Trump trial live updates: Michael Cohen to return for second day of testimony

(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:

May 14, 7:22 AM
Stormy Daniels wore bulletproof vest to court, lawyer says

An attorney for Stormy Daniels told CNN that Daniels wore a bulletproof vest to court before her testimony last week.

“She was concerned about the security coming into New York,” attorney Clark Brewster said. “She wore a bulletproof vest every day until she got to the courthouse.”

Brewster said that Daniels was concerned about a rogue actor targeting her due to her testimony in the trial.

“Before she came on Sunday, I mean she cried herself to sleep,” Brewster said. “She was paralyzed with fear.”

Daniels testified over two days last week that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006 and that she was subsequently paid $130,000 for her silence. Trump has denied all allegations of a sexual encounter.

May 14, 7:12 AM
Michael Cohen to return for 2nd day of testimony

Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen is set to resume his direct examination this morning in former President Trump’s criminal hush money trial.

Across six hours of testimony yesterday, Cohen laid out the trial’s most incriminating testimony so far regarding Trump’s involvement in a scheme to hide information from voters by falsifying business records in order to disguise a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election.

Cohen testified that he helped coordinate a “catch and kill” scheme with David Pecker of the National Enquirer, making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, then devising a reimbursement arrangement with then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in 2017. Trump, who has steadfastly denied Daniels’ allegations, has denied all wrongdoing.

Cohen told jurors that Trump approved the Daniels hush money payment in October 2016, and that Cohen wired the money from a shell company he funded using a home equity line of credit.

He then recounted a 2017 meeting with Trump and Weisselberg in Trump Tower just days before the inauguration where Trump agreed to the plan to reimburse Cohen for the hush money payment.

“He approved it,” Cohen said of Trump. “What I was doing, I was doing at the direction and for the benefit of Mr. Trump.”