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Trump attorney brings up Court of Appeals decision overturning Weinstein's conviction
Trump attorney Todd Blanche invokes the recent Court of Appeals decision overturning Harvey Weinstein's conviction.
Judge Juan Merchan says "the Weinstein decision really doesn't factor into this."
The Weinstein reference came up as they were seeking to limit Access Hollywood tape references.
Defense team raises evidentiary objections to the next witness
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is beginning by raising evidentiary objections to the next witness, a summary witness.
He cites a Trump post on Truth Social, Trump tweets and a tweet and article by the Washington Post and Blanche argues that there is hearsay information in the tweets and the article.
The article in question is the Post's piece on the "Access Hollywood" tape from October 2016.
"There’s quotation marks around the entire article. The danger of unfair prejudice is extreme in this situation," Blanche argues.
Blanche is also arguing a tweet from the Washington Post should not come into evidence because it includes a photo of Trump, Billy Bush, and one of the women in the video.
Trump has no visible response to judge's remark on gag order
Donald Trump appeared to look up at Judge Juan Merchan while the judge addressed him but gave no obvious acknowledgement or response.
Judge to Trump: Gag order doesn't "prevent you from testifying in any way"
Judge Juan Merchan is beginning court today by clarifying to Donald Trump that he has the "absolute" right to testify if he chooses.
Merchan says he is doing this to clarify the gag order.
"The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way," Merchan says. "It does not prohibit you from taking the stand and it does not limit or minimize what you can say."
The judge did not rule on the additional alleged gag order violations brought against Trump.
The court is back in session
Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and court is back in session.
"Good morning, Mr Trump," Merchan said as proceedings picked up again.
Trump could be seen leaning forward to pose as photographers entered the room.
Prosecutors enter courtroom
Prosecutors have entered the courtroom, as a digital evidence analyst in the Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to return to the stand this morning.
A digital evidence analyst is expected to return to the stand. Here's what he does and what he said yesterday
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
We are expecting to hear more today from Douglas Daus, who works for the Manhattan district attorney's office. The prosecution called him to the witness stand on Thursday.
What Daus does: He processes digital evidence in the High Technology Analysis Unit.
"It's basically a way for the Manhattan DA's office to do their own analysis of electronic devices that are seized in investigations. And they have some really incredible people. As you can see from the cross-examination of this gentleman, he worked in Iraq and he's done intel work — I mean, just the most talented, incredible people work there and lend their expertise to the office to help them solve crimes," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the former chief assistant district attorney in the DA's office.
Prosecutors used Daus, who is their seventh witness, to introduce into evidence an audio recording of a crucial phone call from September 2016 between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.
Jurors heard Cohen say on the call he needed to open a company, and that he's spoken with the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up. This company was to facilitate the $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal.
CNN reported in 2018 on a recording of the conversation.
Before court ended for the day, the defense was questioning Daus on whether he talked to anyone at the FBI about their extraction process on the phone before it was obtained by his office. There were earlier questions from defense about whether the integrity of data matters more in a criminal case because people's rights are at stake.Defense also questioned whether it’s ideal for a device that's obtained to go immediately "in the vault.”
CNN's Kristina Sgueglia contributed reporting to this post.
Trump's motorcade arrives at criminal court
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse where the former president is expected to attend witness testimony from adigital evidence analyst who so far helped introduce phone call recordings between former fixer Michael Cohen and Trump into evidence.
Court is at an abbreviated schedule, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET and wrapping at 3:45 p.m. ET so a juror can make an appointment.
These are the charges against Trump
From CNN's Kaanita Iyer,Amy O'Kruk and Curt Merrill
Donald Trump has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a hush money payment made to an adult film star to hide an affair.The former president has denied the affair.
Prosecutors allege that Trump allegedly disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.” Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty.
