Court is not in session today, as Judge Merchan has mercifully given everyone Wednesdays off, so let’s take a look back at yesterday’s action.

First up, here’s Alex Woodward, who was there to witness proceedings for us once again yesterday and filed this on the justice’s gag order hearing, in which the prosecution brought forward 10 instances of Mr Trump, in their opinion, breaching the order that he shut up about the case.

They are asking for a $1,000 fine per offending post and the threat of jail time should the defendant persist (as he very much has so far).

Before all that wailing and gnashing of teeth, Trump was calm enough to host former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso at Trump Tower.

Just like Polish president Andrzej Duda last week, Aso opted for the Nigel Farage shot outside the building’s famous golden elevator.

Oh wow. Our boy was very cross indeed last night, raging about his New York hush money trial that it is being presided over by a “Rigged Judge” who should be removed, he says, along with fellow Big Apple justices Kaplan and Engoron, who heard the E Jean Carroll and civil fraud cases, as you may recall.

“New York Justice is in shambles, and only the Appellate Courts can save it. A Republican doesn’t stand a chance - This is not Justice.…” he screams.

In part two, Trump calls for help from his allies in Washington, yelling: “This New York Cabal, run by Crooked Joe Biden’s White House, is a hit job on a Political Opponent the likes of which the USA has never seen before.

“For the Good of our Country, it must be stopped. The Crooked Joe Biden Witch Hunts have to be ended. REPUBLICANS IN WASHINGTON MUST TAKE ACTION!”

In the course of all that, he introduced a new nickname for the Manhattan DA: “Soft on Crime Alvin Bragg”.

Trump then topped that one with a rant about “Maggot Hagerman of the Failing New York Times” (referring, of course, to the esteemed journalist Maggie Haberman) after she debunked his lie about his supporters being turned away from protesting outside the courthouse.

“I’m disappointed with Maggot, and her lack of writing skill,” he says, cuttingly, before concluding with more of the above: “The Legal Scholars call the case a Scam that should never have been brought. I call it Election Interference and a personal hit job by a conflicted and corrupt Judge who shouldn’t be allowed to preside over this Political Hoax.

“New York Justice is being reduced to ashes, and the World is breathlessly watching. Hopefully, Appellate Courts can save it, and all of the companies that are fleeing to other jurisdictions. They can no longer take a chance on New York Justice!”

As ever refusing to learn his lesson, Trump also attacked the trial on Truth Social yesterday morning just moments after Judge Merchan had concluded his hearing about alleged gag order violations related to his social media output, on which he has yet to rule but which could ultimately see the defendant fined to the tune of a cool $1,000 per offending post.

Here’s more on that from Kelly Rissman and Alex Woodward.

One of the Republicans’ star witnesses in the impeachment hearings of Joe Biden is suing House Democrat Jamie Raskin for $20m for alleged defamatory comments that “deliberately and maliciously” besmirched his character.

Dan Gooding has the details:

On Monday 15 April, Donald Trump made history as the first current or former president ever to be criminally prosecuted in America, as he went on trial in Manhattan on charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election.

Though the former president is charged with falsifying business records, Mr Bragg alleges that this was only part of a wider “catch and kill” scheme that Mr Trump engaged in to suppress negative stories as he campaigned – successfully – for the White House in 2016.

Here are all the main players in the drama unfolding at a Manhattan courthouse:

Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial have refused to hand over a list of witnesses in the case in a bid to save them from Truth Social attacks by the former president.

Mr Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair back in 2006.

On Thursday 18 April – before the first witness, David Pecker, took the stand on Monday – Mr Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles asked for the name of at least one witness that prosecutors intended on introducing the following week.

She was left disappointed...

Manhattan prosecutors have accused Mr Trump of breaching the gag order through at least 10 different posts on his Truth Social platform and campaign website, including posts targeting Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels – likely witnesses in the trial.

Alex Woodward reports:

Alex Woodward reports from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan:

A tabloid publisher’s secret agreement with Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen helped bury politically compromising stories that he fathered an illegitimate child and had an affair with a former Playboy model, jurors heard in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday.

In his second day of testimony in the former president’s so-called hush money trial, formerNational Enquirer publisher David Pecker outlined what he called a “mutually beneficial” plan to keep the supermarket tabloid loaded with stories that would boost Mr Trump’s election chances – and ensure “negative” stories never saw the light of day.

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