Manhattan, NYC: At the start of Tuesday’s court session, Merchan issued a written order fining Trump $1,000 for nine posts on his Truth Social feed that he said broke his gag order that prevented attacks on possible witnesses in the hush money trial.
He also told Trump to take down the offensive posts and threatened to put Trump in jail if he broke the rules again. As the evidence about Trump’s payment of $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels went on, Trump deleted the posts in question from his feed.
Keith Davidson is a lawyer who negotiated with the National Enquirer on behalf of Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. Both women told the truth about having an affair with Trump in order to sell their stories.
Davidson told the judge that after agreeing to pay Daniels with Cohen, the money was not sent. This made Davidson email Cohen at the Trump Organization and say that Daniels was ready to back out of the deal.
The five-judge panel of the New York Court of Appeals turned down Trump’s request to delay the hush money trial on Tuesday, saying that Merchan had refused to recuse himself and give Trump time to appeal a lower court’s decision that Trump’s immunity as president did not protect him from prosecution in the hush money case.
