Donald Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche, during the contempt hearing on the limited gag order in the case, defended the former president's comments by arguing that Trump was responding to political attacks.

"President Trump does in fact know what the gag order allows him to do and not allow him to do," Blanche said. "There is no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks from all sides."

According to Blanche, while the limited gag order prohibits statements about a witness' potential participation in a case, Trump is allowed to make comments in response to political attacks from potential witnesses like Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

"They are talking about their very strong dislike of President Trump," Blanche said about a post related to former Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti's comments on Michael Cohen.

Judge Juan Merchan questioned Blanche about what exactly made Trump's response "political" in nature.

"You believe that everything Mr. Avenatti said does not relate to the trial, but the use of the word 'pardon' makes it political and in a sense authorizes your client to respond?" Merchan asked.

"It's everything. It can't just be a single word," Blanche responded.

"When your client is violating the gag, I expect more than one word," Merchan said.

Conroy asked Merchan to advise Trump that for future violations of the gag order, "incarceration is an option should it be necessary."

Donald Trump's alleged violations of the court-imposed limited gag order "pose a very real threat to the integrity of the judicial proceedings," prosecutor Christopher Conroy said during the hearing on whether Trump should be held in contempt.

In addition to the 10 alleged gag order violations, Conroy said the district attorney's office would file an additional contempt motion later today about comments Trump made to cameras on Monday about Michael Cohen.

Among Trump's comments: "Because as you know, Cohen is a lawyer -- represented a lot of people over the years -- now, I'm not the only one. And he wasn't very good in a lot of ways, in terms of his representation, but he represented a lot of people."

"And also, the things he got in trouble for were things that had nothing to do with me. He got in trouble and went to jail. This had nothing to do with me. This had to do with the taxi-cab company that he owned, which is something -- and medallions and borrow money and a lot of things but had nothing to do with me. He represented a lot of people over the years."

"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. So he got caught lying -- pure lying. And when are they going to look at that?"

Conroy told the judge that Trump has "violated this order repeatedly and hasn't stopped."

Conroy said Trump's conduct is "all part of his plan for this trial," accusing the former president of "conditioning his followers" by making derogatory remarks about potential witnesses.

On his way into the courtroom, Trump continued to falsely claim that his supporters were being barred from protesting outside the courthouse.

"Great Americans -- people that want to come down and they want to protest at the court. And they want to protest peacefully," he told reporters. "We have more police presence here than anyone's ever seen for blocks. You can't get near this courthouse."

But as the day's proceedings began, the park across from the New York criminal courthouse was open and nearly empty, and the area around the courthouse is not closed off.

-Mike Pappano and Brian Hartman

Donald Trump has arrived in court with his usual entourage of lawyers, staff, and secret service agents.

Trump promptly took his seat alone at the counsel table as his lawyers and paralegals worked around him set up electronics for this morning's contempt hearing, in which prosecutors will seek to have Trump held in contempt of court for repeatedly violating the case's limited gag order.

Three prosecutors -- Joshua Steinglass, Christopher Conroy, and Matthew Colangelo -- are seated at the counsel table, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and about eight members of his office seated in the first two rows of the gallery.

Bragg appears to have two security agents seated behind him, while a dozen court officers and secret service agents surround the courtroom and former president.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified on cross-examination that the publication's limited involvement in Stormy Daniels' hush money payment was unrelated to the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting where Pecker vowed to serve as the "eyes and ears" of Trump's presidential campaign.

Pecker's testimony on cross-examination about the Daniels story appeared consistent with his testimony yesterday about his strong desire not to be involved in the Stormy Daniels payment.

Pecker said yesterday that he did not want to be involved in the story due to concerns about reputational harm to the National Enquirer and a lack of reimbursement for the other payments he had made to suppress previous Trump stories.

"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 yesterday. Pecker said he instructed National Enquirer Chief Content Officer Dylan Howard to flag the Stormy Daniels story to Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels himself.

Asked about Daniels' payment on cross-examination, Pecker said that the National Enquirer's limited involvement was unrelated to their vow to Trump.

"You did not consider the Stormy Daniels story to be part of any agreement you had in August 2015?" defense attorney Emil Bove asked.

"That is correct," Pecker said.

"You wanted nothing to do with it?" Bove said.

"That's correct," Pecker said.

Pecker added that he did not "authorize" Howard to continue communicating with Stormy Daniels' lawyer Keith Davidson about the payment.

When Howard raised concerns to Pecker that Davidson had not yet been paid by Michael Cohen, Pecker said he was angry that Howard continued to communicate with Davidson about the story. In addition to the nature of the story -- which Pecker said could endanger the National Enquirer's relationship with its distributors -- Pecker said Cohen's delay in paying Daniels' lawyer could result in reputational harm to the National Enquirer.

"Frankly, you were not happy to be hearing that?" Bove asked about Cohen's delayed payment.

"Yes," Pecker said.

"The main concern was Howard's reputation?" Bove asked.

"Yes," Pecker said.