Trump trial: Judge rebukes Michael Cohen ahead of expected testimony Monday
Former President Trump was in court on Day 15 of his criminal trial in 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.
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5 members of public are in court after waiting overnight
Members of the public lined up as early as 12:30 a.m. to get a spot in the courtroom to see Stormy Daniels' testimony this morning.
Two friends who live in Brooklyn, who identified themselves as Shmuel and Levi, said their first attempt to watch the trial from the courtroom on Tuesday failed. They said they arrived at 3:30 a.m. but could only secure a spot in the overflow room, so they changed their approach this morning.
"We went back home last night ... and decided to come at like 12:30 a.m.," Shmuel told ABC News. "We figured that it would be safe."
Both said they stayed awake while waiting overnight and appreciated the weather cooperating.
"It was really a beautiful night," Levi said.
A total of five members of the public made it into the courtroom this morning.
Stormy Daniels arrives at courthouse
Stormy Daniels has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of her second day of testimony.
Proceedings are scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Judge said defense's concerns can be address on cross
On Stormy Daniels' first day on the stand on Tuesday, her graphic testimony about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump -- which Trump denies took place -- prompted attorneys for the defense to seek a mistrial.
Daniels told the jury about noticing an "imbalance of power" with Trump, how she was "blacking out" and found herself nearly naked on the bed of Trump's hotel suite, and how the two engaged in unprotected sex.
Defense attorneys for Trump argued that the testimony did enough damage to merit tossing the trial entirely on the grounds that it was prejudicial in the eyes of the jury.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the bid, saying the defense will have its say during their cross-examination -- which began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue today.
Stormy Daniels to return to the witness stand
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress whose allegations of a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump prompted the hush money payment that lies at the center of the Manhattan DA's criminal case against Trump, is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning.
On Daniels' first day on the stand on Tuesday, she testified that first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and that he invited her to his hotel suite. Daniels told the jury that when she came out of the bathroom, she found Trump on the bed dressed in only his underwear and a T-shirt.
"The next thing I know, I was on the bed," said Daniels, who then described how they had sex. Trump has denied that the two ever had a sexual encounter.
Daniels told jurors that she became afraid to go public with her story of the encounter after she was threatened by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking lot in June 2011. She said that the 2016 offer from then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to buy her silence for $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 election allowed her to keep the allegations private while profiting from the deal.
"They were interested in paying for the story, which was the best thing that could happen because then my husband wouldn't find out, but there was still documentation of a money exchange and a paperwork exchange, so that I would be safe and the story wouldn't come out," Daniels said.
Checks for Trump to sign were sent to bodyguard's home
As questioning of the Trump Organization's bookkeeper continued, Trump, sitting at the defense table, continued to appear to give instructions to his attorneys.
Trump wrote down a note on a yellow legal bad and passed it to attorney Susan Necheles, who read it and then looked up at Trump and nodded in agreement. She then went back to her own notepad and took down a note.
Bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is testifying as a custodian of records for the Trump Organization, as prosecutors have entered into evidence a series of emails and Fedex records.
The jury sees FedEx invoices for checks Manochio says she sent to Washington for Trump to sign while he was president. They have seen two instances where Manochio mailed checks to the home of Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller, instead of directly to the White House.
Schiller also mailed the checks back, according to Manochio.
Asked who directed her to mail the checks to Schiller, Manochio said that either then-CFO Allen Weisselberg or Trump assistant Rhona Graff told her to do so.
By September 2017, Manochio said she began mailing the checks to Trump's then-body man John McEntee, who would later became the director of the White House personnel office and one of Donald Trump's most trusted aides.
"I will need the boss's personal checks mailed to me," McEntee said in an email to Rhona Graff.
"Who is John McEntee?" the prosecutor asked Manochio.
"Couldn't tell you," Manochio said.