is it illegal to do homework for money

Is Homework Illegal? (Arguments In Support and Against)

Homework is not illegal in the United States.

But from a legal standpoint, it is a really fun argument to make!

In this article, we’ll cover some points that you could use for or against the question of the legality of homework, whether you are the student, parent, or teacher in this debate.

Is Homework Illegal? (FOR and AGAINST)

The contents of this web page are for informational purposes only, and nothing you read is intended to be legal advice. Please review our  disclaimer about law/legal-related information on this website  before taking action based upon anything you read or see.

Legal vs Illegal vs Unconstitutional

To make the argument that something (like homework) is illegal, there needs to be a law or statute or case precedent or SOMETHING that is the basis for the alleged illegality.

People have argued that homework is illegal because it counts as a form of “slavery.”

And since “slavery” was abolished by an amendment to the constitution, it is therefore “illegal.”

This argument fails.

It is illegal to restrict/control with force the movement/life of other individuals if you do not have authority to do so (as parents do with their minor children).

It is illegal to commit the other acts slavery is well known for (assault, harassment, and more).

And the individual statutes (state and federal) addressing those specific acts are the basis for the conclusion that something is “illegal” and “legal.”

Not everything that would be unconstitutional (or goes against the stated words in the constitution) would be considered illegal, and vice versa.

Instead, if you were going to make the argument that homework was illegal, you’d be better off consulting the various statutes that make certain conduct illegal.

For example:

Let’s accept that homework is an act, and that the victims do not want to commit or engage in this act, and the victims (students) only do the act because of the threat of some other result (punishments, consequences, etc).

Perhaps then you could argue that forcing kids to do homework is an illegal act, assuming that the threats of consequences are coming from an individual or entity that does not have legal authority to provide the threatened punishments, or those punishments are themselves illegal.

Sounds a lot like the crime of coercion , doesn’t it?

If you want to argue that homework is illegal, look for a statute like coercion to support your argument.

And if you want to use the 13th amendment in support of your case against homework, argue that homework is “unconstitutional” rather than “illegal.”

But if you want to argue more about the constitution, you could argue that homework infringes the rights contained in the 14th amendment to the constitution which present the state from depriving any person life, liberty , or property.

Children under the age of 18 surely qualify as “any person.” And they have a right to “liberty” which homework surely infringes.

Consent As The School’s Defense

One of the arguments that homework is illegal or constitutes slavery is that the children do not want to do the homework.

They are being made to do it.

They did not agree to do the homework.

But here’s the thing.

People under the age of 18 in the United States cannot make most decisions for themselves.

While the children may be in school against their will, and the homework is against their will, their parents or legal guardians have consented.

The parents have agreed on the children’s behalf to the homework.

Thus, technically, because the parents have voluntarily sent their children to the school, the parents have voluntarily consented to the homework, and the consequences of not doing the homework.

The child might not consent to the homework, but in the end, the parents have given their agreement.

The parents take the children to the school.

No one is pointing weapons at them to make them.

The parents sign their names to forms.

No weapons there either.

And since a crime like coercion requires that the act (the homework) be an act against the will or interest of the victim, a case cannot succeed because the will of the parents is substituted for the will of the child.

Arguing That Parents Did Not Consent

We just talked about how a debater could argue that homework is not illegal or against the will of the child because the parent’s will is substituted for the child’s will.

But what is the consent of the parent was not voluntary?

What if the parent was coerced to send their child to school, or to the homework?

What is sending their kids to school (and to do homework) was involuntary?

In most states, there are laws covering the attendance of children at school.

Absent an exclusion or a valid reason to opt out (like homeschool), a parent could face criminal prosecution if he/she does not send a child to school.

Think of what it means to make a voluntary decision.

It involves a lot of free will, and no pressure or undue influence.

If the school were to argue that the parents consented for the children to school (and then the homework), the argument against the consent is that the parents cannot voluntarily consent to the homework.

Parents are under the threat of fines and jail time.

Their consent is being obtained essentially by force.

A weapon of a different kind.

After all, a parent who goes to jail might lose his job, his driver’s license, or maybe even custody of his children.

A parent who goes to jail might lose his right to vote, or his position/status in society.

A person cannot consent at the business end of a weapon.

State Laws Do Not Compel Homework, Just Attendance

Another fun wrinkle in this argument, especially as we get down into whether parents have consented or can consent to homework, is whether the applicable laws have any impact on homework.

A student is not lawfully required to do homework.

If you look at the laws about education, there are laws about parents sending their kids to school.

There are laws about kids actually going to school.

But are there any laws that require children to complete the homework.

Like really?

I mean, doing homework is important to getting a good grade.

But aside from showing up at school (and not hurting or disrupting others), can schools actually make children do homework?

Schools can implement consequences for failing to turn in homework.

But they can’t physically punish a child (like hitting him, in most cases), or prevent him from eating or drinking while at school.

And once the child is at home with his homework, he is subject to the will of his parents or legal guardians.

Browse our  free legal library guides  for more information.

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Legal Homework Rights: What’s the Limit on Homework?

Hi, I just read your article Titled “Can You ‘Opt Out’ of Homework?” ( Click HERE  for the original article. ) I enjoyed the article but I guess I need a more concrete answer to the question of my legal homework rights: CAN I LEGALLY OPT OUT OF HOMEWORK FOR MY CHILD? – Dawn, SOAR ®  Parent

The answer is a resounding, Yes!

You have legal rights to put limits on your child’s homework time.

When homework begins to erode family relationships and/or increases the students anxiety, its time to make modifications. First, try communicating and working collaboratively with teachers and administrators.  If that doesn’t work, then you do have legal homework rights…

Legal Homework Rights

You absolutely do have legal rights to put reasonable limits on your child’s homework time. The legal tool you want to use is called a 504. For a link that provides a quick overview to the 504 law, click HERE .

504: The Legal Homework Rights Tool

Basically, the 504 law refers to legal homework rights (known as “accommodations”) that must be made for a child’s “impairment.”  As you’ll read, “impairments” are defined very loosely throughout the law, and this is done purposely to accommodate all students’ various needs. If your child has a diagnosis of ADHD, Dyslexia, etc. that will help, but it’s not necessary.

I have seen the 504 law used throughout my career as an educator for students and families exercising their legal homework rights.  I have also used it with my own children to get schools to accommodate what I felt was appropriate.

The 504 Process

The actual 504 process includes paperwork and a series of meetings. The meetings typically include a school counselor, a teacher, an administrator, and you and your child. In the meeting, all of your concerns will be documented and specific actions or remedies (like limiting homework) will be recorded. This document becomes a legally binding contract that your child’s teacher and administrator are required to uphold.

Legal Homework Rights: What’s a Reasonable Amount of Time for Homework?

So, what is a reasonable recommendation regarding time spent on homework?

We support the “10 Minute Rule.”   That’s a maximum of 10 minutes times the grade-level of the child. So, 10-minute max for 1 st grade, 20-minute max for 2 nd grade, up to 120-minute max for 12 th grade.

The “10-minute rule” is a great accommodation for a 504, because it is set to increase the limit on homework time as the child progresses through school. We’re not talking about eliminating homework just to create an easy path for our children.  Parents that have significant battles over homework, that can easily last an hour or more, understand that homework reaches a point where it is not productive.

Too much homework is destructive t o motivation, self-esteem, and to family relationships.  So, don’t be afraid to exercise your legal rights. This is the point where we want to pursue our legal homework rights.

In addition to pursuing 504 accommodations, you may want to give your students better skills to handle the demands of school.  To learn more about the SOAR ®  Parent Products, click HERE .

Brian Winter, M.Ed.

Co-Author, SOAR Social-Emotional Learning Skills

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“Can Someone Do My Homework for Me?” Answering FAQs About Paid Homework Services

If you are a student, then you have most likely uttered, or even shouted, the words, “Can someone do my homework for me!?!” at least once before. Yes, the ever-increasing demands that are placed on students nowadays are fast exceeding what their time capabilities allow.

Between the tests and assignments, social responsibilities, studying, and getting homework handed in on time, a student’s life is one where time is of the essence and is the most precious commodity that they have. This is one of the reasons why homework assistance services, such as  use paysomeonetodomyhomework.com , have come into existence.

With the emergence of these types of services, many questions have been raised by concerned and curious students as to the workings of these incredible time-saving services. This is what this article is here to answer.

FAQ’s

“is it safe for me to pay someone to do my homework online”.

The short answer is yes. When you employ someone to do your homework for you, you can rest assured that your personal and private information is stored and kept safely and securely, and that includes your financial data. Every transaction is encrypted so that you can rest assured with 100% peace of mind. 

“Will anyone know if someone does my homework for me?”

Your information is not accessible to anyone who is not a critical part of the homework process. With the latest in encryption technology, you can rest assured that your information is of the utmost importance and is treated as such. These services pay close attention to ensuring your data and information are fully protected.

“Who will do my homework?”

Your homework will be handled by a professional in that specific field. Drawing from the enormous database of ready professional and writing talents, you will get an experienced expert to get you the grades that you want. You are assured of receiving professionalism at every turn. After all, delivering the best quality homework is what keeps these services in business. 

“Is it legal to have someone else do my homework?”

Yes, asking a professional or an expert to assist you is perfectly legal for getting your homework done. You do have the option to use samples of work that has been done for you as a reference or a guide to help you improve or enhance your already existing project.

“Will my homework or assignments be done from scratch?”

Yes, they will. All assignments, projects, or homework are done from the very beginning. This way, you can be assured of original content. Moreover, you can rest comfortably knowing that the work that is produced will be 100% free from plagiarism , again driving home the original production of the work.

With the overwhelming pressure and amount of work that is piled upon students these days, paid homework and similar types of services are on the up and up, providing students the ability to better cope with their workloads and other commitments. Making these services a borderline must for any student.

Featured Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

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The truth about homework in America

by: Carol Lloyd | Updated: May 6, 2024

Print article

Not excited about homework? We can hardly blame you. But how families handle homework in America can have a huge impact on their child’s short-term and long-term academic success. Here’s a glimpse at how American families approach homework, and some tips that may help you decide how to handle homework in your home.

Model how much you value your child’s education

Think of your child’s nightly homework as a time to model how much you value your child’s learning and education. Get in the habit of asking your child what homework they have each evening, looking over their homework when they’re done each night, praising their hard work, and marveling at all that they are learning. Your admiration and love is the best magic learning potion available.

Set up a homework routine American parents who want their children to graduate from high school and go to college take learning at home seriously. They turn off the TV and radio at homework time. They take away access to video games and smartphones. They make sure the child gets some exercise and has a healthy snack before starting homework because both are shown to help kids focus. When it’s time for homework, they (try to) ensure their child has a quiet place where they can focus and have access to the grade-appropriate homework basics, like paper, pencils, erasers, crayons, and tape for kids in younger grades and calculators and writing materials for kids in older grades.

Helping with homework when you don’t read/speak English

So how can you help with homework if you can’t read your child’s homework because it’s in English — or because the math is being presented in a way you’ve never seen? If you can’t understand your child’s homework, you can still do a lot to help them. Your physical presence (and your authority to turn off the TV) can help them take homework time seriously. Your encouragement that they take their time and not rush through the work also will help. Finally, your ability to ask questions can do two important things: you can show your interest in their work (and thus reinforce the importance you place on learning and education) and you can help your child slow down and figure things out when they’re lost or frustrated. A lot of learning happens when children have a chance to talk through problems and ideas. Sometimes, just describing the assignment or problem to you can help the solution click for your child.

What’s the right amount of homework?

It’s often in first grade that kids start receiving regular homework and feel stressed and lost if they don’t complete it. If your child is having trouble adjusting to their new routines, know that it’s not just your child. Families all across America are having the same issues in terms of figuring out how to create quiet, focussed time for a young child to read, write, and do math inside a bustling home. In first grade, your child will likely be asked to do somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes of homework a night, sometimes in addition to 20 minutes of bedtime reading. ( The National PTA’s research-based recommendation is 10 to 20 minutes of homework a night in first grade and an additional 10 minutes per grade level thereafter.) If your child is getting a lot more than that, talk to your child’s teacher about how long your child should be spending on homework and what you can do to help.

Comparing U.S. homework time to other countries

If you’ve come from another country and recall your childhood homework taking less time, you may think it’s because you’re foreign. The truth is, most parents who grew up in the U.S. are feeling the same way. In the past few decades homework for younger grades has intensified in many schools. “The amount of homework that younger kids — ages 6 to 9 — have to do has gone up astronomically since the late ’80s,” says Alfie Kohn, author of the 2006 book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. So if you feel surprised about the quantity of homework your child is bringing home, you’re not alone.

According to an international study of homework, 15-year-olds in Shanghai do 13.8 hours of homework per week compared to 6.1 hours in the U.S. and 5.3 hours in Mexico and 3.4 hours in Costa Rica. But here’s the thing: academic expectations in the U.S. vary widely from school to school. Some American elementary schools have banned homework. Others pile on hours a night — even in the younger grades. By high school, though, most American students who are seriously preparing for four-year college are doing multiple hours of homework most nights.

Not into homework? Try this.

Homework detractors point to research that shows homework has no demonstrated benefits for students in the early elementary grades. “The research clearly shows that there is no correlation between academic achievement and homework, especially in the lower grades,” says Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the author of the 2015 book, Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy Successful Kids .

On the other hand, nightly reading is hugely important.

“One thing we know does have a correlation with academic achievement is free reading time,” says Pope. “We know that that is something we want schools to encourage.” Since the scientific evidence shows the most impact comes from reading for pleasure, don’t skip bedtime reading. If your child is not being given any homework, make sure to spend some of that extra time reading books in either English or Spanish.

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Is Homework Illegal AnyWhere?

• Post author By admin
• September 19, 2022

In this blog, you will learn about is homework illegal? so let’s get started.

Homework has become an important part since Horace Mann invented school. But many students have a query “is homework illegal?” – many students don’t want to do homework, and according to the research, this happens worldwide. 

Homework is time-consuming and stressful for students. That’s why students hate to do homework and want to know is it legal or illegal. We know that you are one of them that want to know is homework illegal or legal. For some reasons, you can say it is illegal or for some, it is legal. 

We will start with the illegal site. Many American elementary schools have banned homework because they find that homework can affect students’ health by causing stomach and headaches problems.

Many students suffer from sleep deprivation because they stay up late at night to complete their homework. It can be harmful to children’s learning skills because sleep has been shown to assist memory consolidation.

Table of Contents

Is Homework Illegal?

While the answer to the question “is homework illegal?” is “no, not yet,” our attitudes toward homework are changing, and the pandemic has caused us to reconsider children’s work-life balance. Some school districts and individual schools have begun to prohibit homework and limit the amount of homework that can be assigned to students. Some schools have said that homework is given out only 2-3 times per week, and others have outright banned homework for students under the age of 15. 

Why Homework Is Not Illegal

There are numerous disagreements over the effectiveness of homework. However, after years of debate and research, there is no solid proof that it helps students in achieving higher marks. While some kids dislike homework and perform better in school without it, others rely on it to gain a deeper understanding of certain subjects.

For example, many students gain a better understanding of mathematical ideas through repeated practice. As a result, making homework unlawful may disadvantage more students, skewing the outcomes in favour of children who are born with these skills.

The government recognises this and has not passed any legislation prohibiting schools from assigning homework. Law enforcement will not arrest a teacher for assigning homework to students. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

A short history of homework for you

There is no definitive answer to the question of when homework was invented and who invented homework .  Pliny the Younger from the Roman Empire, Roberto Nevilis from Italy in 1905, or Horace Mann can all be credited.  In one form or another, homework has almost certainly been around for a long time.  

One of the last two men is supposed to have introduced today’s concept of homework (after all, a woman would have known that there is PLENTY to do at home!). It was created as a punishment or as a way to show students that they can control their time.

As soon as homework was introduced, it was controversial.  In some states, homework bans were already in place at the turn of the 20th century.  The amount of homework given to kids increased as fears of the cold war grew and Americans were concerned about falling behind.  Later, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the anti-homework sentiment grew again, and students were given less homework. The country was experiencing an economic downturn when I entered the “workforce,” which means school.  Who else could be blamed but teachers?  There is a suggestion that the amount of homework given to kids should be increased by the Department of Education.

It has been reported that some high school students report having up to three hours of homework per night since then. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

Importance Of Homework

Improve memory

Whatever students learn in the classroom they can revise while doing homework. It can help them to improve their memory.

Students can learn to make good use of time

When students spend a lot of time completing their homework it helps them to keep away from useless activities such as spending more hours on phones, television or video games. 

Students can become independent

Many students do their homework on their own. They don’t get help from their teacher or friends. It makes them self-reliant and increases their confidence. 

Students learn responsibility

Many students understand that finishing homework is their responsibility. That’s why they do their homework every day.  It makes them responsible as a person.

Students learn to use many resources

When students do their homework they learn to use many resources such as libraries, the internet, etc. it helps them to find more information to complete their homework on time. 

Allow parents to involve in the studies of their child

When students do their homework it allows their parents to know what their child learns in school. And they can get involved with the child in their studies. 

Improves academic performance

Learning in the classroom isn’t enough to get good grades in school. Self-study is very important for achieving high grades.

Increases concentration

When students do their homework they find a peaceful place to study where they can concentrate more to complete their homework.

Why Should Students Have Homework?

One of the most important reasons a student has homework is that it allows professors to see where students are struggling with the course and assistance. 

At the same time, some students can work from the comfort of their own homes. It also allows teachers to get to know their students because some students are fast learners while others are slow learners.

Teachers can see where their students are lacking. The advantages of homework include teaching kids how to work as part of a group or collaborate effectively with others.

It can help the student in learning how to be self-sufficient. The schoolwork of their children is visible to their parents.

Kids should be assigned homework because there isn’t enough time at school, and some projects must be completed. Homework can increase a student’s self-esteem, but they can immediately identify their issues and get help before it’s too late if they struggle with it. 

One of the reasons professors assign homework is to encourage students to stay on track because failing behind might lead to failure. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

Is It Legal For Me To Do My Homework?

Legally, you are not required to do your homework. There is no law enforcement body that will arrest you for not doing your homework. A student who fails to complete his/her homework has the right to have it dealt with by the school.

The school may ask you to leave if you repeatedly ignore homework in schools where homework is part of the learning approach.  In some cases, parents who let their children ignore homework may attempt to get an exemption at the School Board, but in most cases, such requests still result in the child being asked to leave school.

If you refuse to do your homework, you aren’t breaking any federal or state laws, but you have no control over the actions your school will take. They have the legal authority to make whatever decision they deem appropriate. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

What States Have Illegal Homework Laws?

In all US states, homework is legal because there are no state laws prohibiting it. However, schools in different states are allowed to set their own rules about homework.

Some states ban or limit homework in some schools (or districts) including:

• Connecticut

20 Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned

Here are 20 reasons why homework should be banned : 

• Homework Restricts A Student’s Freedom
• No Time For Exercises 
• No Time To Play Outdoor Games 
• Often Breaks Students’ Confidence
• Homework Doing Not An Achievement
• Most Homework Creates Bad Habits
• Less Time To Spend With Family Members
• Conflict With Parents
• Homework Can Encourage Cheating
• Downtime At Home
• Negative Impact On Tests
• Writing Has Different Effects
• Extra Challenges
• Homework Causes Depression
• Homework Provides No Real Benefit
• Too Much Homework Means Not Enough Time For Yourself
• School Is a Full-Time Job
• No real impact on performance
• Irrelevant content

Can Homework Be Considered Slavery?

There is no legal definition that would support the claim that homework is slavery. Even though home assignments are assigned without permission, comparing them to slavery is a ridiculous argument that cannot stand up to legal scrutiny.

If homework is considered slavery, you will need to prove that the teacher or instructor receives economic benefit from your work. However, teachers do not receive any economic benefit from assigning homework. Our sole goal is to help students apply what they’ve learned and become more comfortable with what they know.

Regardless of whether you believe the homework you’re assigned contributes to your career in any way, you can make your case to the appropriate authorities. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

What Is The Legal Homework Rights?

You can limit the amount of time your child spends on homework under the legal homework rights. It is possible to use the 504 law for these purposes, as it has multiple accommodations for children with impairment.

The term “impairment” is loosely defined under this law, which makes it a good legal tool when you’re seeking to accommodate a student’s various needs.

Having a child who has a diagnosis like Dyslexia or ADHD gives you a stronger case. Parents also have the right to exercise these rights with no diagnosis. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

How the 504 Process Works

Meetings with key stakeholders and paperwork are part of the 504 processes. These stakeholders include:

• The student
• A school administrator

They will pay attention and document all of your concerns during the meeting. An administrator or the child’s teacher must adhere to the record or document. On some occasions, the case goes to court before it is enforced but typically ends in the meeting room.

What Is The Optimal Amount Of Time To Spend On Homework Each Day?

There is no universally optimal amount of time to spend on homework per day. Most educators suggest using the 10-minute rule. To determine how much time your child should spend on homework, you should multiply 10 minutes by his/her grade level. 

That calculation indicates that a second grader should only have 20 minutes of homework per day, while students in 12th grade can have up to two hours of homework per day.

By using the legal homework rights, parents can get some concessions using the 10-minute rule. If a child has no homework in their academic life, it’s easier to request that the homework time be reduced (which will increase with each passing year). This blog is all about is homework illegal.

The Argument Against Homework

The following are some of the arguments used against homework:

• This encroaches on family and relaxation time. Students require some time every day to relax, play, connect with family members, get adequate sleep, and more. These activities are essential for a healthy balance between academics and personal life. When you have a lot of homework every day, you spend most of your relaxation time studying.
• There is a lot of pressure on students. When students know they still have homework to do, they feel an unnecessary amount of mental pressure. In the long run, consistent pressure could negatively affect a student’s performance at school.
• A child’s self-confidence can be affected by this. Poor homework results and poor results can make a student withdraw from other students and dread meetings with their teachers.
• Homework isn’t graded quickly (if at all). Teachers are often very busy dealing with different aspects of the academic process, so they glance at homework only briefly. In some cases, the students receive feedback long after the class has changed topics. Poorly graded homework defeats its purpose.

The Argument for Homework

• It allows parents and children to work together. The relationship between a child and a parent can be further improved by solving homework together. The parent can see how the child copes with schoolwork and address any concerns with the authorities.
• Students learn how to solve problems through this activity. In addition to learning to solve problems independently, children who complete their homework regularly will also gain valuable life skills. Students will be able to find information through books, the internet, and other sources on their own.
• It gives students insight into a teacher’s thought process. By doing their homework, students gain a deeper understanding of how teachers think, which can help them prepare for tests and exams. 
• It can help a child develop a higher sense of self-worth . When students receive high grades on their homework and complete their assignments they might feel more confident, which may lead to them becoming better students. 

Conclusion (Is Homework Illegal)

In this blog, we have discussed about is homework illegal. i hope you have understood about is homework illegal easily.

Homework is not illegal or slave labor. However, you can’t ignore the positive outcomes and the overall impact on a child’s academic foundation, regardless of the valid concerns about the impact on students. Furthermore, homework is not compulsory for students.

It is, however, up to the school to decide how to handle the student.

The school administrators can review your concerns about the amount of work your child has to do or about the relevance of the homework. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

FAQs Related To Is Homework Illegal?

Is it illegal to give homework.

Students are not required to do homework by law. While he does not prohibit schools from setting and enforcing rules and standards, he does provide schools with the tools to help ensure students receive a quality education. In other words, the school has the power to make you do your homework or face school-internal consequences.

Is there a legal limit to homework?

Homework assignments are not regulated by federal law, either. … A first-grader, for example, should not have to do more than ten minutes of homework (10 x 1), and a high school sophomore, a tenth-grader, should not have to do more than a hundred minutes of homework (10 x 10).

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Doing Other People's Homework For Money?

<p>Considering that there are so many smart people on this website, I was wondering if anyone does other students hw and gets paid. Today, I was in my french four class, and one of the seniors told me that if I did 3 of the french hw’s that she was missing she would pay me. I told her I would do it for $8.00, and she agreed. Its no skin off my back because I’ve already handed in the assignments awhile ago and its not like she is going to get a good grade on the hw because its already so late, so instead of an 100 she would get an 80. Anyway, does anyone else do this?</p>

<p>1) if they do, a public forum is a horrible place to admit to it. 2) as an accomplice, if the teacher finds out, you can be flunked 3) just no no and no. i hate when people ask me for my work</p>

<p>And I hate it when people ask me if he/she can copy my homework.</p>

<p>People charge?</p>

<p>What if you were offered sexual favors? Would you accept doing the person’s homework for it?</p>

<p>… </p>

<p>i guess if you don’t have morals and feel fine doing so.</p>

<p>Masterus, of course. Why would you even ask?</p>

<p>depends if they were good looking or not</p>

<p>cuz Masterus can’t get any.</p>

<p>Why not if its two willing parties then I don’t see the problem. Its mutally benefical.</p>

<p>What do you do if they don’t pay you? :P</p>

<p>$8 is way too little for doing this. If you’re going to do this, you have to play for value. I’d start at $20 per hour it’d take for them to do this, not you.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t do it. In middle school, I did charge 10 dollars once to this kid I never talked to for my science notes. </p>

<p>I’d never do anyone else’s homework, though, especially for money. I mean, I help my friends for free, but I don’t actually do it for them. That’s pretty low.</p>

<p>I won’t give her the hw, if she doesn’t give me the money. If this does happen again, i’ll charge her more lol, it only took me a half an hour to do though. so I made about 15 cents a sentence. hmm maybe I should make it a quarter a sentence. :)</p>

<p>Doing someone else’s hw is cheating, no matter how you spin it.</p>

<p>Doing someone’s homework for them is cheating, and, if you’re caught, you can forget about your ambitious plans for college.</p>

<p>^Exactly. blah10charblah</p>

<p>I once did my cousin’s, who goes to another school, lab report thing for $3 dollars. I felt like such a gigolo.</p>

<p>Last year in physics, my lazy friend paid someone $20 to do her webhw rofl.</p>

<p>i was offered to write a simple essay last year for $20. i ended up not doing it because i am lazy.</p>

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16 Legit Sites To Get Paid To Do Homework For Money (Legally)

If you know you are good at a particular subject, like English writing, math, or maybe physics, some students are struggling and will to pay to do homework. Wouldn’t it be great to share your knowledge to help them gain confidence and improve their grades?  You can help complete assignments and earn money.

The growing need for homework helpers online has created vast opportunities for college-level students, college graduates, and professionals. Doing homework for money is legal and a great option when you are looking for flexibility.

You are free to choose assignments that you would like to work on, the number of hours you want to work, and which time of the day or night you work best. I’m a night owl, while friends of mine are early risers. You may enjoy all of these in the comfort of your home!

Table of Contents

Is Doing Homework for Money Legal?

Yes, it is. No law says you cannot offer homework as a paid service, although others would frown on it as “cheating.”

Doing homework for money has been around for years, and the market for it continues to grow.

Before you conclude that more students nowadays are too lazy to study and inclined to cheat, think about the following types of students:

• People with learning disabilities who need to catch up on their lessons
• Working students who cannot afford to be meticulous with their assignments
• Students who do not understand their homework  
• Those going through serious personal problems that distract them from their studies
• Those who need to skip classes because of physical ailments

There are countless legitimate reasons to answer homework questions for money.

What Sites Answer Homework Questions for Money?

Several trusted websites pay you to help other people with their homework. Here are the top sites to answer homework questions for money.

1. School Solver

School Solver claims to be THE marketplace for affordable school assignments covering all subjects and assisted by carefully selected subject matter experts. On the platform, students may also choose to become a tutor.

The team does not allow its tutors to post straight answers, which ensures the students are learning. They will answer questions on subjects like psychology, finance, mathematics, advanced accounting, computer science, engineering, business, physics, statistics, chemistry, geology, history, and more.

School Solver claims to be the “eBay of homework or a premium version of Yahoo Answers.”

What are the requirements to become a School Solver tutor?

Your first step is to register as a tutor on their website’s registration page, then create your profile page. You would also need a PayPal account to get paid and complete the registration.

Once you complete your personal information, you’ll take a quiz on any subject you are an expert on or just comfortable with. If your subject is not included in the selection, choose one that is related. You need to score at least 90% to pass the quiz.

Aside from the subject quiz, the School Solver rules quiz is mandatory, so be sure to read the FAQ section carefully. All their tutors must understand how the School Solver process works. For this quiz, you must score 92% or higher.

As soon as you pass the tests, you will begin getting questions on the subjects you passed and can start earning money fast.

How does School Solver work?

A student who needs an answer to their assignment posts their question on School Solver. If the assignment is within your expertise, you may post your answer, including a thorough explanation of how you derived the solution. The student who posted the questions will be notified that a tutor has posted an answer so that they can preview it.  The student can only access your full answer after paying for it.

The student may contact you to clarify your answer or give you feedback if they are unhappy. You have the chance to improve your response within a specified period; otherwise, the student will be refunded their money.

How much can you get paid to do homework on School Solver?

The student posts how much they are willing to pay for each assignment. If you find the price reasonable, you may post your answer and wait for the student to buy it.

School Solver charges a 20% commission for each answer bought, plus a 2% withdrawal fee for every withdrawal made from your account.

A student may ask for a refund if they’re not satisfied with the answer.

You also can earn more because the answers you post are forwarded to top search engines. If other people are looking for an answer to the same question, they will see your answer, and you will get paid multiple times for answering a single question. Your answer can be a type of annuity that pays out cashflow over time. 

Their “Top Earner” has made over $15,000 tutoring on the site.

Sign up to do assignments at School Solver here .

2. 24houranswers

24houranswers focuses on providing help to college-level students in more than 380 subjects; there are too many topics to list here. You have more opportunities to make money with this homework platform because of its more comprehensive range of services. One of the services is the college homework library, where students can buy answers from previous solutions at a lower price. The platform also offers one-on-one online tutoring sessions and step-by-step written solutions.

24houranswers is a legit company with high ratings from Google Reviews, BBB, and Trustpilot. It has a reliable support team ready to assist both students and tutors.

What are the requirements to become a 24houranswers tutor?

To be a 24houranswers tutor, you should have at least a Master’s degree. But if you do not have one, you should have at least a Bachelor’s degree with exceptional grades. You must have a good command of the English language, in both written and spoken communication.

You need to register by going to 24houranswers “Become A Tutor” page to create your account and profile.  Be prepared with an account name that does not reveal your real name. You’ll be asked to upload your transcript of records. Once you make the shortlist, you will be scheduled for an interview.

Once you are hired as a tutor, you will be monitored to ensure that you are consistent in delivering reliable, original, and high-quality work.

24houranswers maintains a set of behavioral standards for its tutors, found in its “Tutor Code of Conduct.” Read and understand the rules, so you do not accidentally violate any.

Be professional and courteous at all times.

How Does 24houranswer work ?

A student specifies on the homepage of 24houranswer what kind of help they need – online tutoring or a written solution. They identify the subject and upload the question and relevant document.

The student can either select a tutor or let the system automatically connect them with a tutor.

Suppose you are selected or automatically connected to a student. In that case, you may begin to chat with the student to discuss details of the assignment, including expectations in terms of deadlines and budget. Once you agree on the details, the student pays for your tutoring services while completing the homework.

Aside from rating your performance, the student may request a refund if you fail to deliver the work as agreed.

How much can you get paid to do homework on 24houranswers?

The answers you provide through the college library service will earn you anywhere from $1.25 to $10, while live tutoring is priced from $15 to $45 hours. The hourly wage varies depending on several factors, including the subject’s complexity. For example, engineering and physics are likely to pay more per hour vs. English and algebra.

24houranswers pays tutors at the beginning of each month. You can request to withhold payments if you prefer to grow your funds before getting paid. There is no minimum amount to get paid, but you should have enough income to cover the transaction fees of the payment service of your choice.

24houranswers pays through ACH payments, bank transfer for international transactions, PayPal, or Payoneer.

Sign up to do assignments at 24houranswers here.

3. Homework Market

Homework Market is a community of tutors who earn money by answering specific questions for a wide variety of subjects, doing homework for others, or editing assignments. It also a proofreading for money job at home . 

It is not clear what grade levels the community caters to, but it is safe to say that high school and college-level students can use the service.

What are the requirements to become a Homework Market tutor?

If you want to be a part of the Homework Market, you must sign up and create your profile to showcase your degrees, skills, and what subjects you are good at. Since Homework Market does not have minimum requirements to become a tutor, there is no assessment done on those who would like to be a part of its community.

How does Homework Market work?

A student may post any type of assignment on the Homework Market website. If you see an interesting assignment, you do it and upload it along with the price you expect to be paid. The student will then preview your work, and if they like it, you will get paid at your price. A student can only get access to the complete assignment once you get paid for the homework.  

How much can you get paid to do homework on Homework Market?

You will set your rate but make it reasonable. You’ll have a better chance of being selected by a student. Tutors usually charge between $5 and $25, depending on the complexity of the service required. A student may also negotiate the price paid to do homework.

Please note that Homework Market charges a 20% commission per assignment .

Sign up to do assignments at Homework Market here.

4. Tutor.com

Tutor.com hires independent contractors to tutor students from kindergarten to college level with their assignments. They’re a legit company with over 20 years in business.

What are the requirements to become a Tutor.com tutor?

Compared to other homework for money platforms, Tutor.com has a stringent criteria and tutor screening process.

Before you apply, check if you meet the following criteria:

• Are you a U.S. resident with a valid Social Security number?
• Are you eligible to work in the U.S.?
• Do you have at least a four-year degree from an accredited university? If not, are you currently enrolled as a college sophomore or higher of at least a four-year degree in an accredited university?
• Can you commit to at least five hours per week to tutor students?
• Are you an expert in at least one subject?
• Do you have excellent oral and written communication skills?
• Are you fluent in the English language?
• Do you have a passion for teaching and explaining lessons to students? Can you do it in an online environment?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions, submit an online application through its website and take a competency exam in one of the most in-demand subjects. There will also be an interview and a mock session with another online tutor. The process ends with a background check. 

The screening process to become a tutor takes one to three weeks.

How does Tutor.com work ?

Once hired, you can log in to the system and wait for students who need tutoring.

You will receive an alert when a student needs help with a homework assignment. If you are the first to respond to the student, you will be directed to an online classroom and begin helping the student with whatever problem solving they need.

At the end of each session, your student can rate your performance. The ratings received will be added to your online tutor profile.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Tutor.com?

You can earn from $10 to $30 per hour at Tutor.com, depending on the subject and its difficulty. Instructors will be paid twice monthly via direct deposit.

Sign up to do assignments at Tutor.com here.

TutorMe is similar to Tutor.com, but it offers a broader range of subjects that include Python and piano lessons. It provides on-demand tutoring services and online classes. The site is user-friendly and easy to communicate with your students.

What makes this homework platform different from its competitors is that it allows its tutors to become learners and at a discounted rate.

TutorMe is a legit company including tutors from Berkley, USC, MIT, Princeton, Yale, and more.

What are the requirements to become a TutorMe tutor?

Teachers at TutorMe must be at least 18 years old, enrolled in or graduated from an accredited university, prior tutoring or teaching experience, and have mastery of their subjects.

Start the online tutoring application by completing your educational background, work experience, and subject areas of expertise.

How does TutorMe work ?

Students can either communicate directly with you, or TutorMe can match play matchmaker.

Either way, you will be alerted when a student needs help. The lesson matched to you will be forfeited if you don’t accept the assignment within three minutes. Once you accept the job, you’ll be placed in the “Waiting Room.” The student arranges a payment method and decided whether to proceed with the lesson.

You’ll both be directed to the lesson space where you can communicate via a virtual whiteboard, audio/video chat, screen sharing, or other similar channels.

How much can you get paid to do homework on TutorMe?

TutorMe offers a base pay of  $16 per hour for online tutoring services or writing a lesson explanation. The rate is applied to the total number of hours and minutes served within a week.

However, you’re only paid for homework with a duration of at least five minutes per student. So,  if you only spend three minutes with a student in a single session, it will not count when computing your weekly pay.

Payment is made via PayPal.

Sign up to do assignments at TutorMe here .              

6. Studypool

Studypool is a micro tutoring platform for quick homework help and projects.

What are the requirements to become a Studypool tutor?

The minimum requirement for a Studypool tutor is being a college or university student. A degree in higher education is preferred.

After submitting an online application form, you will be asked to write a 200-hundred word essay. If you pass the essay test, you will be interviewed on Studypool’s policies. Both the essay test and the interview will evaluate your proficiency in the English language. 

You’ll need to submit a government-issued ID.

Once you are accepted as a tutor for Studypool, you will be able to browse live questions and answer homework questions for money.

How Does Studypool Work ?

A student submits a question and sets a budget. You browse the questions and bid on the jobs you’re interested in. Either accept the price or counter with a lower price and deadline. If the student selects you, they will pay the price you quoted.

Studypool will not release the payment unless you submit a final answer and the student approves the answer.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Studypool?

For each answer you provide, you will be earning a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $20. You can bid on an unlimited amount of questions, which increases your potential earning power. 

Studypool charges 20% to 30% commission on your gross earnings. Payments are made via PayPal.

Sign up to do assignments at Studypool here.

7. Help With Assignment

This is another platform that seeks highly qualified tutors who are experts in various subjects such as marketing, math, law, nursing, engineering, computer science, etc.

Help with Assignment offers online tutoring and a click-and-buy solutions library with already answered questions.

The platform services K-12, graduates, and post-graduate students in several countries.  Help With Assignment is a legit company with over 97,000 assignments delivered and over 5,000 tutors on the platform. 

What are the requirements to become a Help With Assignment tutor?

If you don’t have a Master’s degree or a Ph.D. degree in your chosen subject, you need to have at least two years of work experience, preferably in teaching. Additionally, you must demonstrate excellent communication skills and English proficiency.

Instructors will be given tests, but it is unclear what’s a passing grade.

How does Help With Assignment work ?

To order an assignment, a student uploads their homework file on the platform’s website. Once the document is posted, a tutor will respond to the student within twenty minutes.

The student may also opt for a live one-on-one session with a tutor by scheduling a meeting.

Another option is online assignment help, which requires tutors or subject matter experts to write for students. 

A final option is the Click and Buy service. A student can buy an answer at a low cost through its Solution Library. The library contains solutions to all possible questions related to various subjects.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Help With Assignments?

Tutors can earn a minimum of $7 per page of written work. However, there is no information on how much Help With Assignments pays for online sessions.

Sign up to do assignments at Help with Assignment here.

Wyzant is an online marketplace that offers in-person and online tutoring services in over 250 subjects.  Wyzant is legit with featured articles on Fox News, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, CNBC, CNN, and more. 

What are the requirements to become a Wyzant tutor?

A Wyzant tutor must be at least 18 years old and a permanent resident in the U.S. with a Social Security number.

You need to sign up on their Tutor Sign Up page to complete an online application and choose subjects of expertise. Your application will be reviewed by a Wyzant staff member and give you feedback within 48 hours. If you pass the initial screening, you will be given a proficiency test on the subject you chose to tutor.

Be prepared to provide authorization for a background check.

Finally you’ll need to read the policy about the working relationship between Wyzant and its tutors.

How does Wyzant work ?

You will be notified via email or text upon available tutoring jobs. Clicking on the link will lead you to the job application page, where you will see the homework details. If you want the job, submit your bid for the job.

The student must first pay for homework help before receiving your services. 

How much can you get paid to do homework on Wyzant?

A Wyzant tutor rate ranges from $30 to $60 per hour, but Wyzant charges a 25% platform fee. You will keep $75 for every $100 earned on the platform.

Sign up to do assignments at Wyzant here .

9. One Class

OneClass is an extensive library of study guides, lecture notes, and video tutorials created by students. Graduates may also submit their materials. Users may avail of either a free account or get a subscription plan. Depending on the subscription plan a student purchases, they may have unlimited access to lecture notes and study guides.

Who can be a notetaker in OneClass?

University students and graduates are welcome to join the community of notetakers in OneClass, subject to screening.

Notetakers need to fill out an application and submit a sample of notes taken from a registered class. If the sample meets OneClass’s standards, you can start uploading your notes weekly.

How does One Classwork ?

Certified note takers are expected to upload study materials on the website every week and earn credits for each uploaded material.

Materials that are lifted or copied from books, journals, or other reference materials are not allowed. An internal audit team evaluates each set of notes uploaded daily. Regular users are also allowed to alert OneClass if there are irrelevant materials.

Its users may preview the document before they use credits to unlock them.

How much can you make uploading documents at OneClass?

You will not get paid outright cash on OneClass. Instead, you will earn 20 to 25 credits per upload. The credits can be used to unlock study material.

If you are an excellent notetaker, you will be invited to become an “official notetaker.” And if you are exceptional, you get elevated to as an “Elite Notetaker.”  Once you reach this status, the credits earned increase to 75.

You can also earn credits by referring friends to sign up with OneClass.

Alternatively, you can exchange your OneClass credits with gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks, or even for cash.

Sign up to do assignments at OneClass here .

10. Paper Coach

Paper Coach is so-named because it specializes in custom paper writing services for high school, undergraduate, Master’s, and Ph.D. students. They will help whoever needs help with written work such as book reviews, themed essays, etc.

Paper Coach is a legit company with about 11,000 completed orders and almost 1,200 qualified writers.

What are the requirements to become a Paper Coach writer?

Paper Coach relies on specialized LinkedIn groups, but you can try submitting your CV so you can bid on a project. But for them to consider your application for a writer position, you need to have a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. degree.

Non-U.S. citizens are welcome to apply.

How does Paper Coach work ?

A student submits an order form by providing details and uploading relevant files for the writer. The student then reviews the cost to write the paper, the number of pages, turn around time, and the writer’s academic level. When the price is acceptable, the student makes payment arrangements and waits for the Paper Coach notification system that the paper is ready for download.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Paper Coach?

Paper Coach pays a minimum rate of $8. You can earn more depending on your academic level and the complexity of your writing style.

Sign up to write at Paper Coach here.

11. HashLearn

HashLearn is India’s first on-demand mobile tutoring app, serving Grade 8 to 12 students preparing for entrance exams.

What are the requirements to become a HashLearn tutor?

Visit the company’s web-based portal for tutors to apply and upload an image of your photo ID.

You will be given an academic exam to test your mastery of the subject you chose and a personality test to check your understanding of HashLearn’s guidelines and English proficiency.

How Does HashLearn Work ?

You will be notified if there is a tutoring session related to your topic of choice. Once you accept a session, you must be available for the next twenty minutes or until the student ends the session.

How much can you get paid to do homework on HashLearn?

You can earn INR 0.5 to 0.75 per minute.

Sign up to do assignments at HashLearn here .

12. EduBoard

EduBoard is a 24/7 homework help and test preparation assistance website for students of all ages and skill levels. It uses an interactive whiteboard tutoring platform.

What are the requirements to become an EduBoard tutor?

Here are the requirements to become an EduBoard instructor:

• Must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada
• In your senior year of college or have graduated from an accredited U.S. or Canadian university dedicated to teaching and can motivate students to learn.
• Complete an English proficiency test.

If you pass the requirements and the test, you will be redirected to your account to begin getting paid to do people’s homework.

How does EduBoard work ?

Students place orders for homework help while a tutor can bid on assignments and problems they like, and are comfortable answering.

How much can you get paid to do homework on EduBoard?

Tutors at EduBoard are free to set and negotiate tutoring rates. On average, the following hourly tutoring rates apply:

• Question & Answer: from $2 to $25 per question-based on your skills
• Online Tutoring Session: $20 for every 30 minutes
• Video Tutorial: $15 to $25

Eduboard charges a commission of 20% of your total earnings.

Sign up to do assignments at Eduboard here

13. Growing Stars

Growing Stars, which began in 2004, has a relatively young market as it caters to grades 1 to 12 and some college students. It has helped students develop good study habits and skills, gain confidence, improve their grades, and perform well during competitive tests.

What are the requirements to become a Growing Stars tutor?

Interested tutors must have at least a Bachelor’s degree in the chosen discipline or significant subject area and willing to undergo training with Growing Stars. They must commit at least one hour per session and must have a Skype account.

How does Growing Stars work ?

Unlike other platforms, Growing Stars employs education managers who work with students’ parents to set learning goals and address relevant issues. Students are given an online diagnostic test, which is used to craft a personalized learning plan for the student. The online tutor implements the learning plan.

All sessions are pre-scheduled, but students are free to contact online tutors via instant messaging if they need immediate assistance.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Growing Stars?

Growing Stars tutors earn about $6,800 annually.

Sign up to do assignments at Growing Stars here.

14. GeeklyLab

GeeklyLab’s mission is to create a collaborative space that brings students and educators together for a healthy exchange of knowledge. It takes pride in having high academic standards and being a proponent of academic honesty.

What are the requirements to become a “Geek” at GeeklyLab?

Complete the GeeklyLab application form with necessary information such as your degree and work experience. Instructors will also be asked to read the Honor Code and agree with the GeeklyLab’s rules.

After a few days, you will be given a competence test relevant to your selected tutoring subjects. If you pass the tests, instructors can start answering homework questions for money.

How does GeeklyLab work ?

GeeklyLab works like most of the homework helper sites. A student posts a homework request, and a “Geek” gets notified.  “Geek” and students discuss the details, and once they reach an agreement, they start the tutoring session.  At the end of the session, the student pays the agreed amount.

How much can you get paid to do homework on GeeklyLab?

You can earn up to $20 per hour, which will be paid at the end of each session. You can withdraw money from your account once a week through your chosen payout method.

Sign up to do assignments at GeeklyLab here .

15. Allhomework.net

Allhomework.net offers customized written solutions for homework problems.

What are the requirements to become an Allhomework.net tutor?

A Allhomework.net tutor must have at least four years of university or college-level education with some work experience in a similar online environment. Instructors should have a working knowledge of Word, PowerPoint, and other authoring tools.

Since educators are expected to write first-rate essays, they must have strong English essay writing skills. Computer programming tutors must be able to handle first and second-year programming assignments.

How does Allhomework.net work?

Once your application is approved, you can start earning money by solving problems for students. 

Start browsing the list of available projects and assignments through your account. You can bid on projects, indicating the rate you would like to be paid and an estimate of the grade you think the student can get due to your assistance. Best bids are shown to the student so they can decide which tutor to hire.

How much can you get paid to do homework on Allhomework.net?  

Payments are released every month via PayPal. The amount depends on the number of projects accepted and the agreed-upon price with the student.

Sign up to do assignments at Allhomework.net here.

16. TutorEye

Founded in 2015, TutorEye claims to be the most affordable online tutoring service for K-12 to college-level students. 

What are the requirements to become a TutorEye tutor?

Submit a completed application to verify your identity and to be screened against minimum requirements.

To qualify as a tutor, you must have at least a Bachelor’s degree from a leading university, with outstanding grades, especially in your chosen subject.

TutorEye will interview you so they can assess your personality and communication skills. It helps if you understand student psychology because instructors are expected to be friendly, professional, and supportive.

Familiarity with computers and internet usage is a must.

How does TutorEye work ?

A student will select a tutor from the TutorEye directory, based on the subject.

Before a session, the student should inform the tutor about the homework details so the tutor can prepare ahead of time.

How much can you get paid to do homework on TutorEye?

TutorEye pays around $5 to $8 per hour. Instructors are paid via PayPal every two weeks.

Sign up to do assignments at TutorEye here .

Get Paid To Do Homework For Money Summary

Doing homework for money is a legitimate service and source of income. Some are opposed to it because of the ethical concerns that are raised against it.

However, getting help to complete assignments is a student’s or a parent’s personal choice, and nobody can discount the benefits of homework assistance.

Getting paid to help someone with their assignment is a personal choice, too. It also is rewarding for the instructor to help a student solve a problem.

When you decide to become an online tutor from home, make the opportunity worthwhile for both you and the student.

Related posts:

Is Paying Someone to Do Your Homework Illegal or Unethical?

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It is a student’s worst dilemma when they struggle with deadlines and want to pay someone to do their assignments. Is it illegal? Is it unethical? If someone finds out, will I be punished? – These are the kind of questions students think about. To sort things out for you, we will find out whether paying someone to complete your assignment is illegal or not.

Paying someone to do your homework

If you ever search “ pay someone to do my homework “, you will get hundreds of websites and groups offering homework solving services. This is because many students like you are trying to find a balance between studies and life and need some delegation.

Student life isn’t easy; you’re expected to stay on top of your studies, submit assignments on time, get exceptional grades, and whatnot, all while cooking, paying rent, working part-time, and staying sane. We get it; it’s a lot.

Therefore, some services help students with their assignment submission so that they can get a little more time to focus on their finals or cope with life in general. Let’s look at the pros and cons of getting homework help from others.

• Students can manage their workload and stress levels.
• Students can get more time to focus on their finals or have a work-life balance.
• Homework and assignment scores will get better.
• Other students might view this as unfair.
• It may be considered cheating.
• Work or assignment may not be the original views of the pupil.

Depending on the situation, paying someone to do your assignment may come with several consequences. For example, in the case of plagiarism, you may even get zero marks or, worse, expulsion.

Is paying someone for your assignment illegal?

Technically, paying somebody to do your homework or assignment isn’t illegal. However, some universities may consider it wrong or cheating. Nevertheless, there are many services that are legal and offer good assignment help. And if you’re struggling, there is nothing wrong with asking for help.

Is it worth it?

There is no doubt that paying a service to get your homework done is actually worth it. The assignment help may cost you money, but it will give you a lot of peace of mind. And taking care of your mental health is extremely important to function properly. There are several students who are unable to cope with the huge workload. Therefore, if paying someone for your assignment helps you keep peace in your life, it’s definitely worth it.

Moreover, many students aren’t able to keep up with the deadlines. Perhaps you have gotten ill, and you have both assignments and exams coming up. In this situation, it is better for you to hire someone to help you with your homework and focus on your exams instead.

Is it ethical to pay someone to do your homework?

Whether it is ethical or not to pay someone to do your assignment is entirely dependent on the person answering the question. For a student who wants to delegate a few tasks to someone with experience and time so that they can focus on more important tasks, the answer will be that it’s ethical.

However, if you want someone else to do your assignments so that you can get good grades without studying and have fun with friends – in this situation, it is unethical. As you can see, whether or not paying somebody for assignments is ethical depends entirely on the situation as well as the person paying for the task.

Will it be safe for you to pay for your assignment?

You need to understand that most educational institutions don’t take plagiarism lightly. Many give a zero on the assignment or task right away. Others may give you a short deadline to review your assignment. However, if your institution finds out that you’ve paid for your assignment, there may be consequences, such as:

• The institution may fail you.
• You may not be allowed to attend classes for a certain period of time.
• You may be expelled.
• Your degree may be nullified. This can happen if you pay for solving your papers and the institution finds out about it. In this case, it is possible that they nullify your degree and expel you.
• Some institutions can charge a fine on you.

However, there are ways you can be creative with your assignments. For example, you can pay for one assignment while focusing on another. In addition, you can approach a freelancer and ask for their help with your homework. And because it’s not illegal to pay someone to do your homework, you can get good writers to write your essays for you.

What to consider while paying someone to do your assignments

Here are a few factors you need to consider as you hire someone to do your assignments.

Experience of the individual/service

You’ll need someone with experience to help you with your homework. Look for candidates who have completed a number of projects and assignments or who have a degree in your particular subject. Having your homework completed by professionals will help you avoid making mistakes on your assignment. Furthermore, expert assignment assistance will make certain that your task is completed on time.

Pricing policies of the service

When it comes to pricing, you have to be your own judge. However, because you know how difficult your homework is, you can estimate how much money it will cost. As a result, evaluate each offer against your intended pricing and choose the one that appears to be the finest.

You should also obtain estimates for your assignment assistance and learn about their cost information. It’s also a good idea to have everything written down so that both parties are safe.

A final word

This article discussed whether it was legal and ethical not to pay someone to do your assignment. The final verdict is that it is not illegal to pay someone for completing your homework or assignment. In addition to this, it is entirely up to the situation and the person paying for the task to see if it is ethical or not to hire someone for homework help.

Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Bullrun.

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

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In remote learning, some students pay someone else to do their classwork

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

It started with a message from her friend back in September 2020. This was about a fellow student who was asking them to write a paper for a class requirement. After receiving good feedback and P150 as payment for her work, Grace* decided to make commissioning for students’ classwork a business.

Grace, a sophomore Psychology major, told Rappler in an interview that ever since she started accepting academic commissions 5 months ago, she has been able to save up money to fund her schooling, especially for the requirements of the remote learning setup.

Her mother, an overseas Filipina worker in Saudi Arabia, is the only one providing for them. Her father is left with her and her brother at home, taking care of the household.

She is currently enrolled in a private university in Manila with a scholarship. But with the expenses that come with remote learning, she has to engage in this kind of activity to get by. 

This is also the case of *James, an Information Technology student, who also started engaging in this business in September after posting on his social media about the commissioned academic work he offers students.

“I wanted to earn while I have the freedom to do it. And I thought, why don’t I use my brain to earn money without sacrificing my grades. Many students are looking for someone to do their class activities so I took advantage of it,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Both Grace and James use social media to amplify their homework services, setting up a Twitter account dedicated solely to engaging potential customers – students – to give them jobs. 

Amplified by social media

A quick scan on Twitter using #WritingCommissions, #AcademicCommission, #AcademicService, and #EssayCommission shows students advertising their services through different promotional graphics with corresponding prices. 

For example, a measly P100 can save a student from failure. But the prices of the commissioned work vary depending on the length and type of the academic requirement. Here’s an example:

• Essay/Reflection paper – P100 per page
• Learning module – P100 to P200 (depending on the length)
• Slide presentation – P50 per slide
• Concept paper – P100
• Video editing – P150

Grace said that she created a Twitter account for her business to reach more customers. This is also where she transacts with them. When a deal is made, she sends a Google form where a customer is asked to indicate the type of service needed.

To make sure that a student does not run away, Grace asks for an initial payment of 50%. Then when the commissioned work is done, she notifies the student to pay the balance before she sends over the accomplished work. Payments are coursed through digital wallet app GCash. 

Grace and James said the grade levels of their customers vary – from junior high school, senior high school, to college students. 

Grace, however, could not determine where the students are studying because, like her, they are also using dummy or fake accounts for their transactions.

“Mostly college and senior high school, the grade 12 students. Hindi ko po sure kung saang school sila (I’m not sure about what schools they come from) because they also keep their personal identities,” Grace said.

For essays or reflection papers, Grace said customers need to give their topic two days ahead of the deadline to give her ample time to do research and write about them.

On average, Grace has 3 to 4 customers a week, and earns P1,000 to P1,300 a month, depending on the type of commissioned work.

“Konti na rin nagpapagawa sa akin kasi ngayon laganap na ang ganitong business,” Grace said. (I only have a few customers these days since this kind of business is widespread now.)

Meanwhile, James said that he earns P6,000 a month on average, with 5 to 7 customers a week. But each customer sends him multiple academic assignments.

Professor Jayeel Cornelio, director of Ateneo de Manila University’s development studies program, said that this kind of industry involving students is not at all new and can be traced back to the 1980s. 

“The reality is that this is not a new industry, if we could call it that. Such services have been common for a time already – just ask those who went to college in the 1980s and 1990s. Recto was known for such trades, for example,” Cornelio said.

“Social media as a space has merely amplified this, perhaps as an entrepreneurial endeavor on the part of those who need money. But perhaps the question is really for those who avail of their services,” he added.

A Rappler story published in January 2020 revealed that some De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde students allegedly paid to get past thesis requirements.

With the implementation of distance learning for basic education students and flexible learning for college students, it’s next to impossible to prevent students from engaging in this kind of academic dishonesty since they are doing their classwork away from their teachers.

‘Overwhelming’ academic workload

Rappler was able to speak with a student who is one of Grace’s customers.

Kim,* a senior high school student in a public school, said that she asked Grace to do a reaction paper for a 3-hour video they were asked to critique. 

Kim said she paid Grace P300 for her work. But she only did this because she didn’t know what to do since her academic work was already “overwhelming” and piling up. She didn’t want to fail any of her subjects. 

“Dahil sobrang dami po ginagawa like sunod-sunod po eh, hindi na ma-handle nang maayos. ‘Yung submission date po kasi magkakalapit so hindi na po namin alam ang ipa-prioritize talaga,” she added.

(Because there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, all piling up and I can’t handle them properly. The submission dates are so tight so I really don’t know what to prioritize.)

The implementation of remote learning has been widely criticized as the country appears to be not fully prepared for distance education. This is evident in the erroneous learning modules and in teachers having difficulty coping with the new mode of teaching they were forced into. (READ: No student left behind? During pandemic, education ‘only for those who can afford’ )

Dr Joan Rifareal of the Philippine Psychiatric Association told Rappler in a previous interview that some of her student clients talked about feeling burnout due to their workload. They struggle with the new system due to inadequate resources.

The Department of Education (DepEd) earlier said that it has ordered teachers to prepare activities that are less burdensome, following reports of students experiencing distance learning burnout.

‘Complying, not learning at all’

Recognizing that what they are doing has ethical implications, Grace said she could not blame students who turn to her and others like her to get the work done. But what is clear to her is that education officials should revisit teaching strategies during the pandemic because students are resorting to this kind of work not to learn, but just to comply with their teachers’ academic requirements.

“I am hesitant about this because of the ethical implications. Maybe, instead of focusing on academic dishonesty or cheating, figure out why students resort to this in the first place,” Grace said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“Students are just complying with the requirements, not learning at all,” she added.

In November 2020, some senators urged DepEd to consider resuming face-to-face classes. They were concerned that students are unable to retain much from the current modes of remote learning, especially those unable to take online classes.

The issue of whether students are actually learning in a remote setup is concerning as recent global assessments showed that Filipino students lagged behind other countries, especially their Southeast Asian counterparts in terms of academic performance. (READ: PH lowest among 58 countries in math, science – global assessment )

For instance, the first-ever Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) ** revealed that only 10% of Filipino Grade 5 students met the minimum reading performance they ought to achieve at the end of primary school. Meanwhile, an even lower 5% of Filipino students attained good writing skills. And just 17% of Filipino students attained minimum math competencies.

Earlier this year, President Rodrigo Duterte recalled his order allowing limited in-person classes in some areas due to the emergence of the more-infectious COVID-19 variant.

Rappler has also found that not all schools in the country have the basic health facilities to allow for a safe return of students to schools. (READ: Are PH schools ready for face-to-face classes during pandemic? )

Academic dishonesty

The students Rappler spoke with agreed on one thing: paying someone else to do their academic work is a form of dishonesty or “cheating.” Academic dishonesty is any type of cheating that happens in relation to a formal academic exercise.

“I am having a tug-of-war with my principles regarding the academic dishonesty I’m committing. Many are paying someone else to do their homework because they are bombarded with activities, but I know this is not enough to justify what I am doing,” James said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Meanwhile, Grace urged education officials to review the implementation of remote learning as students resort to this mainly because they can’t handle the deadlines being imposed on them.

“Why not address that problem na huwag nila tambakan ang estudyante or gawing mas practical ang assessment nila para hindi mag-cheat ang mga students? Kasi nga ‘di ba may pandemic so gawing mas practical sana ang assessments,” she said.

(Why not address the problem of students’ workload piling up and instead make assessment more practical so they won’t resort to cheating? There’s a pandemic so they should make the assessments more practical.)

Cornelio said that this kind of work can never be justified at all.

I guess its pervasiveness calls into question the design of alternative learning. PROFESSOR JAYEEL CORNELIO, DIRECTOR OF ATENEO’S DEVELOPMENT STUDIES PROGRAM

“How much can we teach? How heavy should the requirements be? And how exactly do we ensure quality? These are 3 questions for the system,” he added.

In a Viber message to Rappler on Monday, February 1, Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said they had “long issued the guidelines on academic ease. We [will] continuously monitor the implementation and will hopefully issue an academic ease part 2 memo soon.”

Rappler also reached out to Commission on Higher Education Chair Prospero de Vera III, but he did not give his comment on the issue.

What can be done?

Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) executive director Love Basillote said that “academic integrity is a challenge in remote learning.”

Basillote said this could be solved by investing in digital education because assessment technologies are “improving every day,” which means giving students access to digital learning devices and the internet.

She also said that the government should push for the safe return of students to school. This was echoed by Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Secretary General Raymond Basilio, saying that classrooms should be reconfigured “to enable physical distancing.”

He added that the government should also prioritize constructing hand washing facilities and comfort rooms in schools, as well as hiring of school nurses.

Basilio also emphasized that students engage in this kind of activity because lessons are not really designed for “self-learning.”

“The main reason na nakikita namin dito ay ‘yung kahirapan talaga ng mga mag-aaral na gawin ‘yung mga performance tasks dahil nga hindi naman talaga designed for self-learning ang mga materials,” he explained.

(The main reason why this is happening is that students are having a hard time accomplishing the performance tasks because the materials are not actually designed for self-learning.)

San Antonio earlier said that the distance learning setup is the “ perfect time ” to teach honesty among students. But with students’ desperation to pass their subjects amid an “overwhelming” workload, can we blame them for engaging in this kind of academic dishonesty?

Students, teachers, and parents can only hope for more sound policies in the education sector this year, especially since there is still no end in sight for the pandemic. – Rappler.com

*Names have been changed for students’ privacy

**Graph of SEA-PLM is from JC Punongbayan’s piece, [ANALYSIS] Why we need to safely reopen PH schools as soon as possible

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13 Things Your Boss Can't Legally Do

Laws protect employee rights in the workplace, and here are some things they prevent your employer from doing.

13 Things Your Boss Can't Legally Do

No one is above the law, including your boss. The National Labor Relations Act and a variety of statutes overseen by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) protect employees from hostile work environments , discrimination and unfair labor practices. There are also state and local regulations that employers must follow.

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Even though many employers do not intend to violate the law, they may do so accidentally if they don’t understand their obligations. If you've ever wondered whether your boss can legally take a certain action, keep reading to learn more about employee rights in the workplace and what to do if you think your employer has run afoul of the rules.

Your Employer May Be Violating Workplace Laws

Not all workplace laws apply to every business and employee. For instance, some small businesses may be exempt from certain requirements, and managers may not have all the same wage protections as hourly workers. What's more, state laws can vary.

However, generally, here are 13 things your boss can't legally do:

• Ask prohibited questions on job applications.
• Require employees to sign broad noncompete agreements.
• Forbid you from discussing your salary with co-workers.
• Not pay you overtime or minimum wage.
• Promise a job to an unpaid intern.
• Discriminate against workers.
• Allow you to work off the clock.
• Retaliate against whistleblowers.
• Fire someone after "papering" their personnel file.
• Classify you as an independent contractor but treat you like an employee.
• Discipline you for complaining about work on social media.
• Turn a blind eye to a hostile workplace.
• Ignore exemptions to vaccination mandates.

Ask Prohibited Questions on Job Applications

Some employers may break the law before you even get hired. The EEOC enforces laws that prohibit a dozen different types of discrimination and, in most cases, employers can't use those factors in hiring decisions or even ask about them during the interview process . That means a job application can't ask for your age, marital status, religion or plans to become pregnant, among other things.

Require Employees to Sign Broad Noncompete Agreements

Noncompete agreements generally stipulate that employees can't work for a competitor for a certain period of time after leaving a company.

A few states, such as California, prohibit the use of noncompete agreements. However, even where they are legal, they can't be so broad as to make it impossible for someone to find a job in their field.

For instance, rather than saying a medical administrator can't work at any health care facility, a legal noncompete might limit an ex-employee from finding work at a hospital system within a 20-mile radius of their old employer.

Forbid You From Discussing Your Salary With Co-Workers

Your boss may not want you and your co-workers to compare your salary or benefits, but they can't prohibit it. Trying to quash these discussions, either in person or online, can be seen as an illegal attempt to prevent workers from organizing or unionizing.

Beyond violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), prohibiting salary discussions can be problematic when it comes to gender equality laws since there’s no way for employees to gauge wage equality with co-workers if they can't discuss their compensation.

“Plenty of employers lead employees to believe that their compensation details are confidential and can’t be discussed with anyone, and there’s a reason for that – if you leave employees in the dark as to what everyone else is being paid, it’s harder for them to argue for raises, or they might not even know they are being paid less than their colleagues,” says David Siegel, partner at Cupertino, California-based Grellas Shah LLP, a full-service boutique law firm that focuses on startups, technology and venture law, as well as complex business litigation.

Not Pay You Overtime or Minimum Wage

Employee compensation is no simple matter. Still, the rules on overtime are straightforward. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay nonexempt employees overtime pay when they exceed 40 hours of work in a single workweek. Some states have more restrictive laws on the books. Alaska, California and Nevada require overtime pay for those working more than eight hours per day.

Meanwhile, hourly pay must meet minimum wage standards. While the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour, many states and even some cities have higher requirements. Employers can't get around paying the minimum wage by paying with tips or commissions either.

Promise a Job to an Unpaid Intern

Companies may want to entice interns with the promise of a paying job at the end of the internship. However, doing so could have an employer running afoul of federal and state minimum wage laws. Rather than being a learning experience for a student, the internship could be viewed as an unpaid – and illegal – training period.

Discriminate Against Workers

The EEOC prohibits discrimination against workers on the basis of eight broad categories: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability and genetic information. That means none of these factors, known as protected classes, should be used when making employment decisions, such as hiring, setting compensation and awarding promotions.

Many states have their own expanded list of protected classes. For example, marital status and political affiliation are among the protected classes in California, while Florida prohibits discrimination against someone based on their AIDS/HIV status.

Allow You to Work Off the Clock

Nonexempt employees who are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act can't be asked to do work off the clock. For instance, workers can't be required to do prep work or clean up outside their paid shifts.

What's more, employers should be wary of any request to be paid in cash or off the books. Employers can get in hot water for failing to withhold payroll taxes, and they could also be on the hook for other penalties if the employee files a complaint saying they weren't properly compensated.

“Wage theft is all too common. Employees sometimes think they have little leverage if the employer pays them late or not at all. But that’s not true. Federal law requires timely payment of wages. State laws are sometimes even more protective,” Siegel says. When you provide labor, your employer has an obligation to pay your earned wages.

Retaliate Against Whistleblowers

Employers can't fire or take disciplinary action against a worker who complains about illegal activity at their workplace.

“Speaking up against discrimination and harassment is a protected activity, and if any negative action follows, the burden of proof will fall on the employer to show that they were not behaving in a retaliatory manner,” says Kimberly Williams, a vice president at Walker Advertising, a law firm advertising agency. “Everyone should review their employee handbook. In some jurisdictions, the company may be held liable for ignoring their own rules,” she added.

But it’s important to note that whistleblower laws and claims against retaliation only apply if the employee was complaining about something substantial, such as fraud or corruption. Simply having an unpleasant boss isn't sufficient to trigger legal protections.

Fire Someone After 'Papering' Their Personnel File

Papering occurs when an employer suddenly files a number of complaints against an employee immediately before terminating them. And if a worker claims they were unlawfully terminated, a recent influx of complaints could reflect poorly on an employer, more so if they had not been frequently documenting the activities of the employee up to that point.

Classify You as an Independent Contractor But Treat You Like an Employee

Hiring independent contractors instead of employees is a way businesses can keep costs down. It allows them to avoid paying benefits and some employment taxes. However, businesses may classify workers as independent contractors when they are actually employees. Essentially, if a company dictates when and how you work, you're an employee, not an independent contractor.

Discipline You for Complaining About Work on Social Media

Under the NLRA, employees are given wide latitude to talk about their employers publicly, including on social media. That's because trying to curtail worker communications can be seen as an illegal attempt to prevent them from unionizing or organizing.

Still, employees shouldn't feel emboldened to say anything they want online. Threats of violence, harassing behavior and maliciously false statements could be grounds for discipline or dismissal from a job.

Turn a Blind Eye to a Hostile Workplace

An employer has an obligation to ensure its workplace is a safe environment and that worker complaints are handled in an appropriate manner. Some states also require companies to provide sexual harassment training to workers or supervisors.

The EEOC says a hostile work environment is created when a person must endure offensive conduct as a condition of continued employment and the conduct is severe and pervasive enough that a reasonable person would find it intimidating, hostile or abusive. Under this definition, a single inappropriate comment from a co-worker probably doesn't meet the criteria of a hostile workplace.

A hostile workplace can extend past business hours as well. Employers have an obligation to address behavior such as a person sending harassing texts or messages to a co-worker in the evening. The key is that the employer must be aware of the behavior. If it involves a supervisor, the company can be automatically held responsible for the behavior.

Ignore Exemptions to Vaccination Mandates

Employers have a long history of requiring workers to have certain vaccinations. In 2021, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by employees of Houston Methodist Hospital who were disputing the hospital's requirement that they receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment.

In the future, other judges may look to the Texas decision as they consider legal challenges to employer vaccine mandates in their states.

However, while mandating vaccination is not illegal for most workers, it can violate the law if exemptions are not allowed for medical reasons or deeply held religious beliefs.

What Are Employee Rights?

According to the EEOC, federal employment discrimination laws give employees the right to:

• Not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, nationality, disability, age or genetic information.
• Receive equal pay for equal work.
• Receive reasonable accommodations (changes to the way things are normally done at work) due to your medical condition or religious beliefs. 
• Expect that any medical information or genetic information you share with your employer will be kept confidential.
• Report discrimination, participate in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit, or oppose discrimination without being retaliated against for doing so.

History of Labor Law 

Employee rights in the workplace have come a long way over the past century. It's hard to imagine now, but just 100 years ago, the average American employee faced harsh working conditions, including child labor and various types of discrimination. The working conditions that were once commonplace in the United States are practically unrecognizable by modern standards.

The 1935 National Labor Relations Act marked a major victory for the labor movement, granting employees the right to form unions and bargain collectively. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 further prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Over the years, employee rights have continued to evolve, with laws protecting against sexual harassment, ensuring family and medical leave and safeguarding against unfair labor practices.

While there’s still room for improvement, the progress that’s been made is something to celebrate.

Why Is It Important To Know Your Rights as an Employee?

“It’s important to know your rights because the laws are changing in the employee's favor,” Williams says. “Juries are awarding hundreds of millions (of dollars) for a single discrimination claim, and shareholders are partnering with activist employees to hold boards accountable when they ignore abuse. In many respects, there has never been a better time to hold bully bosses accountable."

Working for a reputable and highly regarded employer, such as big tech company, may seem like a dream come true. But even in these work environments, employers have their own interests in mind. “Employers can make mistakes and break the law, and they will absolutely have attorneys advising them on the best way to handle situations with their employees,” says Margo Ross Pillischer, an employment attorney at Ross Scalise Employment Lawyers who represents employees in discrimination and retaliation cases. So, if you don’t know your rights, you’re at a disadvantage.

Consider reaching out to employment lawyers who can help you better understand what’s acceptable and not acceptable in the workplace. You may also want to have them review documents regarding your employment before signing on the dotted line.

How to Deal With an Employer Violating the Law

If you are uncomfortable with a co-worker's behavior or believe your employer is breaking a workplace law, the first step is to contact your supervisor or human resources department.

The next step may be to file an administrative complaint with the appropriate agency. Complaints about discrimination should be filed with the EEOC, alleged violations of the NLRA can be filed with the National Labor Relations Board and wage issues may be addressed by state labor offices. Most of these agencies have online reporting options. However, be aware it can take six months to a year or more for your matter to be heard, depending on the agency.

Another option is to contact a private employment attorney . These lawyers can take civil action against an employer, which could lead to changes in the workplace as well as monetary restitution. Some attorneys may offer free consultations and work on a contingency basis, so you may not have upfront costs for representation.

What Is Imposter Syndrome

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Watch CBS News

With the end of Title 42, here are the U.S. benefits migrants can claim

By Aimee Picchi

May 16, 2023 / 11:30 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

The end of  Title 42 , the pandemic-era rule that allowed government authorities to turn away migrants seeking entry at the U.S.' southern border, is raising questions about a possible increase in the number of people entering the country and the potential cost to taxpayers.

So far, a spike in illegal border entries hasn't materialized , although Border Patrol agents on Friday apprehended 6,300 migrants — a historically high level. At the same time, the Biden administration is seeking to expand ways for migrants to come to the U.S. legally, including a program for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have American sponsors.

Unauthorized migrants aren't eligible for many types of federal aid, although some states have extended social service programs to include them. Migrants without documentation are also often fearful of claiming benefits because they don't want to risk deportation or legal problems, said Tanya Broder, senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

"The federal rules are quite restrictive," she noted. "Some states have recognized the value of investing in total health and well-being of all their residents, so they may fill in the gap."

• Spike in illegal border entries does not materialize in immediate aftermath of Title 42's end
• Title 42 ends with 60,000 migrants waiting near U.S.-Mexico border
• How Title 42's end reshapes immigration policy at the U.S.- Mexico border

Although some migrants are quickly deported directly from the southern border or kept in immigration detention, many migrants — particularly asylum-seekers and families with children — are released into the U.S. with court notices or instructions to check in with immigration officials. 

While they don't have legal status, they are allowed by the government to live in the U.S. while an immigration judge decides whether they qualify to stay or should be deported — a process that can take years. Here's what to know about migrants and what government benefits they can and cannot receive.

Can unauthorized migrants access federal aid programs?

Unauthorized migrants, or those who haven't entered the U.S. through a legal pathway such as receiving a work visa or gaining asylum or refugee status, aren't eligible for most major federal aid programs, according to the NILC. 

That means unauthorized migrants can't receive benefits from programs including food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (or welfare), and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, among other federal aid.

However, there are some federal programs that these migrants may qualify for, although they are limited. They include emergency Medicaid , which pays for the medical costs of unauthorized migrants in the case of a medical emergency. School meal programs are available to all children, regardless of their immigration status.

Can legal migrants tap federal aid programs?

Yes, but generally only after they have resided in the U.S. for five years. 

That means most immigrants who are in the U.S. through an asylum program, or even if they have received a green card that makes them a legal resident alien, can't receive Medicaid, food stamps or other federal support until that five-year waiting period is over. There are several exceptions to this time restriction, such as for victims of human trafficking .

Can migrants get benefits through state programs?

Some states have enacted laws that allow migrants to tap their benefit programs, with the NILC noting that almost every state allows migrants of any standing to access Women, Infants and Children, a nutrition and food-aid program for pregnant women and children up to age 5.

Some states extend benefits to migrants who are in the U.S. legally, but still exclude unauthorized migrants. For instance, California's food-aid program CalFresh will provide benefits to refugees, asylum seekers and green card holders, among others, but it doesn't extend that support to undocumented migrants.

The Supreme Court has ruled that migrant children have the right to attend kindergarten through grade 12 public schools.

Is there a cost to taxpayers?

Some states argue that even providing limited services to unauthorized migrants comes with a price tag. Texas, for instance, claims that its taxpayers spend $850 million annually due to migrants who cross the border without proper documentation. 

Texas officials say their biggest costs stem from providing health care services to unauthorized migrants. Public hospitals pay as much as $717 million each year for uncompensated care for this group, while emergency Medicaid covers as much as $90 million in costs, according to the state.

Do unauthorized migrants pay taxes?

Unauthorized migrants paid almost $31 billion in federal and state taxes in 2021, according to Immigration Impact , a project of the American Immigration Council. Many pay taxes by using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, since they don't have Social Security numbers.

About 50% to 75% of unauthorized migrants pay federal taxes, according to the right-leaning Cato Institute.

Do migrants get help from U.S. taxpayers?

In the long term, immigrants aren't a financial drain on native-born taxpayers,  according  to EconoFact, a nonpartisan publication that examines economic issues. However, it noted that states may bear more of the cost of immigration than the federal government because states and local communities invest in educating all children, including those of unauthorized migrants. 

With the current labor market shortage in the U.S., some experts are advocating for more immigration to the U.S., especially as baby boomers continue to retire in droves and the country's birth rate drops. 

• U.S. urges meat companies to ensure they don't use child labor
• New bill would crack down on companies that break child labor laws

During the pandemic, when immigration was curtailed during the health crisis, industries that depend on immigration had  larger shares  of unfilled openings, EconoFact noted.

"The shortfall of immigrants over the past two years has had immediate adverse consequences for filling jobs and also harms the long-run prospects for the U.S. economy," noted Giovanni Peri and Reem Zaiour, economists at University of California, Davis, in EconoFact.

• Immigration

Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

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12 Things That Are Technically Illegal – But Still the Right Thing to Do

Posted: May 16, 2024 | Last updated: May 16, 2024

Just because something is illegal doesn’t make it wrong – unless you’re selling your garden vegetables while drinking wine and handing out water bottles to people waiting to vote. But hey, according to some online communities, those actions defy legality, not ethics!

So here  are their votes for illegal activities that are not unethical.

1. The Great Vegetable Conspiracy

Did you know that raising a large amount of food in the garden and selling it without the proper permission is unlawful? Nevertheless, a user says they would exercise caution when accepting other people’s homegrown vegetables because of the quality. At the very least, industrial farms are subject to some regulation.

2. Leftovers for Lawsuits

Restaurants in the United States are discouraged from providing leftover/unused food to homeless individuals. This is particularly true for chains because they can be sued by individuals claiming to have gotten sick from donated food. So it goes into the dumpsters behind their establishments instead.

3. The Parking Meter Paradox

Putting money in someone else’s parking meter is illegal in most places. It’s an example of laws leading to unforeseen consequences. One user believes the original law was designed to prevent tampering with someone else’s parking meter to force it to expire later than planned.

4. Digital Media Ethics

Piracy is unethical in most cases. However, forum members feel that downloading a movie you own on VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray shouldn’t be illegal. This is mainly for content no longer available through any legal site. One person thinks that companies should make their content available through some legal route or risk losing their rights to it.

5. Mattress Money Madness

Taking your money out of the bank and stashing it under your mattress is a bad idea, at least in France. As a user points out, there is a limit on how much money you may lawfully store in your home, but the rest must be kept at a bank. According to a second individual, this law makes no sense since the banks in their country are a dangerous place to save money .

6. The Irony of Inheritance

Before you die, it is illegal to cash out your whole estate and distribute it to relatives, friends, and others under the table . However, it is incredibly ironic that dying with nothing except maybe significant sums of debt in your name exclusively is perfectly legal. Make it make sense.

7. High on Ethics

Drugs are always under the radar in terms of legality. However, many point out that substance use is not necessarily unethical. Authorities ban several narcotics despite proven medical advantages. According to one member, psilocybin mushrooms are an example of potentially helpful drugs.

8. Wine and Dine (At Home)

Bring your own booze (BYOB) is not an option for establishments in some countries. It’s best to enjoy your wine on your home premises because someone reports that bringing wine to restaurants and paying a corkage fee is illegal.

9. Cop Accountability 101

If the police hold you accountable, then who holds the police accountable? Several say holding police personnel legally and financially liable for their errors and flagrant wrongdoing is known as “qualified immunity.”

10. Thirsty for Votes

According to the law, you can’t even drink water! Numerous folks find it funny that giving water to people waiting in line to vote is illegal in some places. It’s because it could be seen as “electioneering,” but it just sounds like a thirsty voter’s worst nightmare!

11. Wildlife Vigilante

If you encounter an injured animal and decide to put it out of its misery, you could end up in hot water. For instance, a member mentions when you’re out hunting, you might see an injured deer, and if you shot it, you’d have to tag it if it was in season, or you wouldn’t be allowed to shoot it if it wasn’t.

12. Saying No to Zoos

And finally, what about those times when doing the right thing is illegal? Freeing animals from confinement aggravates the zoo workers despite it seeming like an ethical choice. However, many users recognize that releasing zoo animals is destructive since they will fail to adapt in the wild. 

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While society has made progress in some areas, many things were just better in the past. Here are 10 things we wish hadn’t disappeared in the name of “progress”.

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This thread inspired this post.

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Michael Cohen's testimony against Donald Trump delivered for prosecution, if jury believes him

Cohen testified that trump knew he was paying to silence a porn actress to influence the 2016 election, but the former president and his allies contend the convicted liar can't be trusted..

• Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, said he discussed with Trump personally getting reimbursed $130,000 he paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter.
• Cohen testified Trump knew the payoff would influence the 2016 election by preventing another salacious story before the polls closed.

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen delivered testimony crucial to the prosecution's case that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. According to Cohen , Trump knew about the $130,000 payment, directed it to benefit his 2016 campaign, and was deliberately reimbursing Cohen when he subsequently paid him $35,000 per month and recorded it as a legal expense.

"He approved it," Cohen told jurors, speaking about Trump.

But Trump and his allies have repeatedly argued Cohen is unreliable because he has been convicted and imprisoned for lying to Congress and to the Internal Revenue Service. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Cohen submitted invoices that described “payment to the retainer agreement for legal services rendered," rather than a payment to Daniels .

"None of this was a crime," Blanche said.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the campaign purpose of his reimbursements to Cohen.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Cohen provided details to support his testimony, and even a recording of him discussing a different hush money payment with Trump.

Jurors will have to decide whether they believe Trump’s or Cohen’s version of events − and who they believe will be key to how the verdict they reach.

Here are the key takeaways from Cohen's testimony:

'He approved it': Cohen on Trump approving payment to Stormy Daniels

Prosecutors are trying to prove Trump falsified business records to hide his reimbursements to Cohen because Daniels' claim of a sexual encounter could have hurt his chances in the 2016 election.

“Cohen was not being paid for legal services,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement. “The defendant was paying him back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election. The defendant falsified those business records because he wanted to conceal his and others' criminal conduct.”

Cohen testified that he created a shell company called Essential Consultants to pay $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep silent about her claim of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 while he was married. Cohen described complex arrangements to avoid having Trump’s name on any documentation of the payment.

Cohen testified that he discussed with Trump and Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, about how to arrange his reimbursement for a total of $420,000, including the payment to Daniels, taxes and other fees. The discussion is a key element of the case because prosecutors need to show not only that the records were false but that Trump had an intent to defraud.

In Trump's presence, Weisselberg said during the meeting that $35,000 would be repaid monthly as a retainer for legal services, Cohen testified. A  legal retainer  is an agreement with a lawyer about compensation that reserves a lawyer or pays for future services.

Weisselberg is not expected to testify because he is jailed for perjury for lying during Trump’s New York civil fraud trial.

Cohen also provided a recording of Trump on Sept. 6, 2016 , discussing a $150,000 payment to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal , who also claimed a sexual relationship with Trump. The National Enquirer’s parent company paid McDougal to kill her story and sought reimbursement from the Trump Organization. Cohen described to Trump, who already knew the figure was $150,000, how the payment would be financed,

'A disaster for the campaign': Trump's description, according to Cohen

Cohen testified that Trump pursued the nondisclosure agreement to avoid negative publicity before the pending election.

"Women are gonna hate me," Cohen recalled Trump saying of a potential story about Daniels . "Guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."

Cohen said Trump was concerned about the election rather than about his wife finding out about the accusation.

"He wasn't thinking about Melania," Cohen said. "This was all about the campaign."

The payment to Daniels came after the Washington Post released a recording in October 2016 of Trump talking about grabbing women by their genitals. Cohen said he was feeling pressure to silence Daniels to avoid her giving her story to the Daily Mail.

"Just do it," Cohen said Trump told him.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, testified that she sought the payment before the election because she was skeptical Trump would pay after he had either won or lost.

Trump instructed Cohen to try to delay paying Daniels until after the election because if he won, the story would have “no relevance” and “if I lose, I wouldn’t care,” Cohen testified.

Cohen critical of Trump and his lawyers

Under cross-examination, Cohen confirmed he has been harshly critical of Trump before and during the trial.

Cohen told Blanche he said Trump belongs in a "cage, like an animal."

Cohen also acknowledged that he has been making podcasts − six days a week − that often criticize Trump. Blanche asked Cohen to confirm he went on TikTok and  called Blanche a "crying little s---," which he did.

Asked if he said on TikTok he would like to see Trump convicted, Cohen said that sounded right.

"I would like to see accountability. It's not for me – it's for the jury and this court," Cohen added.

Trump contends payments were 'legal expenses to Cohen, not Daniels

Trump has argued his payments to Cohen were for a legal retainer and that he didn’t know Cohen was paying Daniels.

“I paid a lawyer a certain amount of money. We marked it down as a legal expense,” Trump told reporters Tuesday before entering the courtroom. “I didn’t mark it down as a construction of a wall, construction of a building. I didn’t mark it down as electricity cost. I took a legal expense – I didn’t do it, a bookkeeper did it, she did it exactly right – took a legal expense and called it a legal expense. This is the whole case.”

Cohen looking for 'revenge': House Speaker Johnson

Cohen served time in federal prison for lying to Congress, tax evasion and for a campaign-finance violation for his role in the hush money payment.

Trump and his allies repeatedly attacked Cohen as a convicted liar, disbarred for his crimes, although Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump not to comment on witnesses during the trial.

“This is a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge and who is widely known as a witness who has trouble with the truth,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday outside the courthouse. “He has a history of perjury and is well known for it. No one should believe a word he says today.”

Cohen acknowledged on Tuesday that he filed false invoices to claim the $35,000 payments from the Trump Organization.

Another Trump surrogate, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told reporters Tuesday that Cohen invoiced legal expenses and the Trump Organization paid them.

“Where is the crime? There is no crime,” Donalds said.

Trump Complains 'I Have The Only' Illegal NDA While His Lawyers Claim He Knew Nothing Of It

Senior White House Correspondent, HuffPost

Donald Trump in a courthouse corridor rant appears to have acknowledged participation in the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels, contradicting his lawyers’ story to a jury that the coup -attempting former president wasn’t even aware of the deal.

“‘NDAs are legal and common, yet Bragg alleges Trump’s was illegal.’ I have the only illegal NDA,” Trump quipped Thursday afternoon in his post-trial day remarks to reporters in New York.

Trump was reading from a supporter’s article that argued Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was unjustly prosecuting Trump. His complaint that “only” his NDA was considered illegal, however, seemed to affirm that he was a willing party to it.

The charges against Trump, falsifying business records, are based on reimbursement payments to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the Stormy Daniels payment — which Trump has claimed not to know about until well after the fact. The legality of the NDA itself has never been in question and the payment to Daniels was not a charged offense, notwithstanding Trump’s suggestion.

It’s unclear what effect the admission will have in his ongoing hush money trial, in which he has pleaded not guilty. Trump has continued to deny Daniels’ claim that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006, leaving his lawyers in the unusual position of having to explain payments to silence the story of an affair that Trump claims never happened.

Lawyers representing Trump in the case did not respond to queries. But throughout the trial, they have argued that the effort to buy Daniels’ silence about the sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006 was the work of Trump’s employees, not Trump himself.

“Michael Cohen paying Stormy Daniels or Stephanie Clifford $130,000 in exchange for her agreeing to not publicly spread false ― false claims about President Trump is not illegal,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told jurors in his April 22 opening statement, using Daniels’ legal name as well as her professional name, which she is more commonly known by.

During cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, he and Trump’s other lawyers have worked to refute testimony that Trump knew about the scheme as it was happening. On Thursday, for example, Blanche tried to suggest that an Oct. 24, 2016, phone call between Cohen and Trump was not about the Daniels payment at all, but only about Cohen informing Trump and his bodyguard that he had been receiving harassing phone calls from a teenager.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Trump’s new remark could matter a great deal.

“This latest comment, Trump acknowledging that ‘I’ had an NDA, illegal or otherwise, with Stormy Daniels, at least inferentially, seems to be inconsistent with the suggestion that Trump knew nothing about what Michael Cohen was doing to suppress the Stormy Daniels information,” Kirschner said. “All inconsistencies will not be lost on the jury once introduced by prosecutors.”

But former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb — who, like many of Trump’s former staff members, has become a critic of the ex-president — said Trump’s defense team could contend that he was merely offering commentary on the case.

“Can easily be argued by Trump’s lawyers as fair comment on the evidence presented,” Cobb said.

Prosecutors have been monitoring Trump’s public statements closely for months, as demonstrated by their complaints to trial Judge Juan Merchan that Trump has repeatedly violated a gag order prohibiting Trump from verbally attacking witnesses and court personnel.

If they want jurors to consider Trump’s statement, they would have to find a way to get it entered into evidence, as jurors are not supposed to use information from outside sources such as news accounts in their deliberations.

Prosecutors also did not respond to HuffPost queries.

They have told Merchan that Cohen ― who worked under Trump for years before he pleaded guilty to and was sent to prison on a number of federal charges, including for the Daniels hush money scheme — is their final witness. His testimony should wrap up Monday, meaning that the case could go to the jury next week unless Trump’s lawyers change their minds and decide to call multiple witnesses.

If Trump is convicted on the falsification of business records charges, he could receive up to four years in prison.

Trump could also receive time behind bars if convicted of the separate federal charges or Georgia state charges he faces.

A Washington, D.C., federal prosecution based on his actions leading to his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt is currently on hold pending a Supreme Court review of Trump’s claim that he has immunity from those charges because he was president at the time.

A second federal case, based on his refusal to turn over secret documents he took with him to his southern Florida country club upon leaving office, is unlikely to take place before the November election that could return him to the presidency.

The Georgia prosecution, based on his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state, could potentially lead to a trial later this year.

Despite all of these prosecutions, though, Republican primary voters overwhelmingly made Trump their choice for presidential nominee again.

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From our partner, more in politics.

ChatGPT vs. ChatGPT Plus: Is a paid subscription still worth it?

When  GPT-4  was OpenAI's most powerful artificial intelligence large language model (LLM), paying for a subscription to ChatGPT Plus— which costs $20 a month —made sense. But now that OpenAI announced the availability of GPT-4o, I'm not so sure. 

With this latest update, OpenAI revealed an omnimodel that makes GPT-4-level intelligence available for all, so you won't need a Plus subscription to access it. What's more, free users can now access features that were previously reserved for paid subscribers, including GPT Store access to use custom GPT bots; the Memory feature to give their conversations a sense of continuity; uploading photos and documents to discuss them with ChatGPT; browsing the web to give more current context; and advanced data analysis. 

Also: 6 ways OpenAI just supercharged ChatGPT for free users

These changes can make it hard to determine who will find free ChatGPT adequate and who should spring for a Plus subscription. As a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, I'll explain below in exactly which cases you should use one or the other. Once GPT-4o is widely available, I'll test it to see how it performs for free users and ChatGPT Plus subscribers and report if any further differences arise.

You should use ChatGPT Plus if...

1. you use chatgpt a lot more than the average user.

With GPT-4o giving free users many of the same capabilities that were only available behind a Plus subscription, the reasons to sign up for a monthly fee have dwindled but are not completely gone. Free ChatGPT users will be limited in the number of messages they can send with GPT-4o, depending on usage and demand; however, OpenAI doesn't specify that limit. 

Also:  Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

OpenAI says ChatGPT will switch automatically to GPT-3.5 when free users reach their limit. ChatGPT Plus subscribers have five times the capacity of free users. Paid users will be able to ask GPT-4o five times as many questions as free users and will still have access to GPT-4 when they exceed their limit. We expect OpenAI will increase the limits for GPT-4o for both free and paid users. 

2. You can't wait

OpenAI says it is beginning to roll out GPT-4o to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and ChatGPT free users today, with Enterprise users coming soon. During the Spring Update live stream, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced that the new GPT-4o model and the rest of the updates will roll out iteratively to customers over the next few weeks. This means that only a fraction of ChatGPT users currently have access to the new features, with this number increasing shortly.

Also:  How to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus (and why you should)

If you don't want to wait until you get the new update in your account to use Plus features as a free subscriber, you can get a Plus subscription now to stave off the excitement. Note that you can cancel the subscription whenever you want.

ChatGPT Plus users still get early access to new features that OpenAI rolls out, including the new ChatGPT desktop app for macOS. This early access will soon include the new Voice Mode, which will roll out over the coming weeks. OpenAI will also launch a Windows version of the app later this year.

3. You want a tool to create charts and tables

ChatGPT is getting an upgraded data analysis feature that enables users to create interactive charts and tables from datasets. The upgrade also lets users upload files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, in addition to the option to browse for files on their local device. These new features will be available only in GPT-4o to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users.

Also: ChatGPT will put your data into interactive tables and charts with GPT-4o

With these capabilities, you could upload an entire research study to ChatGPT and ask it to generate a table with certain parameters ( always check that the info ChatGPT enters is correct). Then, you could click on a cell and ask ChatGPT a question about it or prompt it to create a pie chart. The pie chart, which would also be interactive, can be customized and downloaded for use in presentations and documents.   

You should use free ChatGPT if...

1. you don't want to pay a monthly fee.

When GPT-4o is available, ChatGPT users will no longer need a Plus subscription to access most of the features that initially attracted subscribers. OpenAI is making GPT-4o available to all users, whether they are paying or not. 

ChatGPT free users will be able to access the multimodal GPT-4o with GPT-4-level intelligence, get responses from the web, use advanced data analysis, upload files and photos to discuss with the chatbot, access custom GPTs in the GPT Store, and have more helpful experiences with Memory -- all of which used to be ChatGPT Plus benefits.

Also: The ChatGPT desktop app is more helpful than I expected - here's why and how to try it

Although it's unclear whether free users can generate images natively in GPT-4o (OpenAI did not disclose this during the event), free users will have access to GPT bots in the GPT Store. If DALL-E access remains a Plus feature, free users can still access the DALL-E bot in the GPT Store. 

2. You're a casual ChatGPT user

There is no need to upgrade to a ChatGPT Plus membership if you're just a casual user who doesn't reach the usage limits of GPT-4o. The new GPT-4o model is rolling out to ChatGPT free users with usage limits beginning today, but OpenAI hasn't specified this limit. Plus users will have a message limit that is five times greater than that of free users, with Team and Enterprise users getting even higher limits.

Also:  ChatGPT vs. Bing Chat vs. Google Bard: Which is the best AI chatbot?

If you're a free user who doesn't use ChatGPT often and stays within the usage limit, you wouldn't get much benefit from a ChatGPT Plus subscription now. I expect OpenAI will amend the subscription benefits or the price as time passes and GPT-4o becomes widely available.

Artificial Intelligence

Copilot pro vs. chatgpt plus: which is ai chatbot is worth your $20 a month, chatgpt vs. copilot: which ai chatbot is better for you, the best business internet service providers.

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Trump hush money trial highlights: Michael Cohen testifies about directed payment to Stormy Daniels

Coverage on this live blog has ended. For the latest news on the Trump hush money trial, click here.

What to know about the trial today

• Key witness Michael Cohen testified today about paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump .
• Prosecutors played an audio recording of Trump directing Cohen to use cash to buy Karen McDougal's story.
• Prosecutors have been preparing Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, for this moment for more than a year.
• Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment he made to Daniels. Trump has denied the charges and the alleged affair.

Trump blasts judge in remarks outside courtroom

Zoë Richards

Trump delivered remarks in the courtroom hallway this afternoon, reading notes that appeared to include quotations from his allies, including Sens. JD Vance, R-Ohio and Tim Scott, R-S.C., who are widely viewed as potential vice presidential picks.

Trump also said he was citing opinions on his case from legal analysts.

"There's nothing illegal, a lot of people say that, they're all saying, that. The only person who won't say it is the judge because it's a rigged deal, he's conflicted," Trump said. "You ought to check that out. But everybody's saying there's no crime."

Cohen says Trump told him not to bill any legal work as his personal attorney

Rebecca Shabad is in Washington, D.C.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen whether he discussed compensation with Trump after he gave him the title of personal attorney.

Cohen said Trump didn't discuss it and told him, “Take it easy on any bills," suggesting, he added, that there would be no compensation for any other work.

Cohen spoke with Allen Weisselberg and Trump about being paid monthly

Kyla Guilfoil

Cohen testified that he and Weisselberg spoke with Trump about Cohen's being paid in monthly payments, rather than in a lump sum.

Cohen recalled that the conversation happened in Trump's office with Trump present. He said Weisselberg told him he would be paid $35,000 monthly over 12 months to cover a total payment of $420,000.

The payments were set to begin in February 2017, Cohen said, because there was "a lot going on" in January, including Trump's inauguration. Cohen said Trump approved the payment plan, saying, "This is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.," after the approval. Cohen added that he would be getting paid as a legal service rendered as personal attorney for the president.

Cohen paid RedFinch CEO because he 'needed him for other things' involving Trump — but then pocketed some of the money

Jillian Frankel

Cohen testified that he paid RedFinch Solutions LLC, a small tech firm, for its services, saying Trump "didn’t feel that he had gotten the benefit of what he wanted, which dealt with a ranking."

Cohen added that he knew the company's chief executive, who told him he was out of money.

"And so I said to him, I said, 'I’ll take care of it; I’ll take care of it,'" Cohen said. "I needed him for other things that I was working with him on for Mr. Trump’s benefit.”

When he was striking a deal with Cohen to repay him for the Daniels payment, Trump also agreed to pay him back for the RedFinch payment, Cohen testified. But while Trump reimbursed him for the full $50,000 that was owed, he didn't pay the whole amount to RedFinch, he said.

'I actually had to do a double take': Cohen was 'beyond angry' after his bonus was slashed at the end of 2016

Daniel Arkin

Cohen testified that he was "angry, beyond angry," when he learned that Trump had slashed his year-end bonus by two-thirds in December 2016.

"I was truly insulted, personally hurt," Cohen said, especially after all he "had gone through in terms of the campaigning, as well as things at the Trump Organization, laying out $130,000 on his behalf to protect him."

"I actually had to do a double take," Cohen said.

Cohen discusses texts with daughter after being passed over for Trump's chief of staff

Allan Smith

Cohen described texts he exchanged with his then-college-age daughter after he found out he was not being considered to serve as Trump's chief of staff in the White House.

He said his daughter was very concerned that he was upset for not being considered for the role. Cohen followed up, saying that there would be other opportunities and that he would explain them in more depth once they became closer to reality.

Cohen added that there was a hybrid attorney role he was hoping to land that would give him access to Trump while also being able to monetize his relationship with the president.

Hope Hicks sought input from Michael Cohen on responding to critical stories about Trump

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks, who appeared to disparage Cohen by testifying that he bugged staff by trying to insert himself into Trump's campaign, sought input from him about how to respond to the "Access Hollywood" tape and then the Wall Street Journal story, Cohen said.

Prosecutors displayed text messages showing Hicks communicated with Cohen about the incidents in October and November 2016.

Hicks had previously testified during the case that Cohen would annoy staff members by trying to involve himself in Trump’s campaign. “He liked to call himself a ‘fixer’ or ‘Mr. Fix-it,’ and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to come and fix it,” she testified this month.

Cohen didn't have a job after Trump won the 2016 election

Cohen said that after Trump was elected president in 2016, he described himself as not having a job — even after he pitched the president-elect on serving as his "personal attorney" in the White House.

“My service was no longer necessary, as I was special counsel to Mr. Trump, and he was president-elect," Cohen testified.

Asked whether there were discussions about a job for Cohen like assistant general counsel, Cohen said there weren't.

Cohen also said Trump didn't offer him the role of chief of staff.

“I didn’t want the role. I didn’t believe that the role was right for me or that I was even competent to be chief of staff. I just wanted my name to have been included," Cohen said. “It was more about my ego than anything.”

Cohen said he did suggest to Trump that he could serve as his personal attorney, a role most presidents fill with outside counsel to handle nongovernment legal issues.

Trump was 'angry' about Wall Street Journal's McDougal story, Cohen says

Gary Grumbach

Trump called Cohen on his bodyguard Keith Schiller's phone after The Wall Street Journal published an article about McDougal's claims, Cohen testified.

Trump was "angry," Cohen said, "because there was a negative story that once again could impact the campaign as a result of women."

Cohen discusses what he did when WSJ broke story about AMI's payment to Karen McDougal

Cohen said that on Nov. 4, 2016, when The Wall Street Journal broke the story about AMI’s payment to Karen McDougal, he spoke to David Pecker and Hope Hicks, among others.

He said he spoke to them “to get control over the release of that article.”

Prosecutors then entered into evidence a call log of phone conversations between Hicks and Cohen, which showed they spoke to each other a dozen times that day.

Cohen confirms details of side letter agreement

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen about a side letter agreement, which Cohen said was a document that would identify who the pseudonym would be: David Dennison was Trump.

Asked who was listed, Cohen said both Keith Davidson and himself, counsel for both parties.

“The whole purpose of this transaction” was to keep it confidential, Cohen testified.

Cohen said the signatories on the side letter agreement were Stephanie Clifford, Keith Davidson and himself. He said Stephanie Clifford signed the agreement for Peggy Peterson and Cohen signed for both Essential Consultants, LLC, and David Dennison.

Prosecution is weaving together Cohen's and past witnesses' testimony to show Trump involvement

Through the prosecution's examination, Hoffinger has taken Cohen through the banking documents and the negotiation and execution of the deal with Stormy Daniels in almost excruciating detail.

We have seen almost every one of these documents from other witnesses, including Gary Farro and Keith Davidson. But seeing this history juxtaposed against Cohen’s phone, text and email records, especially with respect to Weisselberg and Trump, provides a new gloss on these transactions.

The examination also gives the angle the prosecution needs the most: through Cohen’s retelling, we now see Trump and Weisselberg interspersed in these now-familiar and unquestionably involved events, provided Cohen’s testimony is credible.

Cohen confirms 'retainer' was actually Daniels hush money

Cohen confirmed under oath that a $130,000 payment he wired to Davidson on Oct. 27, 2016 that was marked "retainer" was actually money for Daniels as part of the hush money arrangement.

Hoffinger asked Cohen whether the stated purpose of the wire transfer was "truthful." He replied: "No, ma'am. It was in order to pay Stormy Daniels to execute the NDA and to obtain the story."

'Everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off,' Cohen testifies of approval to make payment to Stormy Daniels

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he would have made the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels without getting "sign-off" from Trump.

"No," Cohen said.

Asked why, Cohen said, "Because everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off" and in addition to that, "I wanted the money back."

Cohen admits he lied on bank form

Prosecutors asked Cohen whether the information he included on a "Know Your Customer" form he filed with First Republic Bank was true or false. He said it was false, adding he believed they would not have let him open the account which was ultimately used to pay Daniels had they known the true reason for opening it.

Cohen said he offered false information on the form "to hide the intent of the reason for opening Essential Consultants, which [was] to pay for a non-disclosure agreement."

Trump and one of his lawyers keep conferring

Trump is conferring with Emil Bove, one of his lawyers, fairly frequently during Hoffinger's line of questioning about the payments to Daniels.

Cohen recalls Pecker said paying Stormy Daniels could cost him his job

Cohen testified that while he was trying to figure out how to make the payment himself, he also remembers talking to Pecker and Howard about the payment on Oct. 25.

Cohen said that Howard was telling him he had to get it done and Cohen asked Pecker if he could make the payment himself. Pecker said, “Not a chance,” explaining it could cost him his job.

Pecker testified to as much at the start of the trial — saying Cohen kept asking him to pay off Stormy Daniels and he flat-out refused.

'You will get the money back': Cohen says Trump was 'appreciative' he paid Stormy Daniels

Cohen testified that he and Allen Weiselberg spoke to Trump about paying off Daniels. Cohen said that he informed Trump that he would "front the money," and Trump was "appreciative" in turn.

"Good, good," Cohen recalls Trump saying. Trump also told Cohen: "Don't worry, you will get the money back."

Cohen says he denied Trump's behaviors in interview to help with publicity

Cohen answered questions from the prosecution about an interview he did on the Wolf Blitzer show in October 2016, in which he spoke as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. He gave the interview days after the Access Hollywood video became public.

“I advocated for Mr. Trump in the best light possible," Cohen said of his actions during the interview.

"Denials as well as exclamations that I have never seen him act in this sort of manner before. I was doing everything that I could in which to change the topic," he added.

Melania Trump texted Cohen after he learned Daniels was taking story to Daily Mail

Cohen testified that he called Trump on Oct. 17, 2016 to let him know that Stormy Daniels was going to tell her story to the Daily Mail. The ex-fixer said he got Trump's voicemail, so he left a message.

The following day, Melania Trump texted Cohen: "Good morning Michael, can you pls call DT on his cell. Thanks."

Cohen wrote back: "Of course."

Cohen testified the two men did speak.

'Just pay it': Cohen says Trump told him friends advised him to pay off Stormy Daniels

Cohen testified that he had a conversation with Trump in Oct. 2016 in which Trump said he had "spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people, and that it’s $130,000, you’re a millionaire, just pay it."

"There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it," Cohen recalled Trump saying. “And he expressed to me, just do it. Meet up with Allan Weisselberg, and figure it out.”

Weisselberg asked Cohen if AMI would make the payment and Weisselberg suggested that it be paid as a credit on an invoice for a golf membership or for an event, Cohen said.

Cohen added that another option was a family affair like a wedding or bar mitzvah, paying money and then take a credit. He said it wasn't possible, however, because each entity had a Trump name.

Ultimately, Cohen decided he would pay it, and Weisselberg told him, “We’ll make sure you get paid back,” Cohen testified. Cohen and Weisselberg told Trump that Cohen would front the money, and Trump told Cohen, “Don’t worry, Michael. You will get paid back.”

Cohen says he was ‘very concerned’ after email from Stormy Daniels' lawyer

Cohen read aloud an email from Oct. 17, 2016, that he had received from Keith Davidson, attorney for Stormy Daniels, that he said made him "very concerned" that he and Trump were losing control over the settlement that would bury her story.

“My intent was to continue to delay it per Mr. Trump’s demand," Cohen testified about the payment to Daniels. "And I did not send funds to Mr. Davidson’s IOLTA” on this date, Cohen said.

An IOLTA is an account lawyers maintain to hold client funds in escrow.

Cohen was regularly talking with Trump through the final stages of the campaign

As the campaign was reaching its climax, Cohen said he was still in regular contact with Trump about the agreement with Daniels

The prosecution asked Cohen about the nature of the conversations he was having with Trump about the hush money agreement. Cohen said they took place both over the phone as he was campaigning and at their Trump Tower headquarters, where Trump spent most nights during his bid for office.

Cohen details emails trying to delay paying Stormy Daniels

Cohen is testifying now about his email exchange with Keith Davidson in October 2016, in which Cohen was trying to hold Davidson at bay and delay making a payment to Stormy Daniels.

Cohen admits he even used the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur to delay, per Trump’s instruction, the payment.

In short, Cohen is testifying about the delays to say: Trump told him to string Stormy Daniels along as long as possible — preferably until after the election. Because if he could keep her holding on that long, the story would stay secret and if he won, then it wouldn't matter because the election was over. And if he lost, then he wouldn't care if the story became public.

The prosecution is zeroing in on this to make a key part of their case — that all of this was done to influence the election, not to keep it from Trump's wife or avoid family problems, something the defense has suggested they could argue.

Cohen testimony resumes

Everyone is back in the courtroom and the testimony is resuming.

LISTEN: Michael Cohen audio recording reveals Trump talking Karen McDougal payment

Jurors heard this recording that Cohen made of Trump discussing paying the National Enquirer back for buying Karen McDougal's story.

Court breaks for lunch

Trial proceedings have paused for a lunch break. The court will reconvene at 2 pm ET.

Cohen: 'I was following directions'

Cohen expressed that while Keith Davidson wanted an immediate wire transfer, he was trying to push the transaction past the election, as Trump had instructed him to do.

“I was following directions,” Cohen said when asked if he could   have funded it earlier.

Cohen also said that he would not have funded the settlement after an expected 10 days but would have continued to try to delay.

Cohen recalls what Trump thought his wife Melania would feel about the Stormy Daniels story

Summer Concepcion

Cohen recalled what Trump thought his wife Melania would feel about Stormy Daniels’ story resurfacing.

Cohen asked Trump, “How things gonna go upstairs?” referring to Melania Trump.

“Don’t worry. How long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

Cohen interpreted that to mean he was not worried about Melania, but rather he was worried about the campaign.

Cohen says Trump was angry when Daniels' story resurfaced: 'I thought you took care of this!'

Cohen testified that Trump was angered to learn that Daniels' story had resurfaced with just weeks left in the 2016 campaign

"I thought you took care of this," Cohen recalled Trump saying when he informed the then-GOP presidential nominee. "I thought this was under control."

“Just take care of it,” Cohen said Trump told him.

"This is a disaster, a total disaster," Trump said, according to Cohen's testimony. "Women will hate me. Guys will think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign."

Cohen says he and Keith Davidson spoke several times

Cohen testified that he spoke with Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, several times in October 2016.

The prosecution asked Cohen about text messages between Davidson and Cohen, which began after Dylan Howard at the National Enquirer connected the two men about Daniels.

Cohen said the messages were about Cohen and Trump trying to buy Stormy Daniels' life rights to her story.

Cohen says Trump instructed him to 'take care of it' when he told him about Stormy Daniels' story in 2011

Cohen said when he first heard about Stormy Daniels' story regarding Trump in 2011, he went to Trump's office and told him about the conversation he had with Dylan Howard and asked Trump if he knew who she was.

Cohen said Trump told him that he did know Daniels, and Cohen relayed the story about the 2006 golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Cohen said Trump instructed him to "take care of it."

Trump also told Cohen that he and Ben Roethlisberger met her and that she preferred Trump to “Big Ben," Cohen testified. Although Cohen asked Trump whether he had an encounter with Daniels, Trump would not answer him directly, saying only that she was “a beautiful woman.”

Trump allies rally to his defense outside the courthouse

In remarks outside of the courthouse, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, expressed solidarity with Trump during a trial that he slammed as a political hit job aimed at hindering his presidential campaign.

Vance — who was joined by fellow Trump allies Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall — decried the hush money trial as a “sham prosecution,” argued that Trump should be on the campaign trail and sought to discredit Cohen’s testimony.

Vance echoed Trump’s claims that the trial is part of an election interference effort by Democrats, saying without evidence that “every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative.”

“What’s going on inside that courtroom is a threat to American democracy,” he said.

Tuberville similarly criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying that he acts like the trial is “his Super Bowl” and painted Cohen as a “serial liar,” pointing to his previous prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to a number of criminal charges. The Republican senator also suggested that Democrats are trying to “beat Trump in the jury box because they can’t beat him at the ballot box.”

Malliotakis called the trial a “sham trial” based on a “convicted disbarred perjurer,” referring to Cohen, and said Bragg should focus on “actual crime” in New York City such as that committed by drug smugglers, career criminals and migrants.

Bird said she came all the way to New York City to show Iowa’s “strong support” for Trump after he won the Republican presidential nomination in its caucuses in January and decried what she observed in the courtroom today as a “travesty” because “politics has no place in a court of law.”

Marshall also slammed the trial as a “perversion of the criminal justice system,” saying the prosecution posed more questions about Cohen’s feelings rather than connecting him to any criminal offense, and echoed Trump’s claims that it’s an effort to keep him off of the campaign trail.

None of them took questions after making their statements to the press.

Cohen has started testifying about Stormy Daniels

Cohen's testimony just moved to one of the key issues at the heart of the trial: Stormy Daniels' story about a sexual relationship with Trump and his team's efforts to silence her ahead of the 2016 election.

Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor questioning Cohen, referred to Daniels' claims and asked: "What, if anything, did you think about the potential impact that might have on the campaign?"

"Catastrophic," the ex-fixer replied, describing the porn star's story as "horrible for the campaign."

Cohen texted with CNN's Chris Cuomo after 'Access Hollywood' tape dropped

Prosecutors showed texts between Cohen and Chris Cuomo, then a CNN anchor, the day after the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape was released in a Washington Post story. The exchange highlights how high pressure the days after the tape's release were for Cohen.

Cuomo asked Cohen if he would be defending him. Cohen replied that he was in London and was not sure whether he would appear on any news programs, adding that he was asked "by everyone" to "do shows starting Tuesday."

"Will be too late," Cuomo said. "He is dying right now."

"Come on tomorrow? And Thursday?" Cuomo added 10 days later. "This is crunch time."

Cohen said he was appearing on a different CNN program that day.

Vance says he's falling asleep in court

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who was in court today to support Trump, said in a post on X that he was "about to fall asleep" in court.

"I saw a media report a few days ago that Trump looked like he was falling asleep or bored or something. The obvious narrative they’re trying to sell is 'yeah Biden is mentally unfit but this other guy is bad too,'" Vance said in the post.

"It’s an absurd narrative. I’m 39 years old and I’ve been here for 26 minutes and I’m about to fall asleep," the post continued.

Cohen says it was Melania Trump's idea to dismiss 'Access Hollywood' tape as 'locker room talk'

Katherine Doyle

When the "Access Hollywood" tape resurfaced in October 2016, Cohen said he was in London with his family and friends and stepped away from having dinner to take a call from Trump.

Cohen said Trump wanted him to reached out to his contacts in the media.

“And the spin that he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended or at least he told me that’s what Melania had thought, and use that in order to get control over the story and minimize the impact on him and his campaign," Cohen testified.

Cohen explains real sale behind $125,000 'advisory' invoice

Confronted with an invoice from Investment Advisory Services (AMI employee Daniel Rotstein’s company) for $125,000 for an "agreed upon 'flat fee' for advisory services," Cohen confirmed that the invoice was really for Karen McDougal’s life rights.

But he further explained that Pecker called to say Trump would not have to pay it, and when Cohen asked why, Pecker said the McDougal cover of Men’s Health had sold extremely well, and that Cohen should rip up the agreement for the assignment of life rights. (This is not the explanation Pecker gave from the stand.)

Cohen says he arranged buying McDougal's story 'at the direction' of Trump

Cohen's testimony is in line with Pecker's earlier testimony that Trump and Cohen would have paid $125,000 for Karen McDougal's life rights to the story because the remaining services for which she was being paid was worth roughly $25,000 to AMI.

"What I was doing, I was doing at the direction of and for the benefit of Mr. Trump," Cohen says in explaining that he personally had no intention of and no reason to owning the life rights to McDougal's story.

On Sept. 29, 2016, Cohen says, he updated Trump on a call lasting 7 minutes and 14 seconds; that was the day before he signed the deal.

Cohen describes going to Weisselberg to get money to buy McDougal story

Cohen testified in great detail about the steps he took to get the money from Trump's company to buy McDougal's story.

Her story isn't even the one at issue in this trial. But the exacting detail is an attempt to demonstrate to the jury that Cohen would have needed a lot of signoff to act. And that process would be mirrored when buying Stormy Daniels' silence.

Cohen says it's his voice that cuts off the recording of him and Trump

Cohen testified that the voice that cuts off the recording of him and Trump is his own, as he was answering a different "important" call.

Cohen said was recording his conversation with Trump to gather proof for Pecker that Trump would pay him back $150,000. He testified that the recording ended because he thought he had enough proof and needed to take the new call.

“I didn’t want to record more," Cohen testified.

"I already had enough that I would have been able to show David Pecker as to convince him that he was going to receive the $150,000 back," he added.

The call Cohen said he answered was from Capital One bank, which, at that point, was where Trump did at least some of his banking and kept a checking account.

Political allies, Vance, Tuberville attend today's court session

Matthew Nighswander

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, second from left, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Eric Trump, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., listen as Trump speaks ahead of court.

Cohen discussed opening an LLC for exchanges with Pecker

Cohen testified that he was discussing the possibility of opening a separate LLC to hold all of the information that Pecker was transferring to the Trump team.

He said the utility of the LLC was "to keep it away from Mr. Trump" for purposes of his privacy "and for the benefit of Mr. Trump."

Prosecution plays audio of September 2016 conversation between Cohen and Trump

The DA's office played the audio that Cohen surreptitiously recorded of his conversation with Trump at a September 2016 meeting.

"Told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I’m going to do that right away," Cohen is heard saying to Trump, who said, "Give it to me and get me a ... "

Cohen said he had spoken to Allen Weisselberg "about how to set the whole thing up with funding."

"So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? Trump asked.

"Yes, and it's all the stuff," Cohen said. "All the stuff. Because ... here, you never know where that company, you never know what he's —"

Trump said, "Maybe he gets hit by a truck."

"Correct," Cohen said. "So, I’m all over that. And I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be —"

"Listen, what financing?" Trump asked.

"We'll have to pay him something" Cohen said.

"Pay with cash," Trump said, to which Cohen replied, "No, no, no, no, no, I got it."

"Check," Trump said.

Cohen says he taped September 2016 conversation with Trump about Karen McDougal

Cohen testified that he recorded a September 2016 conversation he had with Trump about purchasing Karen McDougal's life rights — the only conversation with Trump that he taped, he said.

Asked why he taped it, Cohen said, “It was so I could show it to David Pecker, and that way he would hear the conversation, that he was going to be paying — that he was going to be paying him back.”

“And I also wanted him to remain loyal to Mr. Trump," he added.

Cohen testified that his cellphone was in his hand and that he used voice memo, hit record and walked in with his phone in his hand.

Trump and Cohen shared concerns about story files getting out

Cohen testified that Pecker had expressed to him that there were a series of files on Trump in a locked file drawer, and that the tabloid executive was under consideration at the time for the CEO job at Time Inc. Cohen said he expressed concerns to Trump about the set of papers, which others might be able to get their hands on, especially if Pecker began working at a different publication.

Cohen said Trump shared that concern, which Cohen later passed on to Pecker.

Pecker responded, "You could technically buy them. We can figure out a way for you to take control of them," Cohen testified.

Those conversations were occurring in connection with Pecker's desire to be repaid by Trump for the McDougal story, Cohen added.

Pecker told Cohen he wanted Trump to pay him back $150K

Cohen testified that Pecker told him he wanted Trump to cover the $150,000 the Enquirer had spent on McDougal's life rights. It was too much money to hide from the CEO of the tabloid's parent company, Pecker told Cohen.

Pecker was "very" upset and angry about the money, Cohen testified. Trump assured Cohen that he would "take care of it."

Cohen recalls Enquirer publisher saying deal on Karen McDougal's story was 'bulletproof'

Cohen said after he learned that an agreement with regard to Karen McDougal’s story was finalized, he talked to David Pecker about the parameters of a deal to pay her $150,000 and provide 24 written articles, as well as her appearance on two covers of various magazines they owned.

Pecker told Cohen he felt the deal was “bulletproof” and that “the story has been effectively caught.”

Cohen then updated Trump about this conversation, including the detail that the deal was “bulletproof.” Trump’s reaction was, “Fantastic. Great job.”

Trump still has his eyes closed

Trump still has his eyes closed in the courtroom during the prosecution's line of questioning about Karen McDougal.

Cohen: Pecker worked with Trump to try to shut down McDougal story

In discussing the Trump team's reaction to the Karen McDougal story potentially going public, Cohen testified that Pecker expressly told Trump "we have this under control and we'll take care of this."

Cohen said Pecker stated that it would cost $150K "to control the story," to which Trump replied, "No problem; I'll take care of it."

Cohen went on to say that it was understood that AMI would lay out the funds, and that Trump would pay them back, although exactly how was not yet determined.

Cohen testified that he further let Pecker know he was present for that conversation.

Eric Trump is tweeting during Cohen's testimony

Eric Trump is sitting behind his father right now and tweeting about Cohen's testimony. "I have never seen anything more rehearsed," the former president's second-eldest son said in a post on X at 10:51 a.m. ET.

The court does not allow anyone in the courtroom to use their cellphones during proceedings.

Cohen outlines what he did to buy Karen McDougal's story

Cohen testified that he had met regularly with then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker in an effort to stop Karen McDougal’s story from getting to an outside source.

After saying that AMI regularly updated him about negotiations regarding the story, Cohen said he would communicate with Pecker and Dylan Howard by phone, text, email or the Signal app.

Asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger why he used the Signal app, Cohen said it was because of the nature of the issue.

Cohen recounts Trump's reaction when he was informed about Karen McDougal's story

Cohen testified that in June 2016 he received a call from David Pecker and Dylan Howard. They said McDougal was a Playboy Playmate and had a story she was looking to sell to news outlets about her alleged relationship with Trump, Cohen said.

Cohen testified that he thought the impact on the campaign could be “significant,” and that he told Trump “immediately after I got off the phone with AMI.”

Cohen said he asked Trump about whether he knew McDougal, and Trump responded, 'She’s really beautiful.'”

"I said, 'OK, but there’s a story that’s right now being shopped,'” Cohen said, adding that Trump asked him to make sure the story didn’t get released.

Cohen recalls Trump telling him to 'handle it' in response to story about Trump Tower doorman

After Cohen heard the story about Dino Sajuddin, the doorman at Trump Tower, he testified that he notified Trump immediately and “to get his direction on what he wanted me to do,” which included providing him with all of the information about the employees involved, who were married to each other.

Trump told me to “handle it,” Cohen said, meaning to make sure the story did not get out. Cohen also recalled Trump asking him to speak to the employees and “let them know it’s been taken care of.”

When the deal was completed, Cohen said, he reviewed the terms and asked the National Enquirer's Dylan Howard to make changes.

Throughout the process, Cohen said, Howard would update him and he in turn would update Trump. He told Trump about the changes to "get credit" from his boss, Cohen testified.

Cohen email to former National Enquirer editor: Take out part about Trump's 'Penthouse Pet'

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger reviewed an exchange that was entered into evidence earlier in the trial in which Cohen emailed National Enquirer editor Barry Levine.

Levine sent an email saying the Enquirer would publish facts about Trump's life under the headline "The Donald Trump Nobody Knows!"

Levine said one of the things they would include would be, "Even one of his ex-girlfriends, Sandra Taylor, a former Penthouse Pet, has boasted that he's going to be a 'terrific president!'"

Cohen responded, “Yes. Take out the part of the penthouse pet Sandra as it offers nothing. Also, I would like to reword the part about Atlantic City. Let’s speak tomorrow.

Cohen breaks down David Pecker's role in Trump's publicity effort

Cohen testified about the influence of the National Enquirer and how David Pecker helped provide positive publicity for Trump as he was beginning his campaign for the White House.

"What was discussed was the power of the National Enquirer being at the cash register of so many supermarkets and bodegas, that if we could place positive stories about Trump, that would be beneficial, and if we could place negative stories about some of the other candidates, that could be beneficial," Cohen said in describing Pecker's role with the campaign.

Cohen went on to say that Pecker offered to keep an eye out for anything negative about Trump. The tabloid executive also suggested that he could help the campaign know in advance if they would able to stop a negative story from coming out.

Cohen says Enquirer previewed negative stories about Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio

Cohen testified that the National Enquirer's editors gave Trump a preview of some of the negative stories the tabloid planned to run about his opponents in the 2016 election.

By way of examples, Cohen said that Enquirer publisher David Pecker and editor-in-chief Dylan Howard offered up stories about Hillary Clinton wearing thick eyeglasses (as a way of suggesting she had a brain injury) and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in a swimming pool with several men having "a drug binge of some sort."

Cohen says Trump warned him 'a lot of women' would come forward when his candidacy was announced

Cohen testified about discussions ahead of Trump's official announcement of his candidacy for president in 2016.

Asked if Trump expressed concerns about negative stories about his personal life, Trump said, “You know that when this comes out — meaning the announcement — just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward.” 

Cohen says he had a Trump campaign email address

Cohen said he maintained a campaign email address after explaining that he made public appearances on the news and offered comments to the press on different matters, noting that he leveraged his press connections to do so.

Cohen also told Trump that he noticed how white the campaign was and he advised Trump that if he was going to win, he would need a more diverse base of support. Cohen said he helped Trump develop support within the Christian evangelical community.

Cohen says he created website ShouldTrumpRun.com in 2011

In 2011, when Trump was contemplating running for president, Cohen said that 6% of poll-takers thought Trump should be president.

"So I took that article, and I brought it to Mr. Trump, and I said, 'What do you think?'" Cohen testified, adding that Trump said, "'It’s interesting. We should look into it.'"

Cohen said he then created a website ShouldTrumpRun.com, which he said many people came to, adding that Trump's name recognition was strong because of his reality TV show "The Apprentice."

AMI didn't pay to suppress Trump stories before 2015, Cohen says

After introducing Cohen's relationship with David Pecker, the prosecution turned to ask Cohen if AMI ever paid to suppress stories about Trump before 2015.

Cohen answered "no," testifying that the suppression of stories only began after Trump had announced his campaign for president.

Cohen says he knew David Pecker before he knew Trump

Cohen said that he knew David Pecker "before I even knew Mr. Trump."

"We had mutual friends, and we had met at a function, out in Long Island many, many years ago," he said. "I then was reacquainted when David Pecker was the president and CEO of AMI, and more people know him for his magazines and newspapers.”

Cohen said that he would communicate with Pecker by phone and that he had his cellphone and work number in his phone contact list.

Asked if he spoke to Pecker using the encrypted app called Signal, Cohen said he did.

“Sometimes we thought that encryption and not having the event traceable would be beneficial," Cohen said.

Cohen says he had Trump's contacts saved into his phone

After prosecutor Susan Hoffinger established that he maintained two specific cellphone numbers, Cohen said he had Trump’s contacts saved into his phone so that he could make calls for his then-boss when they were traveling together.

This is the reason, Hoffinger established, Cohen had more than 30,000 contacts in his phone.

Cohen confirmed that he provided two cellphones to the district attorney’s office after being asked to do so last year.

Cohen accepts 'fixer' title

When the prosecution asked Cohen if being called a "fixer" was an accurate title to give himself, Cohen responded, "It's fair."

Cohen says he lied for Trump at times

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he lied to help Trump.

"I did," Cohen said. "It's what was needed to accomplish the task."

“The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task to make him happy,” he added.

Cohen becomes more sentimental in his testimony

Cohen's testimony turned to strike a different note than his usual criticism of Trump, instead reflecting sentimentally on his time working at the Trump Organization.

"Working for him — especially during those 10 years — was an amazing experience in many, many ways," Cohen testified.

"For the most part, I enjoyed the responsibilities that were given to me, I enjoyed working with my colleagues at the Trump Organization and his children . . . . It was a big family," he added.

While Cohen gave this testimony, Eric Trump was staring at him.

Cohen recalled Trump expected prompt answers from him or it 'wouldn't go over well'

Cohen testified that “if you had a matter that was troubling to him,” Trump expected prompt reports about progress or their resolution.

“If you didn’t immediately provide him with the information, that wouldn’t go over well for you,” he said.

Cohen says Trump never had an email address because 'prosecutors' can use them

Cohen said that "Mr. Trump never had an email address" and said Trump told him that “emails are like written papers, and he knows too many people who have gone down from using emails that prosecutors can use.”

Cohen says he spoke to Trump every day

Cohen testified that while he worked for Trump, they were in constant communication.

In response to the prosecution's question about how often they spoke or met with each other, Cohen said, "Every single day, and multiple times a day.”  

He said Trump had an "open-door policy" that meant he could just walk into his office.

He added that they generally either spoke via cellphone or in person.

Cohen describes how he helped Trump shape his image in the media

Cohen described helping Trump shape his image in the media, placing stories “that would be advantageous in some way,” or working to minimize stories Trump did not like.

Cohen wasn't part of Trump Org. general counsel office but tasked by Trump with specific projects

Cohen said he was never part of the general counsel office at Trump Org.

Instead, he was often asked by Trump to renegotiate specific bills, including by law firms and vendors to Trump University, “which fell into trouble, and there were approximately 50 vendors that had not been paid.”

Although there was $2 million left, that would not have been nearly enough to pay each of them. Cohen offered 20% to all of them, he said, and all but two accepted and signed releases in exchange. The other two vendors “just went away” without payment.

Cohen says he was excited to handle anything Trump requested

From the outset, Cohen testified, he handled whatever Trump wanted.

“It was all very exciting to me,” Cohen said about a landfill remediation project in New Jersey that never came to fruition.

Cohen explains how he began working with Trump

Cohen said that he was first introduced to Trump by Donald Trump Jr. after there was an issue at Trump World Tower with the board and he resolved the issue to Trump's satisfaction.

Cohen said Trump liked the way he handled the situation. Then, Trump asked him to help him in other matters.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen if he performed additional legal work for him at that time. Cohen said he did on both legal and nonlegal matters and he said Trump didn't pay him.

Asked if Trump presented him with a bill for some legal work, Cohen said he was asked to address a series of documents related to Trump entertainment resorts and he resolved it and the bill was $100,000. He said he was asked to meet Trump at his office and he asked if he was happy at his sleepy old firm.

"I stated that I was," Cohen said. “He asked me if I wanted to come work for me ... I was honored."

Cohen reveals his starting salary under Trump

Cohen testified that when he first began working for Trump in 2007, his initial salary would be $375,000.

He said that that was the "base salary" that was discussed before he came on, and that his bonus was "to be discussed." He made $525,000 in his first year at the Trump Organization, he said.

Cohen details how he got into the taxi medallion business

Cohen detailed how he got into the taxi medallion business, saying that one of his clients was moving to Israel and gave him the opportunity to buy a 50% stake, which he described as a very good deal at the time.

Cohen testifies that he never wanted to be a lawyer

Cohen testified that he grew up on Long Island, raised by his father — who was a Holocaust survivor and emigrated to Canada before coming to the United States — and his mother, who was a nurse.

Cohen said that he went straight to law school after graduating from American University.

"Actually, I didn’t want to be a lawyer. My grandmother wanted me to be a lawyer," he said.

Instead, Cohen testified, he wanted to work on Wall Street, but his grandmother said, "That's not going to happen."

Trump's eyes are closed as Cohen begins testimony

Trump's eyes are closed and his head is tilted to the right as Cohen begins his testimony.

Cohen can't see Trump directly from where he's sitting on the stand. When asked what color tie Trump is wearing, Cohen stood up from his seat and had to look over to confirm it was a blue and white tie.

Michael Cohen takes the stand

Michael Cohen has taken the stand to testify against his former boss.

Judge denies separation agreement involving Weisselberg

Judge Juan Merchan began the morning by addressing the separation agreement that Allen Weisselberg signed that says he can't talk with anyone about Trump unless testifying.

The prosecution wanted to enter the agreement into evidence, but Merchan said he's not going to allow it in because he said it doesn't seem to prove anything or move the ball in any direction.

District Attorney Bragg arrives at the courthouse

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has arrived at the courthouse.

With him today is his head of appeals, both seated in the gallery behind prosecutors from his office.

Trump again swipes at Judge Merchan and Biden before heading into the courtroom

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, touted a recent poll in The New York Times on his performance in several battleground states and maintained that the hush money trial is a “political witch hunt” in remarks to reporters shortly before entering the courtroom.

Trump again accused Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the case, of being “corrupt” and called on the New York state appellate division to step in and grant his motion for dismissal.

The former president also repeated his claim, without evidence, that President Joe Biden and Democrats are committing “election interference” because of his required attendance at court.

“I should be out campaigning now instead of sitting in a very cold courthouse all day long,” he said. “This is a Biden prosecution.”

Two Republican senators are at the trial today

Henry J. Gomez

Sens. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., will be at the trial today with Trump, according to a source familiar with their plans.

Also with Trump in the hallway outside the courtroom was Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., went to the trial last week and spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.

Michael Cohen is expected to be on the stand for days

Today is Day 16 of the Trump hush money trial and the beginning of Week 5.  Michael Cohen will take the stand facing off against his former boss, for whom he once said he would take a bullet.

Veteran prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will conduct the direct examination and defense attorney Todd Blanche will handle the critical cross-examination.

Cohen is expected to be on the stand for days, but he is not the prosecution’s final witness. We expect one more person to testify after Cohen wraps up.

Trump heads to court to hear Michael Cohen's testimony

Matt Johnson

The former president has left Trump Tower for the courthouse downtown, where he will face Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, and hear him testify about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen is set to begin testifying today in Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial related to hush money payments Cohen paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. NBC News’ Dasha Burns reports.

Michael Cohen has left for the courthouse

Brittany Kubicko

Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, did not take any questions outside his New York City apartment.

Michael Cohen said in his plea he acted 'at the direction of' Trump

In August 2018, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to causing American Media’s unlawful campaign contribution to Trump and to making an unlawful contribution of his own through the Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels payments respectively.

And during his plea allocution — the process by which a pleading defendant takes responsibility for his crimes — Cohen said he acted not only “in coordination with” but “at the direction of” one Donald Trump.

And that’s the crux of what the prosecution needs from Cohen — and can’t get from anyone else — as they wrap up their case as soon as this week: how, when and why Trump expressly directed Cohen to ensure McDougal and Daniels’ stories stayed buried.

Beyond that, though, is something they need more: testimony showing Trump knowingly and intentionally caused Cohen and Trump Organization staff to falsely document the repayment (and then some) to Cohen.

So far, we’ve seen a load of evidence that the business records were, in fact, false — and that senior Trump executives, including the ever-loyal, hands-in-everything Allen Weisselberg engineered the repayment scheme.

But missing to date? Direct evidence — beyond the checks he signed — that Trump himself disguised or caused others to disguise the distributions as monthly payments for legal services never rendered pursuant to a retainer agreement that never existed.

That’s Cohen’s sole purpose and function as a witness: to fill gaps in the existing evidentiary record with direct proof of what Trump said or did, thereby connecting disparate pieces into a cohesive, intelligible narrative.

Starting today, we’ll see whether, nearly six years after he first pleaded guilty, Cohen can deliver on that promise.

Michael Cohen set to take the stand as star witness in Trump’s hush money trial

Dareh Gregorian

Michael Cohen — the most pivotal witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s hush money case against Trump — will take the stand today for what’s expected to be at least two days of testimony against his old boss in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

In the witness box, Cohen will be seated just feet away from Trump, whom he has repeatedly mocked on social media and in interviews, including since the start of the trial.

Cohen will be questioned by veteran prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, who has been preparing him for his testimony for about a year. He’ll be cross-examined by Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche.

The road for Cohen to reach this moment has been a long one. He has been speaking with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office off and on for the past five years, with investigators from the DA’s office even visiting him three times while he was in federal lockup in Otisville, New York, in 2019 and 2020. 

Read the full story here.

A calm day before the star witness, Trump trial delves into records: What you missed on Day 15 of the hush money trial.

In the metaphorical eye of the storm, the 15th day of Trump’s New York hush money trial focused on phone records, social media posts and payments — bookended by the testimony from Stormy Daniels the day before and the anticipated appearance of Cohen today. 

Even Trump seemed tired of the proceedings at times, piecing through newspaper articles as a paralegal from the district attorney’s office authenticated financial records for the payments made to Cohen, his former fixer. 

The district attorney’s office has argued that Trump violated campaign finance laws when his associates struck a deal with Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter in exchange for a $130,000 payment. 

How Michael Cohen went from Trump’s fixer to a key witness against him

For years, Cohen said he fixed Trump’s problems. Now the disbarred lawyer is the star witness for New York prosecutors trying to link Trump to an illegal hush money plot.

NEW YORK — At first, Michael Cohen testified about all the problems he fixed for Donald Trump — the boss whose praise made Cohen feel like he was “on top of the world.”

When reporters angered Trump, Cohen threatened them. When a Miss USA contestant criticized Trump’s beauty pageant , he sprang into legal action. When Trump ran for president and warned that “there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Cohen was ready, he said — working behind the scenes to suppress two women’s claims that Trump had sex with them while married.

But now those sorts of schemes had brought Trump and Cohen together in a Manhattan courtroom — as enemies avoiding eye contact. When Cohen recounted doing everything he could to protect the former president, Trump smirked.

The disbarred lawyer was now the star witness in prosecutors’ efforts to link Trump to an illegal hush money plot. He told the jury that Trump approved a secret payment to an adult-film actress in 2016 and cared more about her story affecting his presidential campaign prospects than the reaction from his wife.

“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” Cohen testified. He said Trump told him of his marriage, “How long do you think I will be on the market for? Not long.” At the defense table, Trump shook his head.

The two men, by all accounts, despise each other. But both seemed to keep their emotions in check. Cohen, a brash personality who has taunted Trump outside of court, was calm and to-the-point as the prosecution walked through his decade of work for the former president. Trump — who is used to lashing out at anyone who challenges him — mostly sat back quietly with his eyes closed while in the courtroom. But as the former president left for the day, he angrily railed against the judge.

“They’ve kept me here for three and a half, four weeks, instead of campaigning,” Trump said to reporters in the hallway, reiterating his usual complaints that the case is politically motivated. Trump is under a gag order that bars him from responding to witness testimony. “Yet we still have the best poll numbers,” he added.

The real fireworks could come later as the defense cross-examines Cohen and tries to convince the jury he cannot be trusted. Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records to disguise reimbursements for the hush money, and has denied having sex with the women involved in the case.

Monday’s testimony was a remarkable moment in the long arc of Cohen and Trump’s falling out, which started when Cohen was not considered for a high-level White House job in 2017 and received a significantly smaller bonus than expected — and accelerated the next year as authorities investigated Cohen and the hush money.

The case in New York may be the only one of Trump’s four criminal cases to head to trial before the 2024 election , and Cohen is a critical link in prosecutors’ case. He may be the only witness who can claim direct knowledge that Trump tried to hide the nature of a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels because he worried it would hurt his campaign already reeling from other damaging information.

The anticipation around Cohen’s appearance was palpable on Monday as members of the public queued up hours early to get in and watch.

The case is deeply personal for both men, with Trump viewing Cohen as someone who betrayed him and Cohen viewing the former president as a person who used him. Cohen’s ties to Trump helped land in him in federal prison. He eventually pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations stemming from the hush money and lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump pursued, along with some financial crimes unrelated to Trump.

When Cohen walked in and out of the room he looked straight ahead or elsewhere; he sneaked glances at Trump from the stand.

Trump hush money trial

Cohen now bashes Trump, spars with MAGA supporters and recently appeared in a T-shirt with an image of Trump behind bars.

It’s all the more striking given the longtime loyalty Cohen laid out in great detail on Monday. He said he accepted Trump’s offer to go work for him in 2007 even though Trump owed Cohen’s law firm some $100,000 at the time.

When Cohen inquired about the outstanding bill, he said, Trump asked “if I wanted to get fired on the first day.” Cohen claimed it was never paid.

Cohen said that while he worked for Trump, they spoke every single day, sometimes multiple times. He said he had all of Trump’s phone numbers and if he couldn’t directly reach him, he had the numbers of his assistant and bodyguard, who could connect him. (He said Trump did not have an email address and often commented that people could get in trouble communicating that way).

Cohen even synced his cellphone with Trump’s, he said, so that he had all 30,000 of Trump’s contacts.

He nurtured Trump’s presidential ambitions, showing him polling that suggested some voters were interested back in 2011. At the time, Cohen said, Trump was unwilling to give up another season of his reality show “The Apprentice.” “You don’t leave Hollywood,” Cohen said Trump explained. “Hollywood leaves you.”

When Trump did launch a bid for the White House in 2015, Cohen said he helped design the famous launch at Trump Tower . He said he noticed that the crowds at Trump’s events were “very White” and set up a National Diversity Coalition for Trump in response.

Then, when potentially damaging stories loomed, he sprung into action.

He said he coordinated with the National Enquirer, a tabloid owned by Trump’s friend, to purchase the rights to a former Trump Tower doorman’s allegation that Trump had a secret child with a former employee. (Another witness has said the story was false). Prosecutors say the National Enquirer paid the doorman for the rights to his story with no intention to publish it, to prevent it from appearing anywhere else.

Cohen testified that he worked with the Enquirer, on Trump’s behalf, to quash two other stories in similar ways. There was former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s claims of an affair with Trump, and Daniels’s allegation that Trump had sex with her in 2006 after a golf event, despite being married.

Daniels’s account threatened to get out just before the 2016 election, Cohen recalled. Trump’s campaign was already scrambling to contain the fallout from The Washington Post’s publication of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump suggested he could kiss women without their consent and grab them by their genitals because he was a famous “star.”

“At the time, Trump was polling very, very poorly with women,” Cohen testified.

Though Trump spent much of Monday resting his eyes, he had them open as Cohen recounted a private call in which Trump raged about the potential Daniels story. “I thought you had this under control,” Cohen recalled Trump telling him. From the defense table, Trump shook his head.

Cohen claimed Trump worried aloud that while men might admire such a story, “women will hate me.”

He said he let Trump know “immediately” when he had successfully paid Daniels for her story. Cohen said he did that “so he knew the task he gave me was accomplished,” but also “to take credit, for myself, so he knew that I did this, because this was important.”

Trump New York hush money case

Former president Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial is underway in New York.

Key witnesses: Several key witnesses, including David Pecker and Stormy Daniels, have taken the stand. Here’s what Daniels said during her testimony . Read full transcripts from the trial .

Gag order: New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has twice ruled that Trump violated his gag order , which prohibits him from commenting on jurors and witnesses in the case, among others. Here are all of the times Trump has violated the gag order .

The case: The investigation involves a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, an adult-film actress , during the 2016 presidential campaign. It’s one of many ongoing investigations involving Trump . Here are some of the key people in the case .

The charges: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Falsifying business records is a felony in New York when there is an “intent to defraud” that includes an intent to “commit another crime or to aid or conceal” another crime. He has pleaded not guilty . Here’s what to know about the charges — and any potential sentence .