mr. Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial, if that is what you decide to do after consultation with your attorneys,” Merchan said.
(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.
May 20, 6:00 AM Prosecution expected to rest its case Monday morning
Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand Monday morning for the final time before prosecutors rest their case against the former president in his criminal hush money trial.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case later Monday morning.
Defense attorneys have not yet declared who they plan to call to testify — including whether Trump will testify in his own defense.
Cohen, the prosecution’s last major witness, is scheduled to complete his cross-examination by Trump’s defense team Monday morning.
Proceedings are scheduled to get underway at 8:45 a.m. ET with arguments over the admission of additional exhibits, after which the jury is expected back in court at 9:30 a.m.
