Judge Ends Daily Photo Spray Of Donald Trump In Courtroom During Hush Money Trial

Sean Piccoli

9 May 2024 at 9:40 am·5-min read

Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumes today with one of his chief antagonists, Stormy Daniels, returning to the stand and court observers wondering if the former and possible future president is close to being thrown into jail.

Whatever happens inside the courtroom, there may no longer be photographers to document it.

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Judge Juan Merchan has barred photography inside the courtroom for the remainder of the trial after one of the pool photographers reportedly violated the judge’s rules by taking a picture of Trump from the side, as he walked into the well, instead of waiting for him to be seated with his lawyers, according to a dispatch this morning from pool reporters stationed in the hallway who said they received the news from a court officer.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the offending photo was snapped, since Trump had not yet arrived this morning when word of the courtroom photo ban reached reporters.

A spokesperson for the court said in a statement, “A still photojournalist who was being led with colleagues into courtroom 1530 on Tuesday morning to take the daily photograph broke an established rule in photographing from outside the well. Judge Merchan was consulted and has determined that for now no photography from the courtroom will be permitted.”

Merchan has restricted audio and video coverage, but he has allowed still photographers to briefly capture Trump and his attorneys in the courtroom before proceedings begin each day.

The reporters and photographers stationed in the hallway, catching Trump as he comes and goes from the courtroom, are still in place.

There were double the usual number of journalists and spectators lined up outside the courthouse for courtroom or overflow seats hours before testimony was due to start.

Daniels will face another round of hostile cross-examination after Trump’s lawyers spent Tuesday afternoon seeking to portray the adult film actor and director as a gold-digging liar who shopped, and changed, her story of adulterous sex with Trump for years before he sought the presidency.

Daniels accepted $130,000 in 2016 from Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, in exchange for her silence about the episode. Prosecutors say Trump committed multiple felonies by falsifying his record of repayment to Cohen as taxable income for routine legal work. According to prosecutors, that was an effort to conceal an undisclosed campaign contribution — Cohen’s $130,000 to Daniels — as it would bury a potential scandal in the closing days of the real estate mogul and Celebrity Apprentice star’s first run for president.

Trump has denied sex with Daniels and defended the legality of the $420,000 he paid in installments to Cohen during his first year in the White House.

A Trump social media tirade after Daniels’ testimony has raised the question of whether the 2024 GOP presidential primary winner could be jailed for violating Judge Merchan’s gag order against criticizing witnesses.

Already fined $10,000 for repeated violations flagged by prosecutors, and warned by the judge this week that incarceration could be next, Trump ranted on his Truth Social platform Tuesday about “sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters” who “are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want” while he has to “sit back and listen to lies and false statements.”

He wrote that if he responds “even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time.”

Trump didn’t name names, but “sleazebag” is a term he used for Daniels in a 2016 tweet denying any sexual involvement with the porn actress. Daniels claims they had sex in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 during the weekend of a celebrity golf tournament, and she discussed the encounter and its aftermath in sometimes lurid detail on the stand Tuesday. In testimony riddled with defense objections, many upheld by the judge, jurors heard about Trump wearing Hugh Hefner-style silk pajamas, keeping a bottle of Old Spice cologne in his toiletries case, and not using a condom during sex.

A later transcript of a sidebar conference at the bench with the lawyers — out of earshot of jurors and courtroom spectators — revealed that Judge Merchan heard Trump “cursing audibly” during Daniels’ testimony. “You need to speak to him,” Merchan told defense lawyer Todd Blanche. “I won’t tolerate that.”

Daniels has never claimed the sex was coerced, but she testified on Tuesday that Trump stood between her and the bedroom door as she tried to leave, and that she “blacked out” before finding herself in bed with Trump — who she said promised to help her appear on Celebrity Apprentice. She testified that her hands were shaking afterward as she dressed and hurried to leave.

Trump’s lawyers tried and failed on Tuesday morning to have Daniels barred from testifying, and then asked for a mistrial once she finished three hours of questioning by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger. Judge Merchan also batted down that request, telling the defense team that “the remedy” for their objections to Daniels’ testimony “is cross examination.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles did just that, confronting Daniels with conflicting claims about her wealth, her motives, the Lake Tahoe weekend and — in Necheles’ words — a “supposed threat” on her life in 2011 from a stranger in a Las Vegas parking lot after Daniels had talked with InTouch magazine about the hotel tryst. That interview was supposed to earn her $15,000, but Daniels said she was never paid.

Grilled by Necheles, Daniels confessed to her loathing of Trump. After Daniels had testified that the $130,000 figure was not her idea, Necheles displayed a text from Daniels’ manager Gina Rodriguez to a tabloid editor in 2016 saying Daniels “wants $100K” for the Trump story.

Necheles said Daniels’ earlier experiences shopping the story “taught you that If you want to make money off President Trump, you better talk about sex.”

“No,” Daniels replied, “although that does seem to be the case.”

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