The Hush Money affair resumes with the testimony of banker Michael Cohen

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Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York is set to resume Tuesday with testimony from a banker who worked with the former president’s lawyer on a secret $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

That payment is at the heart of Manhattan prosecutors’ case accusing Trump of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The historic trial began last week in state Supreme Court with opening statements and testimony from the first witnesses, including former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump’s longtime personal secretary Rhona Graff.

Gary Farro, former chief executive of First Republic Bank, took the stand Friday and is set to continue his testimony Tuesday.

Pecker, the former CEO of American Media, testified at length about his role as the unofficial “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign in 2016, and his efforts to “catch and kill” damaging information about the reality TV star turned presidential candidate.

American media paid $30,000 for the rights to a former Trump Tower doorman’s story that Trump had a secret child, Pecker testified, even though he came to believe the story was false.

The company also signed a $150,000 deal with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims she had an extramarital affair with Trump, Pecker said. Pecker, who believed McDougal’s story, said he was never reimbursed by Trump or his company for the payment.

In both cases, Pecker said he bought the stories to avoid having them exposed and embarrassing Trump, or damaging his campaign.

But Pecker said he did not pay to silence Daniels, who claims she had sex with Trump while he was married years earlier.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg claims that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, clandestinely paid for Daniels’ story by opening a bank account for a shell company and transferring money into it. money using a home equity line of credit.

After winning the election, Trump secretly reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks falsely labeled as being for legal services rendered in 2017, the prosecutor alleges.

Trump, who lost to President Joe Biden in 2020 and is now campaigning to oust him in November, is legally required to be present in court for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.

Trump has often expressed anger over the secret trial and three other pending criminal cases, saying they were aimed at undermining his campaign.

Trump’s outbursts, many of which were aimed not only at those involved in the case but also at their family members, prompted Judge Juan Merchan to impose a silence that bars Trump from speaking about jurors and likely witnesses.

Prosecutors have accused Trump of violating the silence order more than a dozen times.