Donald Trump trial LIVE: Top Trump executive Jeff McConney takes stand as court hears details of hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels

The court is taking a morning recess.

It comes as Jeff McConney was going through a series of emails on invoices for Michael Cohen.

McConney explaining several emails that were exchanged regarding the Michael Cohen invoices.

McConney also explained to the court the process of sending checks down to Washigton to get a signature from then-President Donald Trump at the White House.

This had to happen due to the account being used to pay Cohen.

From Senior U.S. Political Reporter Rob Crilly in court:

Trump Organization employees cannot hide their disdain for Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Last week, Hope Hicks expressed her disbelief at Trump telling her that Cohen had arranged the hush money payment out of the goodness of his heart.

'I didn’t know him to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,' she said.

Now McConney has been asked what Cohen's role in the company was.

'He said he was a lawyer,' he answered pointedly.

The jury is shown a statement from Cohen’s bank account from First Republic Bank for essential Consultants LLC, the company he set up to pay Daniels.

The statement showed that the $130,000 had just been taken out and paid to Keith Davidson, Daniels’ lawyer.

Another exhibit is written notes from McConney while he had the conversation with Weisselberg about paying Cohen back.

On the note is written 'Wire monthly from DJT. State at $35,000 a month Jan 2017.'

A third exhibit shows McConney's email to Michael Cohen reminding him to 'get me the invoice you spoke to Allen about.’

McConney recalls a conversation with Allen Weisselberg in January 2017 in which he learned Michael Cohen needed to be 'reimbursed' money.

He described it as one continuous conversation with Weisselberg, who was CFO of the Trump Organization.

Prosecutors are going through a bank statement which Weisselberg have McConney to put in the files.

He recalls putting the file in a payroll book in his locked drawer in his office.

Prosecutor puts a statement and notes into evidence.

From Senior U.S. Political Reporter Rob Crilly in court:

After the tears of Hope Hicks' testimony and the gutter tour of tabloid king David Pecker's evidence, Jeff McConney makes for a much dryer witness.

He is giving us an account of how the Trump Organization is structured and the way its books are run, including descriptions of the software used and who was in the team he managed as the company's controller.

It may be prosaic, but this is the crucial next bit of the jigsaw.

The case against Trump is that 34 documents were falsified in order to hide hush money payments.

A detailed understanding of invoices, ledgers and checks is ultimately how the case will be proven (or not proven).

Trump smiled as McConney recounted a ‘teaching moment’ a year into his employment when Trump told him to ‘focus on my bills' or don’t spend money he didn’t need to.

McConney said that he walked into Trump’s office - it would have been around 1988 - and dropped off the weekly cash report on his desk.

Trump asked him to hang on until he got off the phone and told him that his ‘cash balances went down from last week.'

McConney said that Trump told him to ‘focus on my bills’ and that ‘just because somebody’s asking for money, negotiate with them, talk to them.'

Trump appeared to enjoy the anecdote and smiled. McConney called it a ‘teaching moment’ for him.

Prosecutors have argued that Trump’s frugality was one of the reasons his decision to pay his former lawyer Michael Cohen back $420,000 for the $130,000 hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels was so unusual

Jeff McConney is taking the prosecution through how the financial accounting operation worked at the Trump Organization.

McConney is explaining step by step the approval process for cutting checks and reimbursing expenses.

Donald Trump stared blankly ahead after Judge Merchan again threatened to throw him in jail for violating the gag order.

It appears the $1,000 fines are not serving as deterrent, Merchan told Trump.

Therefore, 'this court will have to consider a jail sanction,' he continued.

Trump displayed no visible reaction.

Jeff McConney is a former executive at the Trump Organization.

He is the first witness of the day.

McConney was first hired in 1987 and retired in February 2023.

McConney is in court in response to a subpoena and the Trump Organization is paying for his lawyer.

Judge Juan Merchan once again found Donald Trump in contempt for violating a gag order during his Stormy Daniels trial – slapping on a new fine and threatening to jail him if he determines violations continue.

Merchan blasted Trump for ‘continued and willful’ violations barring comments on witnesses and others he said might threaten the 'fair administration of justice.'

‘I cannot allow that to continue. As much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction ... I will if necessary and appropriate,' he said inside court at the start of the 12th day of Trump's trial.

The judge slapped Trump with a $1,000 fine for the violation, which comes in addition to additional findings following an earlier hearing that resulted in fines totalling $9,000.

‘It appears the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent therefore going forward this court will have to consider a jail sanction,' he said.

The judge said Trump's repeated comments constitute a 'direct attack' on the process and would not be allowed to continue.

'Defendant is hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration.'

Trump stared blankly ahead while receiving the judge's lecture.

But the billionaire avoided some additional fines Monday. The judge ruled that three earlier public statements raised by prosecutors didn't meet the threshold of beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to the judge, Trump's interview to Just the News No Noise on April 22, 2024 violated the order.

During the interview, he stated: 'You know [the judge is] rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody's ever seen a thing go like this. That jury was picked so fast - 95% democrats.'

'The area's mostly all democrat. You think of it as a - just a purely democrat area. It's a very unfair situation that I can tell you.'

Donald Trump spoke after arriving in court for another day of testimony in the hush money case.

He called the gag order unconstitutional and said witnesses are being called who have 'nothing to do with the case.'

The ex-president did not respond to shouted questions about the judge.

Trump is joined in court Monday by son Eric Trump as well as Boris Epshteyn and his lawyers.

Donald Trump aides Margo Martin and Natalie Harp are seen leaving Trump Tower as the ex-president heads downtown for another day in court.

Court wrapped on Friday with former Donald Trump aide Hope Hicks delivering riveting testimony in the hush money case.

Hicks worked for the Trump Organization before becoming press secretary on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and then working as a top aide in the Trump administration.

During her at times emotional testimony, Hicks shared a behind the scenes look at the handling of some of the biggest moments for the ex-president’s 2016 campaign including how Trump responded to the release of the Access Hollywood tape as well as the Wall Street Journal reporting on the alleged Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels affairs.

Hicks recalled at one point Trump did tell her about the payment to Stormy Daniels.

She also shared how Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen was looped in during the 2016 campaign but testified how he would go rogue and was known to insert himself.

Donald Trump returns to a New York courtroom on Monday, where he will be forced to sit silently while others testify about his efforts during the 2016 presidential election to cover up news of an alleged tryst with a porn star.

Trump's criminal hush money trial, entering its 12th day, has featured testimony from a top aide and a former tabloid publisher about efforts during his first presidential bid to tamp down stories of unflattering sexual behavior.

New York prosecutors have charged Trump with falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Daniels