Kelly Rissman writes:

In the seven years since professing this unwavering loyalty, the former lawyer and “fixer” has suffered his own very public downfall and criminal conviction, and is now recast as star witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s hush money case against the former president.

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A Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.

Jack Wade Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Whitton later boasted in a text message that he “fed him to the people.”

Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, prosecutors say. He also kicked at, threatened and threw a construction pylon at officers trying to hold off the mob of then-President Donald Trump‘s supporters.

“You’re gonna die tonight!” he shouted at police after striking an officer’s riot shield.

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Alex Woodward reports:

For the first time in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, jurors heard the former president’s own voice discussing a deal with his former attorney to buy the silence of a former Playboy model who alleged an affair with Mr Trump.

A portion of the recording – secretly recorded by Michael Cohen while Mr Trump was in the middle of his 2016 campaign for the presidency – was played inside a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, giving the jury a brief but crucial look into how his “fixer” kept his boss up to date with a scheme that is now central to the criminal case against him.

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After a long day of court, Donald Trump stopped by a Midtown Manhattan firehouse to deliver pizza to first responders.

The former president insisted that, while his eyes may be closed on occasion, he is listening “intensely” and taking it “ALL in!” in a self-complimentary social media post on Truth Social on Wednesday.

Mike Bedigan has the story...

Mr Davidson is the attorney who negotiated Ms Daniels’ $130,000 payment from Mr Cohen which is at the centre of the trial.

Gustaf Kilander reports:

Here's a rough transcript of the recording played earlier in court of the conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump:

MC: “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that, I'm going to do that right away ... And I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.”

DT: “So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?”

MC: “[inaudible] funding. Yes. Uh, and it's all the stuff.”

DT: “Yea, I was thinking about that.”

MC: “Because – here, you never know where that company – you never know what he’s –”

DT: “Maybe he gets hit by a truck.”

MC: “Well, I'll have to pay something.”

DT: “Pay with cash.”

MC: “No, no, no.”

DT: “Check.”

Court has adjourned for the day with Judge Merchan excusing the jury.

Tomorrow proceedings will end earlier at 3.45pm as one juror has an important appointment.