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A New York decide will permit Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels to testify at former President Trump’s hush-money trial, overruling Trump’s objections.
In two separate selections Monday, Judge Juan M. Merchan dominated on a collection of motions from prosecutors and the protection on whether or not to exclude sure testimony and proof from Trump’s upcoming trial. The trial was scheduled to start subsequent Monday however has been delayed till mid-April after new proof got here to mild.
Merchan’s determination will permit Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brag to name Daniels, an grownup movie actress, and former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal to the stand to testify about their claims that Cohen and Trump organized funds to hold them quiet about their alleged extramarital sexual encounters with Trump. However, McDougal can not testify concerning the underlying particulars of her reported affair except prosecutors can present how it’s related.
The decide can even permit Cohen to testify, rejecting the protection’s claims that Cohen is a recognized liar who is probably going to commit perjury on the stand.
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Michael Cohen organized funds to grownup movie star Stormy Daniels and Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal allegedly to hold them quiet about their affairs with former President Trump. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)
“This Court has been unable to locate any treatise, statute, or holding from courts in this jurisdiction, or others, that support Defenant’s rationale that a prosecution witness should be kept off the witness stand because his credibility has been previously called into question,” the decide wrote.
The trial stems from Bragg’s investigation into Trump’s alleged hush-money funds throughout the 2016 election.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 and organized for the writer of the National Enquirer grocery store tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 to suppress their claims that that they had affairs with Trump years earlier. Trump’s firm then reimbursed Cohen and logged the funds to him as authorized bills, prosecutors stated.
Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in his quest to retake the White House, pleaded not responsible final 12 months to 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data. His legal professionals argue the funds to Cohen have been authentic authorized bills and not a part of any cover-up. Trump says he didn’t have any of the alleged sexual encounters.
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Stormy Daniels acquired a $130,000 cost from Michael Cohen. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges former President Trump falsified enterprise data to reimburse Cohen for that cost and one other $150,000 cost to Karen McDougal. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Cohen pleaded responsible in 2018 to federal marketing campaign finance violations associated to the alleged hush-money funds and different unrelated crimes. He was imprisoned for about one 12 months earlier than being launched to house confinement throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump associated to the funds made to Daniels and McDougal.
The Federal Election Commission additionally tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
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Former President Trump speaks to a crowd throughout a marketing campaign rally on Sept. 25, 2023, in Summerville, South Carolina. Trump has pleaded not responsible to falsifying his enterprise data and denied ever having affairs with Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougal. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Merchan additionally dominated Monday that the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape — in which Trump bragged about grabbing a girl’s non-public elements with out consent — won’t be proven at trial.
The decide stated prosecutors might query witnesses concerning the 2005 video, which was unearthed throughout the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential marketing campaign. However, he added “it is not necessary that the tape itself be introduced into evidence or that it be played for the jury.”
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Prosecutors say the “Access Hollywood” footage and numerous sexual assault claims made in opposition to Trump prompted him to repay Daniels to hold adverse tales out of the press. Trump’s legal professionals argued the video “contains inflammatory and unduly prejudicial evidence that has no place at this trial about documents and accounting practices.”
In different rulings, Merhcan rejected a protection request that prosecutors be precluded from arguing that Trump sought to improperly affect the 2016 election or that the National Enquirer suppressed adverse information protection of him with a “catch and kill” technique.
Fox News’ Grace Taggart and Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, in addition to The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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