Live updates: Trump hush money trial testimony continues with Keith Davidson

On the very first day of his criminal trial on Monday 15 April, the Republican presidential candidate emerged from the courtroom to complain to reporters that Judge Juan Merchan would not allow him to be present for the milestone event in his son’s life.

His fury was echoed by members of the conservative media, with Fox News guest Piers Morgan urging the former president to risk jail time rather than miss such an important occasion.

But the judge actually hadn’t said anything of the sort, saying he would rule on whether or not Mr Trump could attend at a later date.

The first week of testimony at Donald Trump‘s hush money trial was the scene-setter for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors portrayed what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories. Now prosecutors are working on filling in the details of how they believe Trump and his allies pulled it off.

Court resumes Tuesday with Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts, including one that Cohen used to buy the silence of porn performer Stormy Daniels. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.

For his part, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee has been campaigning in his off-hours, but is required to be in court when it is in session, four days a week.

Mr Trump has proudly claimed responsibility for ending the constitutional right to an abortion.

At the beginning of April, Joe Biden’s campaign manager made a bold proclamation: the state of Florida was winnable for the president in 2024.

Julie Chávez Rodríguez’s claim raised eyebrows for a few reasons: for one, the former president and Biden’s opponent, Donald Trump, is now a permanent resident of the Sunshine State. Then there’s the voter deficit – between 2020 and 2022, the number of voters registered as Democrats in Florida dropped by 331,810. Over that same period, the number of Republican voter registrations in the state increased slightly. Currently, Republicans hold an advantage among active registered voters to the tune of 892,034 registrations.

The last place Donald Trump wants to be is seated at a defence table, muted, in a courtroom in New York City, surrounded by reporters, for six to eight weeks.

A man who is used to spending his days golfing, surrounded by loyalists at his Florida resort, raging at network news, and travelling to makeshift arenas for rallies where his name is everywhere, is instead entering the second week of witness testimony in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.

The former president had sought a delay for several reasons, including that presiding Judge Juan Merchan had refused to recuse himself from the case, and that he had not been permitted to invoke a presidential immunity defense.

On the very first day of his criminal trial on Monday 15 April, the Republican presidential candidate emerged from the courtroom to complain to reporters that Judge Juan Merchan would not allow him to be present for the milestone event in his son’s life.

His fury was echoed by members of the conservative media, with Fox News guest Piers Morgan urging the former president to risk jail time rather than miss such an important occasion.

But the judge actually hadn’t said anything of the sort, saying he would rule on whether or not Mr Trump could attend at a later date.

In her upcoming book, No Going Back, the Republican governor details how she shot her 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket because it was poorly behaved. She then disposed of the dog in a nearby gravel pit.

It is perhaps the only thing that has brought Americans together, as Graig Graziosi reports:

An appeals court has denied Donald Trump’s request to delay the hush money trial… as another day ends.

Trump sought a delay because Judge Juan Merchan refused to recuse, because he couldn’t invoke an immunity defence, and because the judge made his team file motions with a delay to allow for redactions.

He’s still not letting go of the civil fraud trial ruling…

And E Jean Carroll’s lawyers are likely paying close attention to this: