Trump trial live: Opening statements set to begin Monday as his legal fees eat into campaign fund

Alex Woodward is back outside the court in Lower Manhattan for us once again this morning and reports:

“The gates for the staging area for press are still locked but there’s a line wrapping around the park in the meantime.

“There wasn’t an acknowledgement in court on Friday (probably for the best) of the man who self-immolated a few literal steps from where I’m standing now, and the security and police presence don’t seemed to have changed.

“We’re anticipating opening arguments from the prosecution and potentially a first witness, with speculation that it’s David Pecker.

“Justice Merchan will also likely handle any Sandoval business in the morning.”

Alex Woodward reported for The Independent from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan all of last week.

Here’s his look back at exactly what went down.

The New York Times reported last night that former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is expected to be the first witness called by the prosecution this week.

MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin correctly called the Manhattan DA’s strategy a day earlier when she tweeted: “If I’m telling this story chronologically, the person I’d call first is this guy on the right, former American Media chairman David Pecker.

“According to the Manhattan DA’s statement of facts accompanying the indictment, the story begins with Trump’s infamous ride down the [escalator] in June 2015, when he declared his candidacy for president.

“But ‘soon after,’ in August 2015, Trump and Cohen met with Pecker, who offered to serve as the campaign’s ‘eyes and ears’ to help Trump – and hurt his rivals – through the National Enquirer’s coverage.

“That American Media made good on its promises is important, especially since it admitted to certain conduct through a non-prosecution agreement with DOJ in 2018 and this ‘conciliation agreement’ with the Federal Election Commission in 2021.

“But even more significant? Pecker can testify that Trump not only understood but heartily endorsed his publication’s offer to ‘catch and kill’ negative stories about him, especially as they pertained to Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs.

“And given how few people outside Michael Cohen directly communicated with Trump about the scheme at issue, Pecker’s testimony could be critical in establishing Trump’s intent and knowledge. FIN.”

Here’s a look at Pecker and the other key personnel likely to take the stand courtesy of Ariana Baio.

A member of Trump’s legal team yesterday divulged the defence’s plan to “focus on the facts” to show that the former president did nothing wrong, one day before the opening arguments are set to begin in the landmark hush money trial.

Posts like these seem extremely unlikely to endear the defendant to Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg but Trump keeps right on “truthing” them anyway.

The first – invoking the right’s favourite liberal bogeyman, billionaire financier George Soros – finds him dabbling in antisemitic conspiracy theories to suggest the Manhattan DA is a puppet of shadowy and sinister forces. Entirely without evidence, of course.

That doesn’t stop him calling, with remarkable gall, for the removal of the gag order imposed on him by the judge.

Elsewhere, he’s been slamming the media for interviewing a former member of his own administration and threatening “non-profits” in a rather vague manner.

Former president Donald Trump’s legal team has used various defences for — and attempts to delay — his hush money case in which he is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

[Spoiler alert: No. You have to follow this blog. You’re welcome.]

Should Mr Trump ultimately be found guilty, he could theoretically face more than a decade in prison, according to CNN chief legal analyst Laura Coates, who points out that the felony counts against Mr Trump are classified as Class E crimes in New York, which are the lowest level felonies in the state.

But there’s more to it than that…

In a typical presidential election year, candidates will spend the 11 months leading up to election day shaking hands and kissing babies at rallies as the primaries unfold.

Instead, the ex-president will be forced to juggle his campaign for the White House while also defending himself in federal and state courts in four different cases that have hearings and trial dates scattered throughout 2024.

Ariana Baio breaks down what the former president is facing:

Attorneys for Donald Trump told a judge overseeing the former president’s hush money trial on Friday that Manhattan prosecutors are merely trying to “distract” jurors and “pile things on” by introducing evidence from his string of other criminal and civil cases.

New York Justice Juan Merchan presided over a hearing to outline what prosecutors intend to ask Mr Trump if he chooses to testify at his criminal trial, including a defamation case and allegations of sexual abuse, a massive civil fraud judgment finding him liable for tens of millions of dollars, felony convictions targeting his business, and the dissolution of a namesake foundation used to boost his presidential campaign.

But the judge said that prosecutors’ request falls within the grounds of the so-called Sandoval hearing, during which a defendant with a history of misconduct or criminal acts who also plans to testify in his defence knows what they could be walking into.