Donald Trump's business records criminal trial is resuming in New York Tuesday with testimony from a banker familiar with accounts involved in the case.
Trump, the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, is charged with falsifying business records on a $130,000 payment to lawyer Michael Cohen to alleged reimburse him for paying porn star Stormy Daniels to stop saying she had sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The criminal trial is the first of a former president and began April 22.
Banker Garry Farro, who is not accused of wrongdoing, testified Friday about financial records filed by Trump's onetime lawyer Cohen.
Trump is required to attend the trial and has said he could instead be campaigning ahead of his rematch with Democrat President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
The criminal case is one of four pending against Trump, but could be the only one to go to trial and result in a verdict before the election.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend, testified last week that he used his tabloid to buy exclusive rights to damaging stories about celebrities with no intention of publishing them – a practice known as "catch and kill."
Daniels is also expected to testify, along with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says Trump paid her $150,000 for her silence about a yearlong affair she said they had in 2006 and 2007.
Trump has denied having an affair with McDougal.
Cohen, Trump's longtime fixer who became a nemesis after an acrimonious break nearly six years ago, is also expected to testify. Cohen has said he arranged and disguised the payments at the direction of Trump, who Cohen said later reimbursed him.
Trump lawyers note Cohen is a convicted liar and cannot be trusted to tell the truth at trial.
Trump has also been charged in Georgia and Washington for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden and in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and called the cases political witch hunts.
Information from Reuters and Newsmax's Eric Mack was used to compile this report.
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