Adult film actress Stormy Daniels is expected to testify Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial, two sources say.
Payments made to Daniels by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign are at the heart of the case, the first criminal trial of a former president.
In testimony Monday, former Trump Organization executive Jeff McConney testified about instructions he said he received from then-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg about a plan to reimburse Cohen for $130,000 in expenses. McConney said that he essentially doubled the amount Cohen was owed to help with his taxes and that the payments were listed as a $35,000-a-month “retainer” for his legal services.
At the end of court Monday, New York state Judge Juan Merchan asked prosecutors how the case was proceeding from a scheduling perspective and how much time they needed going forward.
“This week plus next week and possibly into the week after,” Joshua Steinglass of the Manhattan district attorney’s office said. “Two weeks from tomorrow, maybe?”
The trial is in its third week of testimony.
The exchange between Merchan and prosecutors took place after a day of testimony from a former Trump Organization controller and an accounts payable supervisor at the company who was the first current employee to take the stand.
Steinglass told Merchan on Monday that prosecutors have been trying to keep that information under wraps because Trump has repeatedly gone after Daniels and Cohen, despite a gag order barring him from attacking witnesses and the jury. Merchan fined Trump $1,000 on Monday morning, finding that he’d violated the April 1 gag order a 10th time.
Trump’s legal team has the prosecution’s witness list, but it hasn’t been made public. Cohen is also expected to testify at some point.
It’s unclear whether Trump or other defense witnesses will take the stand.
In testimony Monday, former Trump Organization executive Jeff McConney testified about instructions he said he received from then-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg about a plan to reimburse Cohen for $130,000 in expenses. McConney said that he essentially doubled the amount Cohen was owed to help with his taxes and that the payments were listed as a $35,000-a-month “retainer” for his legal services.
Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts payable supervisor and the first current Trump Organization employee to testify, was the person who cut the checks to Cohen. She said they were sent to Trump while he was president for his signature. The checks, which bore Trump’s distinctive Sharpie signature, were displayed for the jury Monday.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payment. He has pleaded not guilty.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
