Trump criminal trial: Recap of the trial up to this point and what to expect next

At the conclusion of the fourth week of former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial, jurors have heard from key prosecution witnesses, including adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Daniels’ alleged relationship is at the heart of the 34-count felony case Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought against Trump. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has denied any wrongdoing in the allegations against him and has denied having relations with Daniels.

Trump’s lawyers have pushed for and been denied a mistrial twice and have also argued against the gag order placed on the presumptive presidential candidate. So far, Judge Juan Merchan has fined Trump $10,000 for gag order violations and threatened jail time.

Trump has continued to push the narrative that the trial, along with his other indictments, is a “political witch hunt” keeping him from being able to campaign and that the gag order violates his right to free speech.

The key witnesses in Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial so far

David Pecker: As the first witness, the former CEO of American Media Inc. — which is the parent company of the National Enquirer — was questioned about the “catch and kill” method he allegedly used to suppress Trump stories during the 2016 presidential election and to promote stories criticizing his political opponents.

Pecker, along with the Enquirer’s former editor, Dylan Howard, were accused by the prosecution of working with Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen to pay for unfavorable stories about Trump and squashing them as a scheme to influence the presidential election.

Keith Davidson: With a career as a celebrity attorney, Davidson previously represented Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had an affair with Trump. Davidson testified regarding his role in negotiating “hush money” payments for both women to prevent them from going public about their apparent sexual relationship with the former president.

Davidson testified that the payments were handled through Cohen in connection with the National Enquirer’s “catch and kill” method of buying the rights to stories and preventing their publication.

Hope Hicks: The former White House adviser and communications director for Trump before and during his presidency, Hicks testified about her duties under Trump and her personal account of the internal communications concerning the efforts to handle releases such as the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, where Trump is overheard bragging about his ability to assault women sexually.

Stormy Daniels: Daniels was questioned for close to eight hours in the span of two days. Daniels was questioned about the alleged $130,000 “hush money” payment she was given in exchange for her silence by Cohen leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Bragg is accusing Trump of manipulating the payments in his business records to cover up his alleged relationship with Daniels.

Trump’s defense vigorously cross-examined Daniels, accusing her of telling varying stories about her apparent relationship with Trump to profit from it over the years.

What’s ahead in the criminal case

Merchan said the criminal case would last about six weeks following jury selection, so it could last several more weeks.

The jury is set to listen to the testimony of a key protection witness on Monday — Michael Cohen. As Trump’s former lawyer, Cohen is claimed to have handled the alleged “hush money” payments to Daniels and McDougal and was later reimbursed by Trump. In the last six years since Cohen has worked for Trump, he has become one of the former president’s harshest critics.

“Cohen’s role is to tell the court that Trump understood that records related to reimbursement checks to Cohen would be falsified in order to cover up the fact that they were tied to the purchase of Stormy Daniels’ story,” according to CBS News.

The prosecution is wrapping up the final phases of presenting its case against Trump and expects to give its concluding arguments by the end of next week.