Trump prosecutors keep witness schedule secret to avoid ex-president’s attacks

Donald
Trump‘s
prosecutors
are
keeping
their
witness
schedule
secret
in
order
to
stop
the
former
president
from
targeting
upcoming
witnesses
in
his
New
York
criminal
hush
money
trial,
they
said
Monday.

“The
defendant
has
been
violating
the
order
restricting
extrajudicial
speech,
and
we
did
not
want
to
have
the
witnesses’
names,
the
next
witnesses’
names
out
there,”
prosecutor
Joshua
Steinglass
told
the
judge
in
Manhattan Supreme Court.

To
avoid
the
names
being “out
there,”
the
prosecution
is
notifying
defense
attorneys
who
the
next
witnesses
are
one
day
before
they
are
called
to
testify,
Steinglass
said.

The
District
Attorney’s
office
has
not
released
an
expected
witness
list
to
the
public.

This
adds an extra
layer
of
suspense
to
the
dramatic
trial,
as
one
by
one,
prosecutors
reveal
who
will
be
next
on
the
stand.

Steinglass
rejected
defense
claims
that
Trump
is
at
an
unfair
disadvantage
because
his
team
is
not
presented
with
a
full
schedule
of
when
each
witness
is
expected
to
testify.

“They
have
had
the
witness
list
and
the
exhibit
list
for
a
long
time,”
he
told
Judge
Juan
Merchan
after
the
jury
went
home
for
the
day.

Steinglass
said
he
didn’t
want
it
to
look
like
prosecutors
were “somehow
sandbagging
the
defense.” 

Trump
is
bound
by
a
gag
order
that
bars
him
from
speaking
about
witnesses
and
jurors
—
but
Merchan
has
already
held
him
in
contempt
of
court
10
times
for
violating
the
order.

The
latest
contempt
citations
were
issued
Monday
morning,
before
the
jury
was
seated.

Merchan
warned
Trump
that
future
violations
of
court
orders
would
land
the
former
president
in
jail.

“The
last
thing
I
want
to
do
is
to
put
you
in
jail,”
Merchan
said
to
Trump.
But “I
will,
if
necessary.”

As
Trump
left
the
courthouse,
he
seemed
to
suggest
he
does
not
plan
to
stop
violating
the
gag
order.

“Frankly,
our
constitution
is
far
more
important
than
jail
…
I’ll
do
that
choice
any
day,”
Trump
said,
a
reference
to
his
claims
that
the
gag
order
deprives
him
of
his
right
to
free
speech.

Steinglass’
conference
with
the
judge
capped
of
a
day
of
testimony
from
Trump
Organization
insiders
who
described
how
the
secretive
company
operates.
They
also
testified
about
the
business
records
at
the
center
of
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg’s
historic
case.

Former
Trump
Organization
controller
Jeff
McConney
was
the
major
witness
of
the
day.

Several
times,
prosecutors
pressed
him
about
the
unusual
circumstances
of
the
reimbursement
payments
the
company
made
to
Trump’s
former
fixer,
Michael
Cohen.

Trump
is
charged
with
falsifying
business
records
to
hide
the
reimbursements
to
Cohen,
who
paid
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
$130,000
shortly
before
the
2016
presidential
election to
bury
her
claim
that
she
and
Trump
had
sex
in
2006.

McConney
testified
that
Cohen
sent
invoices
that
were
not
submitted
to
the
company’s
legal
department,
even
though
that
department
normally
reviewed
bills
for
legal
services.

He
also
testified
that
he
never
saw
a
retainer
agreement
for
Cohen
related
to
those
payments.

This
is
significant
because
Bragg
alleges
Trump
falsified
records
of
the
Cohen
reimbursements,
by
reporting
them
as
payments
for
legal
services
provided
under
a
retainer
agreement.

McConney
also
said
he
was
instructed
to “gross
up”
the
payments
to
Cohen
to
cover
Cohen’s
anticipated
taxes
on
the
money.
On
top
of
that,
Cohen
got
another
$60,000
bonus,
for
a
total
of
$420,000
in
payments.

McConney
testified
that
he
could
not
think
of
another
instance
where
an
expense
reimbursement
was
doubled
to
cover
expected
taxes.

Merchan
kicked
off
the
day
with
a
dire
warning
to
Trump:
Stop
violating
the
court’s
orders,
or
you
will
be
thrown
in
jail.

The
ultimatum
came
less
than
a
week
after
the
judge
held
Trump
in
contempt
of
court
for
nine
violations
of
the
same
gag
order.

Merchan
held
Trump
in
contempt
again
Monday,
for
the
tenth
time,
for
claiming
in
an
April
22
radio
interview
that
his
trial
was “very
unfair”
because
the
jury
was
picked
from
an
area
that
is “mostly
all
Democrat.”

Trump “not
only
called
into
question
the
integrity,
and
therefore
the
legitimacy
of
these
proceedings,
but
again
raised
the
specter
of
fear
for
the
safety
of
the
jurors
and
of
their
loved
ones,”
Merchan

wrote
in
his
ruling.

Merchan
fined
Trump
the
maximum
$1,000
per
violation,
for
total
of
$10,000
in
fines
for
the
10
separate
infringements.

“It
appears
that
the
$1,000
fines
are
not
serving
as
a
deterrent,”
said
Merchan.

Still,
he
would
not
take
the
drastic
step
of
throwing
Trump
in
jail
without
serious
consideration,
he
said.

“The
magnitude
of
such
a
decision
is
not
lost
on
me,”
Merchan
said.

“There
are
many
reasons
why
incarceration
is
truly
a
last
resort
for
you,”
he
said. “To
take
that
step
would
be
disruptive
to
the
proceedings.”

“But
at
the
end
of
the
day,
I
have
a
job
to
do.”