From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama
NEW YORK — Even by Donald Trump’s standards, it was a dizzying week.
The first criminal prosecution of a former president began in earnest with opening statements and testimony in a lower Manhattan courtroom. But the action quickly spread to involve more than half a dozen cases in four states and the nation’s capital. Twice during the last week, lawyers for Trump were appearing simultaneously in different courtrooms.
The collision of so many cases within a five-day span underscores the challenges Trump will face as he campaigns for the White House while his legal matters intensify. While the presumptive Republican nominee has sought to talk about the economy and other issues, his intended message was repeatedly overshadowed by the latest developments in legal cases across the country.
Here’s how the week broke down and a look at what’s ahead.
Monday
The week began with a moment for the history books, with prosecutors for the first time presenting a jury with a criminal case against a former American president.
In opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that hush money payments to an adult film actor were “a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” while Trump’s lawyers argued that the case is baseless.
Testimony began with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker giving the public the most tangible look yet at the allegations.
For the first time in history, prosecutors are presenting a criminal case against a former American president to a jury.
The case also gave the clearest picture of Trump’s defense and how he is blending his roles as candidate and criminal defendant. Trump is starting and ending the day before reporters at the courthouse, offering complaints that he is required to be there and commentary on how cold it is in the courtroom or on unrelated national news.
Meanwhile, in a separate courthouse, a Trump lawyer struck a deal with New York state over a $175-million bond that the former president posted to pause a large civil fraud judgment he’s appealing in a separate case.
Tuesday
Trump returned to court, where prosecutors began by urging the judge to hold him in contempt for social media posts that they said violated a gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others involved in the trial. The judge did not immediately rule on the request but seemed skeptical of defense arguments that Trump was merely responding to others’ attacks.
Pecker, a Trump friend, testified the rest of the day and said he had pledged to help suppress harmful stories about the candidate during the 2016 election.
The testimony from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors’ assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the National Enquirer.
Wednesday
Trial proceedings were not scheduled for Wednesday, so Trump didn’t trek to the Manhattan courthouse from his namesake penthouse tower. But he did fire off a post at 2 a.m. on his social media platform, criticizing the judge. He added to the criticism later in the day during an interview with Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, more court documents were unsealed in Florida in another criminal case in which federal prosecutors have charged Trump and two of his employees with mishandling classified documents after he left the White House. Though the case has proceeded at a plodding pace in recent months and seems unlikely to reach trial this year, the documents show the warnings Trump received from associates to return the sensitive files.
A grand jury charged ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudolph W. Giuliani and others with crimes including conspiracy and fraud for efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in Arizona.
Beyond cases in which Trump is charged as a defendant, Arizona’s attorney general on Wednesday indicted 18 of his associates for their roles in an effort to overturn his loss in that state to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Trump was referred to in the Arizona case as an unindicted co-conspirator.
In a similar case, an investigator for Michigan testified that he considers Trump to be an uncharged co-conspirator in that state’s case against fake electors.
Thursday
Trump’s hush money case in New York state court resumed. But prosecutors began the day by arguing before the judge that Trump had again violated the gag order with social media posts and comments he made during an early-morning campaign stop that day in the city.
Trump is back in a New York courtroom as his hush money trial resumes. In D.C., the Supreme Court considers if he should be immune for actions while president.
New York state Supreme Court Judge Juan M. Merchan has not ruled on whether to hold Trump in contempt.
Pecker later resumed his testimony. Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was among the 18 charged in Arizona a day earlier, was listening in the courtroom.
Supreme Court may not rule for Trump, but it could give him a win by putting off his trial until after the election.
At the same time, in Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed whether Trump can be prosecuted over his efforts to undo his loss to Biden.
The justices in their questions seemed skeptical of Trump’s claims of absolute immunity from prosecution, but a majority seemed to signal that they had reservations about the charges, and this could result in a delay in the trial beyond November’s election.
In New York federal court on Thursday, a judge rejected Trump’s request for a new trial in a defamation case in which he was ordered to pay $83.3 million to an advice columnist for his social media attacks after a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting her.
Friday
The hush money trial continued in New York, with Pecker wrapping up testimony and Trump’s lawyers seeking to discredit him. There were two other witnesses, Trump’s longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff and Gary Farro, a banker for former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Epshteyn again was seated in the courtroom.
Donald Trump’s lawyers cross-examine a former tabloid publisher who said he protected the Republican candidate during the 2016 presidential campaign.
This coming week:
The hush money case in New York is not expected to resume until Tuesday because of a long-scheduled recess Monday.
Testimony is expected to continue Thursday and Friday, giving Trump a chance to make campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday.
The judge has scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning on prosecutors’ most recent push to punish Trump over the gag order.
In the Arizona case, details could emerge about the charges against Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, and Trump’s former lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Sixteen of the 18 people indicted by a grand jury have been charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery for their role in submitting a false slate of electors to Congress; the state attorney general has yet to confirm charges against the two remaining defendants. The indictment makes clear, based on their statements and positions, that the two are Giuliani and Meadows, but the charges against them are redacted.
Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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