Trump loses second bid for mistrial in hush money case

A
judge
Thursday
denied
a
request
by

Donald
Trump‘s
lawyers
for
a
mistrial
—
their
second
failed
attempt
in
three
days
to
scrap
the
former
president’s
criminal
hush
money
trial.

Judge
Juan
Merchan
delivered
the
ruling
after
he
rejected
a
separate
request
to
pare
back
Trump’s
gag
order
so
the
former
president
can
speak
about
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels.
Her
testimony
about
alleged
sex
with
Trump
prompted
both
mistrial
requests.

Defense
attorney
Todd
Blanche
argued
that
Daniels’
descriptions
of
the
alleged
encounter
were
irrelevant
to
the
case
and “extraordinarily
prejudicial
for
a
jury
to
hear.”

Shortly
before
this,
Blanche
revealed
that
prosecutors “no
longer”
plan
to
call
Karen
McDougal,
the
former
Playboy
model
who
allegedly
had
an
extramarital
affair
with

Trump,
to
testify.

Blanche
did
not
state
a
reason
for
the
apparent
reversal
by
the
prosecutors,
who
cite
a
$150,000
payment
to
McDougal
by
a
tabloid
publisher
in
their
case
accusing
Trump
of
falsifying
business
records.

The
debate
over
the
mistrial
and
the
McDougal
information
both
took
place
after
jurors
had
been
excused
for
the
day.

During
her
second
day
of
testimony,
Daniels
said
that
publicly
discussing
her
story
of
having
sex
with
former
President

Donald
Trump
has
been
detrimental
to
her
life.

“Negative,”
Daniels
testified
when
a
prosecutor
asked
if
telling
the
truth
about
Trump
has
been
a “net
positive”
or “net
negative”
for
her.

Daniels
gave
the
blunt
reply
shortly
before
she
was
dismissed
from
the
stand.

Daniels’
testimony
at
times
turned
combative
under
cross-examination
from
Trump
attorney
Susan
Necheles,
who
grilled
the
adult
film
star
about
her
alleged
one-night
stand
in
2006
with
the
then-married
businessman.

The
claim
is
key
to
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg’s
case,
which
centers
on
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
to
Daniels
from
Trump’s
then-personal
lawyer
Michael
Cohen
shortly
before
the
2016
presidential
election.

Daniels
at
one
point
scoffed
at
Necheles’
suggestion
that
she
would
ever
want
to
tell
the
world
about
having
sex
with
the
former
president.

“Even
though
you
had
agreed
that
you
would
not
discuss
this
supposed
story
and
you
had
received
a
lot
of
money
for
that
agreement,
you
then
decided
that
you
wanted
to
publicly
say
that
you
had
sex
with
Donald
Trump,”
Necheles
said.

Daniels
shot
back: “Nobody
would
ever
want
to
publicly
say
that.”

At
another
point,
Necheles
told
Daniels, “You
have
a
lot
of
experience
making
phony
stories
about
sex.”

Daniels
replied, “Wow.
That’s
not
how
I
would
put
it.
The
sex
in
the
films
is
very
much
real,
just
like
what
happened
to
me
in
that
room.”

She
added
that
if
her
claim
of
sleeping
with
Trump
was
untrue, “I
would’ve
written
it
to
be
a
lot
better.”

After
Daniels
left
court,
prosecutors
called
Rebecca
Manochio,
the
former
assistant
to
ex-Trump
Organization
Chief
Financial
Officer
Allen
Weisselberg.

Manochio,
who
still
works
for
the
company
as
a
junior
bookkeeper,
briefly
testified
about
a
series
of
Trump
Organization
invoices
from
2017.

Prosecutors
then
summoned
Tracey
Menzies,
a
senior
vice
president
at
HarperCollins
Book
Publishing,
to
the
stand.
Menzies
read
passages
from
the
2008
book “Think
Big:
Make
It
Happen
in
Business
and
Life”
by
Trump
and
Bill
Zanker.

While
the
trial
was
underway,
Sen.
Rick
Scott
appeared
outside
the
courthouse
to
slam
the
judge’s
daughter
and
Bragg’s
wife.

“Let’s
look
at
who’s
involved
in
doing
this,”
said
the
Florida
Republican,
who
had
entered
the
courtroom
alongside
Trump
on
Thursday
morning.

“The
lead
prosecutor
was
a
No.
3
person
that
Biden
—
the
Biden
Justice
Department.
The
judge’s
daughter
is
a
political
operative
and
raises
money
for
Democrats.
You’ve
got
the
lead
prosecutor’s
wife
is
a
significant
donor
to
Democrats
and
I
think
to
Biden,”
he
said.

Trump
is
barred
by
a
gag
order
from
speaking
about
all
three
of
those
people,
in
addition
to
witnesses,
jurors,
court
staff
members
and
their
families.
The
gag
order
also
prohibits
Trump
from “directing
others
to
make
public
statements”
about
those
parties.

“So
this
is
just
a
bunch
of
Democrats
saying, ‘We
want
to
make
sure
that
Donald
Trump
can’t
talk,'”
Scott
said.

Asked
if
Scott
was
appearing
at
the
trial
because
of
Trump’s
gag
order,
the
senator
said, “No,
I’m
fed
up.”

Merchan
has
held
Trump
in
contempt
of
court
for
violating
his
gag
order
10
times.
On
Monday,
the
judge
warned
Trump
that
he
will
be
put
in
jail
if
he
continues
to
violate
court
orders.

Trump
is
charged
with
falsifying
business
records
related
to
a
$130,000
hush-money
payment
made
to
Daniels.
Prosecutors
say
the
money
was
part
of
an
unlawful
scheme
to
benefit
Trump’s
2016
presidential
campaign.

Cohen
paid
Daniels
for
her
silence
about
the
alleged
sex
less
than
two
weeks
before
that
election,
and
Trump
reimbursed
him
after
taking
office.

The
hush
money
case,
while
often
considered
the
least
serious
of
the
four
criminal
indictments
Trump
faces,
is
increasingly
likely
to
be
the
only
one
to
make
it
to
trial
before
the
Nov.
5
presidential
election.

On
Wednesday,
a
Georgia
appeals
court
potentially
delayed
a
state-level
election
interference
case
against
Trump
by
agreeing
to
take
up
his
request
to
disqualify
his
prosecutor,
District
Attorney
Fani
Willis.

On
Tuesday
evening,
federal
Judge
Aileen
Cannon
indefinitely
postponed
Trump’s
trial
on
charges
that
he
illegally
took
classified
documents
and
then
tried
to
conceal
them
from
authorities.

A
federal
election
interference
case
against
Trump
in
Washington,
D.C.,
meanwhile,
is
on
hold
while
the
Supreme
Court
considers
whether
Trump
is
immune
from
the
charges
because
they
he
was
president
at
the
time
the
alleged
crimes
occurred.