By MICHAEL R. SISAK (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump made a video look Tuesday in his New York legal case, with the choose tentatively setting a trial date for late March of subsequent 12 months.
The listening to lasted about quarter-hour.
Trump’s video feed was muted many of the listening to, permitting him to confer freely together with his lawyer, Todd Blanche, who sat by his aspect in Florida in entrance of a backdrop of American flags.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
NEW YORK (AP) — A latest $5 million defamation verdict hasn’t saved Donald Trump quiet. Will a stern warning from the choose in his Manhattan legal case?
That’s the query looming over a hybrid listening to Tuesday the place the previous president is ready be instructed on new guidelines barring him from utilizing proof within the hush-money case to assault witnesses who may testify in opposition to him.
Trump gained’t have to point out as much as courtroom for the afternoon listening to at a Manhattan courthouse, avoiding the mammoth safety and logistical challenges that accompanied his arraignment final month.
Instead, the Republican might be related by video convention, together with his face beamed onto courtroom TV screens. His attorneys and prosecutors should nonetheless seem in individual.
The listening to comes a day after the plaintiff within the defamation case, author E. Jean Carroll, filed a brand new declare in search of an extra $10 million or extra to carry Trump answerable for remarks he made bashing her on CNN the day after the May 9 verdict.
In the defamation case, a jury discovered that Trump sexually abused Carroll at a Manhattan division retailer in early spring 1996 and that he made false statements that broken her repute after she went public along with her claims in a 2019 e book.
Trump remained undeterred, writing on his Truth Social platform Tuesday that he “never met” Carroll and that her allegations had been a “Fake, Made Up Story” and a “TOTAL SCAM.”
“The Carroll case is part of the Democrats playbook to tarnish my name and person,” Trump stated, echoing his competition that his legal case and different authorized challenges are a part of a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The choose in Trump’s legal case, Juan Manuel Merchan, issued a protecting order May 8 itemizing restrictions on Trump’s pretrial habits. He agreed to take the additional step of personally instructing him on the principles in gentle of Trump’s public persona and standing as a present presidential candidate.
Trump is allowed to talk publicly in regards to the legal case, based on Merchan’s order, however he dangers being held in contempt if he makes use of proof turned over by prosecutors within the pretrial discovery course of to focus on witnesses or others concerned within the case.
Trump pleaded not responsible on April 4 to 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data associated to funds his firm made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors say these funds had been meant to reimburse and compensate Cohen for orchestrating hush cash funds through the 2016 marketing campaign to bury allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. Trump denies having had extramarital flings and says the prosecution is politically motivated.
Merchan’s protecting order bars Trump and his attorneys from disseminating proof to 3rd events or posting it to social media, and it requires that sure, delicate materials shared by prosecutors be saved solely by Trump’s attorneys, not Trump himself.
Prosecutors sought the order quickly after Trump’s arrest, citing what they are saying is his historical past of creating “harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements” about individuals he’s tangled with in authorized disputes.
Merchan, noting Trump’s “special” standing as a former president and present candidate, has made clear that the protecting order shouldn’t be construed as a gag order and that Trump has a proper to publicly defend himself.
Trump’s attorneys are in search of to have his legal case moved to federal courtroom. It will proceed in state courtroom whereas that performs out.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”