Trump prosecutors keep witness schedule secret to avoid attacking former president

President Donald Trump’s prosecutors said Monday that they are keeping their witness schedule secret to prevent the former president from targeting witnesses in his upcoming criminal hush trial in New York.

“The defendant has been violating an order prohibiting extrajudicial speech and we did not want to disclose the name of the witness and the name of the next witness,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told a Manhattan Supreme Court judge. court.

To avoid names getting “out there,” Steinglass said, prosecutors are notifying defense attorneys who their next witnesses will be a day before they are called to testify.

The district attorney’s office has not released a list of potential witnesses to the public.

The prosecution is adding tension to the dramatic trial by revealing one by one who the next witness will be.

Steinglass rejected the defense’s argument that Trump was being unfairly disadvantaged because his team was not presented with a full schedule of when each witness was expected to testify.

“They’ve had the witness list and the exhibit list for a long time,” he told Judge Juan Merchan after the jury returned home.

Steinglass said prosecutors “don’t want to look like they’re sandbagging the defense in any way.”

Trump is bound by a gag order that prohibits him from speaking to witnesses and jurors, but Merchant has already charged him with contempt of court 10 times for violating the order.

The most recent contempt citation was issued Monday morning before the jury was seated.

Merchant warned Trump that any future violations of the court order would result in the former president going to jail.

“The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Murchan told Trump. But “I will do that if I have to.”

As he left the courthouse, President Trump appeared to indicate that he had no plans to stop violating the gag order.

“Frankly, our Constitution is much more important than prisons,” Trump said, referring to his claim that the gag order deprives him of his freedom of expression. “I would make that choice any time.”

The judge’s meeting with Steinglass concluded the day with testimony from Trump Organization insiders who described how the secretive company operates. They also testified about business records at the center of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s historic case.

Former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney was the day’s key witness.

Prosecutors repeatedly pressed him about the unusual circumstances of payments the company made to Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide payments to Cohen, who paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election to bury her claims that she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

McConney testified that Cohen sent him invoices that were never submitted, even though the company’s legal department typically reviewed legal services invoices.

He also testified that he had never seen Cohen’s retainer agreement regarding such payments.

This is important because Bragg claims Trump falsified records of Cohen’s refunds by reporting them as payments for legal services provided under a retainer agreement.

McConney also said he was told to “add up” the payments he made to Cohen to cover the taxes on the money he expected to pay. Additionally, Cohen received an additional $60,000 bonus, for a total payout of $420,000.

McConney testified that he could not think of another instance where expense reimbursements were doubled to cover anticipated taxes.

Merchan began the day with a stern warning to Trump: If you do not violate the court order, you will be thrown in jail.

The ultimatum came less than a week after a judge found Trump in contempt of court for nine violations of the same gag order.

Merchan again insulted Trump for the umpteenth time on Monday for claiming in an April 22 radio interview that his trial was “very unfair” because jurors were drawn from districts that were “mostly all Democratic.”

“President Trump has not only raised questions about the veracity and legality of this lawsuit, but has also rekindled the specter of fear for the safety of jurors and their loved ones,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.

Merchan fined Trump up to $1,000 per violation, for a total of $10,000 for 10 separate violations.

“A $1,000 fine doesn’t seem to have a deterrent effect,” Merchan said.

But he said he would not take the drastic step of throwing Trump in jail without serious consideration.

“The importance of these decisions is not lost on us,” Merchan said.

“There are many reasons why prison is a last resort,” he said. “Taking that step would be disruptive to the process.”

“But at the end of the day, there’s work to be done.”