First week of testimony concludes in Trump hush money trial – Dtieout Aaps News (2024)

Trump to appear in Wisconsin and Michigan for rally next week

Donald Trump is expected to appear in Waukesha, Wisconsin and Freeland, Michigan on Wednesday for campaign rallies.

On the only free day that Mr Trump has while his New York criminal trial is underway, the former president will hold rallies in the neighbouring states on 1 May.

He is required to attend every day of his trial per New York City criminal law.

The rally in Waukesha will take place at 2pm CT at the Waukesha County Expo Center.

The rally in Freeland will take place later in the day at 6pm at Avflight Saginaw.

Key takeaways from the first week of Trump’s trial testimony

This week was Donald Trump’s second week on criminal trial – the first of courtroom testimony – and it was certainly eventful.

Jurors heard from the prosecution’s first witnesses in the case including lengthy testimony from tabloid mogul David Pecker, who outlined the “catch and kill” scheme at the heart of the hush money case.

The former president faced calls for $10,000 fines over gag order violations over his continued attacks on witnesses.

And Americans heard Mr Trump both fume about the landmark trial and use it as a campaign platform on Truth Social and in the courthouse corridors.

Read more from Alex Woodward and Kelly Rissman:

Trump seems to get cold feet about testifying in New York hush money trial

Donald Trump appears to be getting cold feet about taking the stand to testify in his criminal hush money trial, after he previously insisted that he would “absolutely” do so.

The former president called in to Newsmax on Thursday night after the conclusion of day seven of his historic trial, where he was asked by anchor Greg Kelly about his intentions to testify in his own defence based on what he had seen of the proceedings so far.

“Well I would if it’s necessary,” Mr Trump answered.

He continued: “Right now, I don’t know if you heard about today. Today was just incredible. People are saying – the experts, I’m talking about legal scholars and experts – they’re saying, ‘What kind of a case is this? There is no case.’

“Uh, you know they had David Pecker, testifying today. And he was, you know, people are saying there’s no case. There’s literally no case!”

Trump invites himself to the White House to debate Biden

Donald Trump on Friday challenged President Joe Biden to a debate in an unlikely venue: The White House.

Speaking from the hallway outside of his ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan, the former president sought to strike a confident tone about his chances in a head-to-head against his likely 2024 opponent.

“We’re ready, just tell me where,” Trump said. “We’ll do it at the White House. That would be very comfortable actually. You tell me where.”

The comments came after President Biden said Friday that he will participate in televised debates, ending speculation about whether or not he would debate Trump, during an hour-long, wide-ranging interview with Sirius-XM radio host Howard Stern.

“I am, somewhere,” he said, in response to a question about whether he was going to debate Trump, adding a second later that he did not know when such debates would take place. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three sessions for September 16, October 1 and October 9 this year.

Bill Barr says Trump would threaten ‘execution’ when angry

Former attorney general Bill Barr told Kaitlin Collins on Friday that Donald Trump would sometimes threaten to execute someone when he would lose his temper – but that he did not mean it literally.

“Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Trump’s communication director, posted yesterday and said that you were present at a moment when Trump suggested executing the person who leaked information that he went to the White House bunker when the George Floyd’s protests were happening outside the White House,” Ms Collins said to Mr Barr on The Sources With Kaitlin Collins.

Mr Barr said he did not recall Mr Trump saying the word “executing” but that he also “wouldn’t dispute” that it happened.

“The president would lose his temper and say things like that, I doubt he would have actually carried that out,” Mr Barr added. “I think people would sometimes take him too literally.”

Voices: Trump may lose his hush money trial – but he’s got bigger things to worry about

Hell hath no fury like a Donald Trump forced to spend all day in a dingy, cold courtroom at 100 Centre Street in downtown Manhattan. Here on the 15th floor, he has spent the last two weeks fulminating. But he can’t do that while the court is in session. Here, it is Judge Juan Merchan who is in charge, not the former president. Here, the president has to do what he’s told.

For a man for whom being not just in charge but in total control is so much a part of his heavily curated image, this is proving tough. Defendant Trump turns up when the judge tells him to and leaves at the end of the day. In that sense, he is being treated like any other suspected criminal on trial. In others, of course, this is all totally abnormal.

Longtime assistant to Trump testifies to ‘vague’ memory of seeing Stormy Daniels at Trump Tower

In her testimony, Ms Graff revealed new details about Ms Daniels’ apparent ties to the former president, including that he appeared to be considering the adult film star as a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice.

Alex Woodward filed this report from the courthouse:

Adam Schiff demonstrates why you shouldn’t leave valuables in parked cars in San Francisco

San Francisco has earned an unwelcome national reputation for car burglaries that US Rep. Adam Schiff was reminded of the hard way: The Democratic congressman had his luggage swiped from his car while it was parked in a downtown garage.

With his formal clothing gone, Schiff ended up at a fundraising dinner Thursday for his US Senate campaign dressed like he was headed to a Los Angeles Dodgers game — in shirt sleeves and an insulated vest. Others who attended the event were mostly decked out in suit jackets and ties.

Schiff’s campaign confirmed the burglary and declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

Trump calls a vote for RFK JR ‘wasted protest vote’

Donald Trump told followers not to vote for third-party presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, saying a vote for him would be a “wasted protest vote” and falsely asserted that Mr Kennedy was a “Democratic Plant”.

In a Truth Social post on Friday night, Mr Trump said Mr Kennedy was ‘planted’ by Democrats “to help Crooked Joe Biden… get Re-Elected.”

“A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him,” Mr Trump wrote.