The trial for Donald Trump's hush money case is scheduled to restart on Tuesday, with prosecutors maintaining their intentions undisclosed.
On Tuesday morning, prosecutors plan to question the former banker of Michael Cohen.
It is unclear which other witnesses will appear this week, as prosecutors have been keeping their witness lineup a secret, citing Trump's unpredictable public statements as the reason. They have stated that they will not provide Trump's legal team with much information, in order to avoid exposing witnesses to Trump's online outrage before taking the stand.
Judge Juan Merchan has not yet decided whether to hold Trump in contempt for violating a gag order, which prohibits him from commenting on trial witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and their families.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has asked Merchan to impose a $1,000 fine on Trump for each of the 14 alleged violations and warn him that continued disobedience could result in jail time.
Merchan listened to arguments regarding ten of the amended violations last Tuesday and will address the remaining four on Thursday.
Gary Farro, Cohen's former banker, expected to testify
The upcoming proceedings are likely to be relatively routine, despite the controversial allegations against Trump that involve suppressing salacious affairs and a disbarred lawyer's hush money scheme for a porn star.
Gary Farro, Cohen's former banker, is expected to testify about the financial documents related to the 34 counts of falsifying business records that Trump faces.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies the alleged affairs.
Farro is set to guide the jury through the documents associated with a home equity line of credit Cohen took out on his property to fund the payment to Daniels.
During Farro's testimony on Friday, jurors were presented with the paper trail for a shell company and corresponding bank account Cohen created in Delaware to pay AMI for the rights to Karen McDougal's story, a deal that never materialized. The account was never funded, according to Farro's testimony.
Farro also testified about records showing that Cohen changed his intentions about two weeks later in October 2016, shifting from opening an account for one company to another – Essential Consultants – which was later used to pay Daniels as part of the hush money scheme to suppress her story of an alleged affair with Trump.
Last week, former tabloid publisher David Pecker testified for approximately 10 hours, laying the groundwork for the jury. He described the tabloid industry during the 2016 election, with America Media Inc. acting on behalf of Trump and Cohen serving as his intermediary.
Trump's long-term assistant, Rhona Graff, also testified on Friday, informing the jury that she recalled seeing Daniels at Trump's office once several years before the 2016 election. She assumed that Daniels was there for a potential casting on "Celebrity Apprentice."
During Graff's testimony, the jury also viewed contact entries for Daniels and McDougal in the Trump Organization system. Graff, whose legal representation is being financed by Trump, stated that she entered the contact information for Trump.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
