Live updates on the Trump trial: Ex-president faces prison for gag order violations

The trial continues at 2:15 p.m.

Expect a new witness to take the stand…

Assistant District Attorney Colangelo is back to ask a few questions for referral.

Did McConney later become aware that there were “conversations about which Weisselberg kept you in the dark”? Yes.

“This all happened over your head?” Yes.

“You were told to do something and you did it?” Yes.

That's it for McConney as a witness.

Judge Merchan excuses the jury to lunch.

Bove points out that the Form 1099 provides no space to indicate whether Cohen's paid “legal fees” were expenses incurred while practicing law and that it was not their place to tell Cohen “like this.” personal payments are to be recorded”. on his taxes.”

“You don't know what he did with it, do you?” he asks.

If Cohen didn't keep track of what he did with his money elsewhere, that's not Trump's fault.

Bove concludes the cross-examination. He also noted that an agent had signed government ethics forms.

Bove: “Retention agreements can be verbal, right?”

Bove points out that McConney's order to have Cohen's initial bills paid by the trust was an attempt to “figure out how to pay President Trump's expenses while he is in Washington.”

Don Jr and Eric might agree with them. McConney agrees.

Bove says it's an attempt to “get around this practical problem.” McConney agrees.

Bove asks McConney if he thinks the ledger generation software was “a little antiquated, right?”

“These categories had a certain degree of rigidity, right?” he said. “If you're talking about payments to a lawyer, you would use the category 'legal fees,' right?”

Bove's questioning style is again clearly visible – he relies heavily on yes or no answers.

I should have kept a count of the number of yes or no questions Bove has asked so far in this process. It's pretty much every single one. I can't remember any with an open ending.

Bove suggests that Cohen's email signature (“personal attorney for President Donald J. Trump”) would lead McConney to believe that Cohen was paid for legal work.

In January 2017, the Trump Organization was in “fluid” and “chaos,” Bove says, referring to McConney's earlier statement.

“That’s putting it mildly,” McConney says. Things have changed “drastically”.

For the first time, Trump was “hundreds of miles away,” said Bove.

“I don’t remember seeing him in New York at all,” McConney says.