Opening statements expected at Trump's NYC hush-money trial

Another expected witness allegedly paid off on the eve of the election, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, claims she also slept with Trump at the golf tournament during a heated 10-month affair.

Prosecutors say Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 and facilitated Pecker’s AMI in paying off McDougal for $150,000 and also a doorman at Trump Tower for $30,000, who wanted to sell his allegations about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. Trump’s ex-fixer and AMI admitted to their roles in Cohen’s 2018 federal case.

Recent developments

In the week since his trial got underway, prosecutors have accused Trump of breaking a gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking those involved in the trial no less than ten times. They’ve asked Merchan to fine him thousands of dollars for the offending posts on his Truth Social website, which the judge is expected to mull at a hearing on Tuesday.

Despite expectations that the jury selection process in the high-stakes case would take weeks, the panel of seven men and five women who will be tasked with weighing the first criminal case against a former U.S. president took just three days to assemble. Six alternate jurors had been selected by midday Friday.

By the end of the week’s proceedings, the gravity of the case had set in with some potential jurors, who said they no longer felt they could be impartial. One woman broke down into tears during proceedings, and another asked to be relieved when her friends and family guessed she’d been chosen to serve.

The jurors’ identities will remain anonymous to the public, but Trump and his team know them. Unlike in other high-profile court proceedings in recent years at the downtown courthouses, they have not been partially sequestered, which is when court officials arrange their transport to and from the trial.

On Friday, Trump failed to convince an appeals court to delay the trial while he tries to get it moved out of Manhattan. He’s required to be in court in person every day, with Merchan denying a request to let him come in late on Thursday so he can attend Supreme Court arguments in D.C. aimed at dodging his federal election subversion case.

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