Articles written by michael r. sisak


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  • Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 26, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's defense team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign. Returning to the witness stand for a fourth day, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker was grilled about his memory and past statements as the defense tried to poke holes in potentially crucial testimony for prosecutors in the first criminal tria...

  • Tabloid publisher says he pledged to be Trump campaign's 'eyes and ears' during 2016 race

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 24, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran tabloid publisher testified Tuesday that he pledged to be Donald Trump 's "eyes and ears" during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress harmful stories and even arranged to purchase a doorman's silence. The testimony from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors' assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the candidate's lawyer a heads-up on n...

  • 12 jurors have been picked for Donald Trump's hush money trial. Selection of alternates ongoing

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 19, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A jury of 12 people was seated Thursday in former President Donald Trump's history-making hush money trial, propelling the proceedings closer to opening statements and the start of weeks of dramatic testimony. The court quickly turned to selecting alternate jurors, with the process on track to wrap up by the end of the week. Prosecutors could begin presenting their case early next week. The jury of New Yorkers includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, an English teacher, a speech therapist, m...

  • Trump tried to 'corrupt' the 2016 election, prosecutor alleges as hush money trial gets underway

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 19, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president's historic hush money trial. "This was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. "It was election fraud, pure and simple." A...

  • First six jurors are chosen for Trump's hush money criminal trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 17, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The first six jurors for Donald Trump's hush money trial were chosen Tuesday after lawyers grilled members of the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide whether they can sit in fair judgment of the former president. The court began filling out the jury of 12 people, along with six alternates, who will decide whether to convict Trump of charges accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign. Possible jurors were quizzed f...

  • Potential jurors called into courtroom for start of Trump's historic hush-money trial

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Apr 12, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The historic hush-money trial of Donald Trump got underway Monday as dozens of prospective jurors packed into a courtroom where the former president will answer to charges that he falsified business records in order to stifle stories about his sex life. The first criminal trial of any former U.S. president will unfold as Trump vies to reclaim the White House, creating a remarkable split-screen spectacle of the presumptive Republican nominee spending his days as a criminal defendant while simultaneously campaigning for office. H...

  • New York appeals court rejects Donald Trump's third request to delay Monday's hush money trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Apr 10, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is now 0 for 3 in last-minute attempts to get a New York appeals court to delay his looming hush money criminal trial. An appeals court judge Wednesday swiftly rejected the latest salvo from the former president's lawyers, who argued he should be on the campaign trail rather than "in a courtroom defending himself" starting next week. Trump's lawyers had asked the state's mid-level appeals court to halt the case indefinitely while they fight to remove the trial judge and challenge several of his pretrial rulings, w...

  • New York appeals judge rejects Donald Trump's request to delay his April 15 hush money trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Apr 5, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's request to delay his April 15 hush money criminal trial while he fights to move the case out of Manhattan. The decision came Monday, a week before jury selection was set to start. Trump's lawyers had argued at an emergency hearing that the trial should be postponed while they seek a change of venue to move it out of heavily Democratic Manhattan. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump asked a New...

  • Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in New York hush-money criminal case

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Mar 27, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, suggesting without evidence that the veteran jurist was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic political consultant. The former president objected in particular to what he claimed was her posting of a social media photo showing him behind bars. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained on social media that the gag order issued Tuesday was "illegal, un-American, u...

  • Trump's New York hush money case is set for trial April 15

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Mar 22, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will stand trial starting April 15 on charges related to hush money payments meant to cover up claims of marital infidelity, a New York judge ruled Monday in tersely swatting aside defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct. Assuming the date holds, the decision from Judge Juan M. Merchan ensures that the prosecution will be the first of four criminal cases against Trump to reach trial, with the presumptive Republican nominee facing a jury in the city where he built a business empire decades ago a...

  • Court agrees to pause collection of Trump's massive civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175M

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Mar 22, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court on Monday agreed to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump's more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's assets while he appeals. The appeals court also halted other aspects of a trial judge's ruling that had barred Trump and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the family company's executive vice p...

  • Former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury in deal that doesn't require cooperation

    JAKE OFFENHARTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Mar 1, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of Donald Trump's company, pleaded guilty Monday to lying under oath during his testimony in the ex-president's New York civil fraud case. His plea deal will send him back to jail but does not require that he testify at Trump's hush-money criminal trial. Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty in state court in Manhattan to two counts of perjury and will be sentenced in April to five months in jail — his second stint behind bars after serving 100 days last year for dodging taxes on c...

  • Donald Trump fraud verdict: $364 million penalty in New York civil case

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Feb 16, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge ruled Friday against Donald Trump, imposing a $364 million penalty over what the judge ruled was a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated the former president's wealth. Trump also was barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. However, the judge backed away from an earlier ruling that would have dissolved the former president's companies. Trump lawyer Alina Habba called the verdict "manifest injustice" and "the c...

  • Trump glowers and gestures in court, then leaves to campaign as sex abuse defamation trial opens

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER|Jan 17, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump shook his head in disgust Tuesday as the judge in his New York defamation trial told would-be jurors that an earlier jury had already decided the former president sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Trump left court before opening statements, jetting to a New Hampshire political rally as Carroll's lawyer accused the Republican presidential frontrunner of using "the world's biggest microphone" to destroy her reputation and turn his supporters against her. Trump's lawyer contended that Carroll h...

  • NRA chief, one of the most powerful figures in US gun policy, says he's resigning days before trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Jan 5, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The longtime head of the National Rifle Association said Friday he is resigning, just days before the start of a civil trial over allegations he diverted millions of dollars from the powerful gun rights organization to pay for personal travel and other lavish perks. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and chief executive officer, said his departure is effective Jan. 31. The trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit against him, the NRA and others who have served as organization executives is scheduled t...

  • Donald Trump returns to court, lauds his defense expert who sees no evidence of accounting fraud

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Dec 8, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil fraud trial Thursday to spotlight his defense, renewing his complaints that the case is baseless and heaping praise on an accounting professor's testimony that backed him up. With testimony winding down after more than two months, the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner showed up to watch New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov. The academic disputed the crux of New York State Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit: that Trump's financial statements were f...

  • Inmate who stabbed Derek Chauvin 22 times is charged with attempted murder, prosecutors say

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO|Dec 1, 2023

    Derek Chauvin was stabbed in prison 22 times by a former gang leader and one-time FBI informant who told investigators he targeted the ex-Minneapolis police officer because of his notoriety for killing George Floyd, federal prosecutors said Friday. John Turscak was charged with attempted murder a week after the Nov. 24 attack at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. He told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly, prosecutors said. Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for...

  • Ivanka Trump is set to testify in the civil fraud trial that's probing into the family business

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Nov 8, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Her father gave caustic testimony. Her brothers each spent more than a day on the witness stand. Now it's Ivanka Trump's turn to face questioning in the civil fraud trial that is publicly probing into the family business. Ex-President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, who has been in his inner circle in both business and politics, is due on the stand Wednesday, after trying unsuccessfully to block her testimony. Unlike her father and her brothers Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., she is no longer a defendant in New York Attorney G...

  • Trump lashes out from the witness stand at judge, NY attorney general as he testifies in fraud trial

    JILL COLVIN and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Nov 5, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — A defiant Donald Trump sparred with a New York judge and slammed the state attorney general suing him Monday, using the witness stand at his civil fraud trial to defend his riches and lash out at a case that imperils his real estate empire. The former president's barbed testimony spurred the judge to admonish, "This is not a political rally." Trump's long-awaited testimony about property valuations and financial statements was punctuated by personal jabs at state Judge Arthur Engoron, who he said was biased against him, and N...

  • Eric Trump testifies he wasn't aware of dad's financial statements, but emails show some involvement

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Nov 3, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Trump, one of two sons entrusted to run Donald Trump's real estate empire, swore Thursday that he was never involved with financial statements that New York state lawyers say fraudulently puffed up the ex-president's wealth and the worth of the family business. But when shown a decade-old email asking him for information for one of his dad's financial statements, the irritated son strove to clarify. "We're a major organization, a massive real estate organization — yes, I'm fairly sure I understand that we have fin...

  • Trump's New York civil fraud trial rolls on after an appeals judge declines to halt it

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Oct 6, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's civil fraud trial will roll ahead next week after the former president lost a bid Friday to halt the proceedings while he fights a pretrial ruling that could strip him of Trump Tower and other marquee properties. An appeals court judge rebuffed Trump's push to pause the New York trial, but agreed to leave him in control of his holdings for now. The decision, after an emergency hearing Friday afternoon, came five days into the closely watched trial. Trump went to the courthouse for the first three days of the t...

  • Who is Arthur Engoron? Judge weighing future of Donald Trump empire is Ivy League-educated ex-cabbie

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Oct 1, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — He's driven a taxi cab, played in a band and protested the Vietnam War. As a New York City judge, Arthur Engoron has resolved hundreds of disputes, deciding everything from zoning and free speech issues to a custody fight over a dog named "Stevie." Now, in the twilight of a distinguished two-decade career on the bench, the erudite, Ivy League-educated judge is presiding over his biggest case yet: deciding the future of former President Donald Trump's real estate empire. Last week, Engoron ruled that Trump committed years of f...

  • Trump seethes through the start of trial in New York lawsuit accusing him of lying about his wealth

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Oct 1, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Aggrieved and defiant, former President Donald Trump spent a day in court Monday for the sometimes testy start of a trial in a fraud lawsuit that could cost him control of Trump Tower and other prized properties. "Disgraceful trial," he declared during a lunch break, after listening to lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James excoriate him as a habitual liar. The state's lawsuit accuses the business mogul-turned-politician and his company of deceiving banks, insurers and others by misstating his wealth for years in f...

  • A look inside Donald Trump's deposition: Defiance, deflection and the 'hottest brand in the world'

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Sep 1, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — In newly public testimony, Donald Trump boasts about building a multibillion-dollar brand and saving "millions of lives" as president. He spars with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, telling Letitia James "the whole case is crazy" and accusing her staff of trying to trip him up like TV lawyer Perry Mason did to witnesses. Trump gave seven hours of sworn testimony in April as part of James' lawsuit, which accused the Republican and his company of defrauding banks, insurers and others with annual financial s...

  • Trump dismissive as New York attorney general accuses him of inflating his net worth by $2 billion

    MICHAEL R. SISAK|Aug 30, 2023

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump defended his real estate empire and his presidency in a face-to-face clash with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, testifying at a closed-door grilling in April that his company is flush with cash — and claiming he saved "millions of lives" by deterring nuclear war when he was president. Trump, in testimony made public Wednesday, said it was a "terrible thing" that Attorney General Letitia James was suing him over claims he made on annual financial statements about his net worth and the value of his...

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