Donald Trump trial updates: Donald Trump arrives to court with glamorous aides Margo Martin and Natalie Harp by his side as speculation swirls on whether he’ll testify himself

Trump’s glamorous aide Margo Martin stepped out Monday in a short white mini skit and blue button down.

She is by his side along with other blonde bombshell staff Natalie Harp and attorney Alina Habba.

Other guests accompanying the defendant today include former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik.

Also in Trump’s retinue of supporters are four Republican members of Congress, including Mary Miller of Illinois.

High-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz is also present.

Pictured below is Trump’s deputy communication chief Margo Martin leaving Trump Tower for court on Monday and aide Natalie Harp among others entering the courtroom:

The court heard that Trump’s reimbursement top cohen for the Stromy daniels payment also included $50,000 owed to a consulting company called Red Finch.

This money was doubled to account for tax so Cohen recived $100,000.

Cohen admitted that he only paid the owner of Red Finch $20,000 to ‘placate him’ for the time being.

In startling testimony, Cohen said he got the $20,000 out of a bank and handed it to the Red Finch owner in a brown paper bag.

Cohen said: ‘He came to the office and I gave him the cash.’

Blanche asked Cohen if he ever gave the remaining $30,000 to the Red Finch owner, and he did not.

You did steal from the Trump Organization based upon the expected reimbursement from Red Finch.

Cohen replied ‘Yes sir’ and Trump shook his head.

Defence attorney Todd Blanche is homing in on Cohen’s testimony last week about his meeting with Trump Organisation’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, when they figured out how to reimburse the lawyer-cum-fixer.

It included money related to RedFinch, a tech company that was taken on to rig online polls in Trump’s favor.

Cohen just described withdrawing $20,000 from his bank over two days, and then handing it to the boss of the company in a brown paper bank. The company was owed $50,000 but that was enough to ‘placate’ its boss, said Cohen.

Yet, when it came to settling up between Weisselberg and Cohen, Cohen admits he asked for the full $50,000 reimbursement (seen in handwritten note below).

‘You stole from the Trump Organisation, right,’ asks Blanche.

In fact, because the numbers were doubled it meant that Cohen benefited by much more than $30,000.

Blanche asks: ‘Did you ever plead guilty to larceny?’

Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is suggesting that Cohen talked to Trump about matters other than Stormy Daniels in the two phone calls they had on the day of the hush money payment – October 26th, 2016.

Blanche said: ‘You do have a specific recollection on those two phone calls you just alked about the Stormy Daniels deal?’

Cohen: ‘Because they were important to me.’

Blanche: ‘So was fixing Tiffany Trump’s situation important to you?’

Cohen: ‘It was important I take care of things but it was not personally important to me.’

Blanche: ‘Woudln’t that be something you updated her father about when you spoke the next morning?’

Blanche said there was also an opening ceremony for a Trump building that day, Trump was doing a big TV interview, and there was still fallout from the Access Hollywood tape.

But Cohen said the Stormy Daniels deal was what he spoke to Trump about on the phone because ‘that’s what he tasked me to take care of.’

Cohen made two calls to Donald Trump the morning he made the payment to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer on October 26, 2016, the court heard.

The first call was at 8:26AM and lasted three minutes and one second.

The second call was less than ten minutes later.

It connected at 8:34AM and lasted one minute 28 seconds.

Blanche asked Cohen about the litany of things he had going on in October 2016, the time that he made the $130,000 Stormy Daniels payment.

Cohen agreed he had issues with his taxi medallion business and was working on the sale of a property which sold at the end of the month for $7 million.

Cohen confirmed around that time he was working on what Blanche called a ‘potential extortion attempt’ against Trump’s daughter Tiffany over some photographs.

There was also an issue with a person making harassment phone calls to Cohen as well, he told the jury.

Blanche said: ‘You agree with me you had a lot going on both in your personal life and with President Trump in those first few weeks of October?’

Cohen replied: ‘Yes sir.’

Todd Blanche, for Trump, starts off by asking whether Cohen had spoken to any reporters between the end of his testimony last week and today.

Blanche said: ‘Since that time until right now how many reporters have you talked to about what happened last week?

Cohen responded: ‘I didn’t’ speak to reporters. I spoke to reporters to say hello, to see how I’m doing.

Blanche said: ‘Reporters just greeted you and didn’t speak about your testimony?’

Michael Cohen has resumed his aseat in on the witness stand.

He is wearing a dark suit and mauve tie and sitting with his hands resting on the wooden surface in front of him

He has a a screen monitor in front of him to his left.

Cohen looks businesslike and is not expressing any emotion.

Emil Bove said a ruling by the the judge in relation to of an expert witness left Trump’s lawyers in a ‘tough spot’.

Judge Merchan said that he didn’t see what Bove was saying by ‘being in a difficult position’

The judge said: ‘The court has not changed its position from day one.…you‘ve known for months. This is not new. If you had concerns about these topics and you wanted an earlier ruling you could have come to me’.

Bove tried to cut in but Judge Merchan said: ‘Just relax’.

Bove put his hands across his chest apologizing and smiled at the judge.

Trump’s lawyers sought to bring in an email in 2018 sent by Jeffrey Citron, a lawyer, to Michael Cohen

The email was sent after a meeting between Citron, Cohen and Robert Costello, a Trump-aligned lawyer who Cohen considered working with after the hush money payment became public.

The email talked about how Cohen was ‘involved on multiple fronts’ and mentioned Citron’s hopes he could ‘bring you some peace’.

Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, said the email suggested that Cohen had not told the truth about his dealings with Costello, who Cohen claimed he didn’t get along with.

Judge Merchan rejected the request to bring it into evidence, telling the court that ‘nowhere in this email does it express Mr Cohen’s state of mind’ as it was written by Citron.

Judge Juan Merchan can’t beat the Memorial Day break. The holiday deadline has been looming, and the judge was intent in trying to keep things moving so that the court could get to closing arguments tomorrow, allowing the jury time to begin deliberations ahead of the long weekend.

‘It’s become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,’ Merchan told the court first thing on Monday.

Rather than end the week with summations, leaving the jury to stew for the weekend, before deliberating next week it means closing arguments will come next Tuesday instead. It means we will likely have a day or two off this week.

It was either have a long break now or have a long break then, and unfortunately, the calendar is what it is.

Today we have some legal arguments about what evidence can be admitted. Before we get back to the cross-examination of Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump’s arrival today was very different from his arrival in the early days of his trial. Then he would arrive with his legal team and a couple of advisers. Today he has 14 supporters, including members of Congress, legal brains, and former members of his administration.

The result is a game of musical chairs as adviser Boris Epshteyn hurried up and down the rows of seating ensuring that everyone has a seat.

It means Vernon Jones, the former US Representative from Georgia, takes up a seat on the bench right at the very back of the room, along with Kash Patel, who’s arm is in a brace.

Trump stood at the front of the room smiling at his allies as they took their places.

After he takes his seat Trump is silent and stares straight ahead as photographers take his picture.

He then has some detailed discussion with Mr Bove on his left, and lawyer Todd Blanche on his right.

As Judge Juan Merchan enters the court the lawyers and everyone else stand.

Trump is, fractionally, the last to stand up for the judge.

Trump is standing at the defense table and leaning in to listen to one of his lawyers, Emil Bove.

‘Mr Bove makes some hand gestures and Trump nods, seemingly in agreement.

As Mr Bove takes his seat Trump turns and stares toward the back of the court.

It’s not clear if he is looking for anyone in particular.

Donald Trump lamented having to get to court an hour earlier Monday than previous days in remarks to reporters outside court.

The ex-president also slammed the judge in the case calling his ‘totally conflicted.’

Trump also baselessly claimed it was all coming from President Biden as an ‘attack on his political opponent’ while at the same time calling the president ‘mentally unfit to be the president.’

‘Today the target is Trump, tomorrow it may be a Democrat,’ he said.

The former president also repeated the complaint that he was ‘sitting in an ice box all day’ in a reference to the courtroom’s temperature which has been an issue for him since the trial began.

Donald Trump‘s hush money trial could wrap up and depending on when closing arguments are made – the case could be in the hands of the jury to reach a verdict as soon as this week.

What remains less clear is whether the ex-president will take the stand in his own defense in the case. His defense lawyer Todd Blanche refused to rule out Trump testifying when court wrapped up last week.

Trump himself has delivered mixed messages on whether he would take the stand, saying last month that he would ‘absolutely’ testify.

He has also said he would testify ‘if necessary’ and ‘probably.’ At the same time, he has recently told the media falsely that he is not allowed.

But based on the most recent activity of Trump lawyers and legal expert recommendations, it does not appear likely that Trump would testify.

The maximum sentence for each count of falsifying business records faced by Trump is four years.

In theory, that means Judge Juan Merchan could impose a sentence of up to 136 years.

However, an analysis, by the New York Times, of previous recent falsifying business records cases shows only about one in 10 result in a sentence including jail time.

One defendant in New York did receive a sentence of 364 days for signing a false invoice for $10,000.

But the records show that for Mr. Trump, who would be a first-time offender, a jail sentence seems possible but unlikely.

Michael Cohen, former ‘fixer’ and lawyer for Donald Trump, departed his home in Manhattan to testify for a third day.

He is considered the prosecution’s ‘star’ witness.

He had a rough day Thursday while Trump’s attorneys questioned him, trying to poke holes in his credibility as a witness.

Donald Trump‘s defense lawyer accused star witness Michael Cohen of lying about a crucial phone that tied the former president to a cover-up around hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in a dramatic exchange Thursday.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche delivered his blow just before the lunch break, offering evidence that the key conversation was actually about a prank caller and not, as Cohen claimed three days earlier, about a $130,000 payment for Daniels’ silence.

It created an ‘aha’ moment just as the case barrels towards its conclusion; the sort of pin-drop shock common to courtroom TV dramas but rare in real life.

Having reminded the 12 members of the jury that Cohen had a history of lying to courts and laying the foundations of the idea that he was an unreliable witness, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche took the court in an unexpected direction.

He brought up text messages and call logs to show that Cohen had been plagued by nuisance calls in October 2016.

Donald Trump’s legal team had reason to hope that Michael Cohen’s performance on the witness stand could sow at least one member of the jury in the Stormy Daniels trial.

But Trump is still days away from the culmination of a trial that could wend him to jail for up to four years if he is convicted of all 34 counts felony counts of falsifying business records relating to the payoff of the porn star.

‘Probably the worst outcome is that Trump is found guilty of multiple felony counts and thus he is forever more a convicted criminal and a felon,’ said Eugene O’Donnell, who teaches law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Judge Juan Merchan says he has no desire to put a former president behind bars.

‘The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,’ Merchan told Trump this month even as he found him in contempt and slapped him with fines totaling $10,000 for violating a gag order restricting his comments on the case.