another word for saying resume

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noun as in outline of experience

Weak matches

• curriculum vitae
• recapitulation
• work history

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Example sentences.

The NBA and its players' union agreed on Friday to resume the league's playoffs on Saturday after players refused to take the floor for a number of games this week in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.

Overall trading on both platforms resumed as normal once the issue was resolved.

As the federal government and local housing authorities loosen moratoriums on evictions, concerns are growing that the Annapolis agency’s ramped up court actions will resume.

This is a groundbreaking step that is expected to provide a longer-lasting protection in public spaces, increasing consumer confidence in resuming normal air travel and other activities.

Wells Fargo is resuming layoffs, as the beleaguered bank looks to cut costs to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and long-running regulatory issues that have hampered its growth.

If he did, it could be a sign that our politicians are ready to resume genuine policy-making across party lines.

As for the search, which will soon resume, Soelisto confessed that “the capability of our equipment is not optimum.”

They added that the shutdown was temporary and they plan to resume the trial in January.

Sharpton, well known for a series of controversial incidents earlier in his career, also played defense about his own resume.

Then, thanks to home care support, she was able to resume an independent life.

Fortunately, Massna had time to make his way through the Austrian skirmishers and resume his command.

One morning Tom was awakened by his faithful attendant to resume his weary journey.

I shall then give an account of my various excursions in an Appendix, and afterwards resume the thread of my journal.

He did not resume his book immediately, but sat for a while meditatively looking out into the garden.

When you happen to think of it; will you try never to allow yourself to resume that expression—that expression again?

Related Words

Words related to résumé are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word résumé . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in short document prepared from a longer one

• condensation

noun as in account of person's life

• autobiography
• confessions
• experiences
• life history
• personal account
• personal anecdote
• personal narrative
• personal record

verb as in return

Viewing 5 / 47 related words

On this page you'll find 58 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to resume, such as: continue, go on, proceed, regain, reopen, and restart.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Synonyms of resume

• as in to continue
• as in summary
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Thesaurus Definition of resume

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• proceed (with)
• resuscitate

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• discontinue

Thesaurus Definition of résumé  (Entry 2 of 2)

• summarization
• recapitulation
• encapsulation
• run - through
• summing - up
• condensation
• curtailment
• streamlining
• abbreviation
• abridgement
• simplification
• amplification
• enlargement

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Cite this entry.

“Resume.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/resume. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on resume

Nglish: Translation of resume for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of resume for Arabic Speakers

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Synonyms For Common Resume Power Verbs

Power verbs can make the difference between landing on the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ pile. This guide has all the action verbs, with synonyms, you need to make your resume worth reading.

2 years ago   •   9 min read

Every resume accomplishment needs a strong action verb . But what happens when you run out of ideas?

Let’s face it — scanning resumes isn’t the most riveting job to begin with, and no hiring manager wants to spend their day reading the exact same word over and over. After all, whose eyes wouldn’t glaze over after reading “created” seven times in a row?

If you’re trying to avoid this — and who isn’t? — here’s a complete guide to power verbs, including the best ones to use on your resume.

Examples of resume power words with synonyms

Making your resume sound more interesting is easier said than done. The solution? We’ve put together a list of some most overused resume verbs — and what you can replace them with.

Synonyms for Created on your resume

Hiring managers love people who can get creative — and, more importantly, convert that creativity into results. To show off your high-level conceptual skills, try synonyms like:

• Conceptualized
• Established

For example:

- Designed and launched customer feedback systems for software company, improving net promoter score by 30 points in pilot teams over 6 months.

- Conceptualized and implemented behavioral push notifications based on in-app usage; increased retention by 10%.

We've compiled some more examples and synonyms for Created , and the present tense version of the verb, Create .

Synonyms for Collaborated on your resume

Teamwork and communication are key skills hiring managers are looking for. To demonstrate your ability to contribute to a collegial working environment, try synonyms like:

• Communicated
• Corresponded
• Facilitated

- Liaised with influencers and key bloggers to extend public relations initiatives; yielding 22% ROI improvements.

We've compiled more synonyms to the action verb, collaborate .

Synonyms for Managed on your resume

If you’ll be supervising other employees , recruiters will want to see evidence of your management skills . Show that you have what it takes to lead with synonyms like:

• Coordinated
• Administered

- Led a 15-person department responsible for all consumer acquisition and retention marketing, branding, corporate communications, B2B marketing and sales support , and product development.

- Coached 30 summer interns and launched a mentorship program for new joiners in the Berlin office.

Want more synonyms to Managed? See this list of Managed synonyms compiled by our resident resume expert.

Synonyms for Assisted on your resume

If you’re applying for entry level or assistant roles, highlight your past contributions and willingness to help with synonyms like:

• Co-authored
• Contributed
• Collaborated

- Organized attorney case files, enabling them to bill 20% more hours.

- Communicated with 20 staff members to schedule meetings and assist them as needed.

For more examples, see other words you can use instead of Assisted .

Synonyms for Learned on your resume

A commitment to learning isn’t just an important aspect of professional development — it’s also a key skill for jobs involving research and analysis. Try using synonyms like:

- Researched and negotiated a new payroll vendor, saving $2,000 annually in payroll fees.

- Identified fraudulent transactions by analyzing customer’s spending behavior, increasing the accuracy rate by over 97%.

Synonyms for Developed on your resume

Whether it’s initiating a project or seeing it through to completion, demonstrate your ability to shape initiatives and guide outcomes with synonyms like:

• Implemented

- Founded a tech startup for online education; partnered with 50 education companies in the first year of business.

- Developed web scraping program in Python to help the firm download public data, including over 10,000 company descriptions and stock quotes, enriching internal data and increasing research efficiency by over 50%

We're prepared more action verbs you can use instead of Developed . If you're describing your current job, here are synonyms to the present tense version, Develop .

Synonyms for Oversaw on your resume

If you’re applying for roles where you’ll be in charge of something — whether that’s a single product, a small team, or a whole department — highlight your capability with synonyms like:

• Spearheaded
• Orchestrated

- Directed agency fundraising revenue generation, daily program business operations, community outreach membership recruitment, and human resources in 30 suburbs in the city for organizations with assets of $8M.

- Executed all global marketing strategies and activities for the $2B company including a 3-5 year strategic plan.

Our in-house resume expert prepared an additional set of synonyms to Oversaw that you can use.

Synonyms for Worked With on your resume

Hiring managers want to hire people who work well with others. Whether you’re in a customer-facing role or simply working within a team, show that you’re a people person with synonyms like:

• Participated

Collaborated with the assistant director of creative services and 15+ other designers to maintain graphic quality.

Devised a pricing and branding strategy with the Strategy team to launch a new three-tier pricing model; achieved a 27% increase in profit

Here are more alternatives you can use to Worked With .

Synonyms for Helped on your resume

Recruiters often look for applicants who are willing to help out, whether in a formal capacity or simply someone who’s willing to go above and beyond in a pinch. Illustrate your can-do attitude with synonyms like:

• Recommended

- Enhanced team performance through coaching, feedback and effective communication, increasing team efficacy rate by 15% with higher job satisfaction reported amongst staff.

- Supported CEO and executive team of 5 with Six Sigma training and process implementation, saving over 10 hours per week on office functions.

If you need more action verbs for Helped, check out this list of Helped synonyms . If you're describing a job you're currently doing, you can consider using the present tense of the word. In that case, see this list of synonyms for Help .

Synonyms for Conducted on your resume

The most valuable skills on any resume are the ones that show that you can actually do the job you’re applying for. Demonstrate hands-on experience with synonyms like:

• Investigated

- Collected data on user experience; made improvements to software and increased usage by 70%.

- Investigated major security breaches in network; set up new firewall with 99% efficacy in blocking future breaches.

For more, see this curated list of synonyms for Conducted .

Synonyms for Maintained on your resume

Whether it’s single-handedly keeping an aspect of the business running or simply contributing to its smooth operation, impress hiring managers with synonyms like:

• Streamlined
• Strengthened

- Streamlined assembly line process, leading to a 60% increase in worker efficiency.

- Engineered database infrastructures for high-profile clients; increased revenue by 60%.

Here are some more synonyms to the action verb, Maintain .

Synonyms for Responsible For on your resume

Don't let your resume read like a job description. Keep the focus on what you actually did with synonyms like:

• Demonstrated
• Accomplished

Demonstrated exceptional product knowledge of over 300 clinical nutrition formulas and medical foods.

Our resident career coach compiled this list of alternatives you can use to Responsible For .

Synonyms for Led on your resume

If you're applying for a leadership position , it's time to highlight accomplishments where you took a leading role. Try synonyms like:

Executed self-insured health plan including wellness benefits which saved the business in excess of $70K or 20% and influenced over 200 staff members to become healthier.

Drove the development of an improved mobile app, driving record downloads +250% YOY.

Synonyms for Volunteered on your resume

Hiring managers love candidates who are willing to go above and beyond. Emphasize your philanthropic side with synonyms like:

Engaged volunteers, prepared position descriptions, and led frontline communication for ABC Foundation’s annual signature event held in February.

Synonyms for Ensured on your resume

Keeping everything running smoothly is no small task. Demonstrate your attention to detail with synonyms like:

Monitored the performance of each team member by conducting a monthly touch base, coaching in the moment, and implementing disciplinary actions in a write up.

Want more synonyms? See this list of synonyms to Ensure , compiled by our resident hiring manager.

Synonyms for Provided on your resume

The most important thing to hiring managers is the company's bottom line. Show that you have what it takes to deliver results with synonyms like:

• Capitalized

Generated 50+ donors through cold call sales and systematic email outreach; qualified leads based on industry and location.

Maximized revenue by 45% by providing direct supervision and training to 10 managers to problem areas of the company.

If you need them, check out more synonyms to the action verb Provide ?

Synonyms for Prepared on your resume

Preparation is sometimes invisible — but that doesn't mean it has to be! Show off your work behind the scenes with synonyms like:

Integrated the developed email campaigns to the new system with the company's 900+ email list; increased open rates by 10%.

Synonyms for Worked On on your resume

Don't fill your resume with meaningless fluff like "worked on ..." Instead, get straight to the point with synonyms like:

Led team of 5 to build 7 mobile applications which helped the company retain upwards of $70k per month.

If you need additional synonyms, check out this list of synonyms to Worked , and this set of synonyms to Worked With .

Synonyms for Improved on your resume

If you've made things better for your company in a measurable way — improving a process, generating sales, or fixing a problem — those accomplishments should be front and center on your resume. Spotlight your achievements with synonyms like:

• Centralized
• Standardized
• Transformed
• Rehabilitated

Enhanced implementing writing standards for the web; reduced 46% of complaints received by the server.

Overhauled existing employee onboarding processes resulting in an increase in performance of 30% in the average employee’s first three months.

Synonyms for Researched on your resume

Research is a crucial skill for many jobs — and not just roles where formal research is a key responsibility. Show off your critical thinking and analytical skills with synonyms like:

Identified manually intensive data collection tasks for the sales team and worked with engineering to launch tools that reduced manual work by 100 hours each month.

Analyzed data to identify potential upsell opportunities for new clients leading to $600K in sales.

Synonyms for Communicated on your resume

Communication is one of those soft skills that nearly job needs — and any applicant can claim to have. Show, don't tell, with synonyms like:

Guided and advised 10+ business partners through annual talent assessments, discussions, and proactively pipelining for future openings.

Wrote 12 articles on consumer psychology and entrepreneurship, generating 25,000 page views, 4,000 re-tweets, and 3,500 newsletter subscribers.

If you need more resume synonyms, check out this list of action verbs of Communicate synonyms .

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of our FAQs — or, in other words, everything you need to know about resume power verbs.

What are resume power verbs?

You’ve probably heard of power words, but what are they exactly? Power words, power verbs, and action verbs are all the same thing — the verbs you use to start your work experience bullet points. These are the words that specify what you did, like “managed,” “developed,” or “assisted.”

Why should I use power words on my resume?

You might be wondering why you even need synonyms for common resume power verbs — after all, what’s wrong with sticking to a few common verbs? Simply put, it’s because reading the same thing over and over is boring.

If a recruiter reads half a dozen bullet points starting with the same word, they’ll start to lose focus, have trouble differentiating your accomplishments, and will likely conclude that you’re repeatedly demonstrating a limited number of skills.

On the other hand, using interesting, unique verbs can help your accomplishments stand out and allow you to be more precise about exactly what it is you achieved.

I’d recommend uploading your resume to the tool below — it’ll let you know if you have used strong action verbs and synonyms to showcase your accomplishments.

Related : Improve Your Resume by Eliminating Adverbs

What words should I avoid using on my resume?

Here are a few things to steer clear of when writing a resume:

Power words are not the same thing as buzzwords. Meaningless phrases like “results driven,” “above and beyond,” “hard worker,” and “team player” are overused and too subjective to belong on your resume.

Boring words and phrases

Phrases like “responsible for” or “ in charge of ” are boring, but even worse, they say very little about what it is you actually did. Avoid anything that sounds like it came straight from a job description — always focus on your accomplishments, not on your responsibilities.

Related : Power Phrases

If you find yourself using the same verb more than once or twice on your resume — especially in quick succession — it’s time to change it up. Scroll up for a list of synonyms for common resume power verbs, or check out some alternative action verbs .

Eliminate buzzwords and boring phrases from your resume and replace them with keywords and hard skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Use the tool below to find some relevant ones.

How do I know if I’ve used resume power verbs?

Try uploading your resume to a free resume checker. Score My Resume can give you instant feedback about the strength of your resume and a few easy suggestions for improvement.

Spread the word

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Resume Synonyms for Extensive

Describing your breadth of knowledge as 'Extensive' in your resume? Dive into our guide to find synonyms that better amplify and refine your vast experience, ensuring clarity and precision.

Table of Contents

Using extensive on a resume.

'Extensive' conveys breadth and depth, suggesting a wide-ranging and thorough experience or knowledge in a particular area. When placed on a resume, it emphasizes the substantial nature of your expertise or the scope of a project you've handled. It's a word that reassures potential employers of your proficiency and deep understanding of a subject or role. However, 'Extensive' carries weight and should be backed by tangible experiences or data points. Merely claiming extensive experience without evidence might raise eyebrows. Additionally, diversifying your descriptive terms can help pinpoint the nuances of your wide-ranging experiences more effectively.

Tailor Your Resume Content to the Job Description

Strong vs Weak Uses of Extensive

Examples of using extensive on a resume.

• Leveraged extensive knowledge of data analytics to increase operational efficiency by 30%.
• Applied extensive experience in project management to successfully deliver 10+ projects on time and under budget.
• Utilized extensive expertise in software development to design and implement innovative solutions that increased customer satisfaction by 20%.
• Have extensive experience in many areas.
• Used my extensive skills to do various tasks.

How Extensive Is Commonly Misused

Extensive experience in sales.

This statement is too vague and does not provide any specific information about the extent of the experience or the achievements in sales. It is better to provide specific details such as the number of years of experience, specific sales targets achieved, or notable accomplishments in the field.

Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office

While it may seem like a positive statement, it lacks impact and does not highlight any specific skills or accomplishments related to Microsoft Office. Instead, it is better to mention specific software applications within Microsoft Office that you are proficient in, such as Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook, and provide examples of how you have utilized these skills to achieve specific results.

Extensive leadership skills

This statement is too generic and does not provide any specific examples or evidence of leadership skills. It is better to provide specific examples of leadership roles held, such as managing a team, leading a project, or mentoring others, and highlight the outcomes or achievements resulting from your leadership.

When to Replace Extensive with Another Synonym

Managing a budget:.

Instead of using "Extensive," job seekers can use synonyms like "Oversaw," "Controlled," or "Managed" to highlight their ability to effectively handle financial resources. These alternatives demonstrate their skills in budgeting, forecasting, and allocating funds, showcasing their ability to optimize financial performance and achieve cost savings.

Developing partnerships:

When describing their experience in building relationships and collaborations, job seekers can opt for synonyms such as "Forged," "Established," or "Cultivated." These terms emphasize their ability to create and nurture connections with clients, stakeholders, and other organizations, showcasing their aptitude for networking, negotiation, and fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.

Implementing strategies:

Instead of using "Extensive," job seekers can use synonyms like "Implemented," "Executed," or "Deployed" to showcase their ability to put plans into action. These alternatives highlight their skills in translating strategic objectives into practical initiatives, demonstrating their capacity to drive change, achieve goals, and deliver tangible results.

Best Resume Synonyms for Extensive

How to replace extensive with a stronger, more relevant synonym, replacing extensive in your resume summary.

Using Extensive

Using a Strong Synonym

Replacing Extensive in Your Work Experience

• Extensive experience in managing and coordinating multiple digital marketing campaigns simultaneously.
• Demonstrated comprehensive expertise in orchestrating and overseeing multiple digital marketing campaigns concurrently, ensuring optimal results.

Powerful Extensive Synonyms for Different Job Categories

Best extensive synonyms for marketing resumes, best extensive synonyms for customer service resumes, find the right synonyms for any job, frequently asked questions.

A great alternative to 'extensive' on a resume could be 'comprehensive'. This word conveys a similar meaning, suggesting thoroughness and wide-ranging knowledge or experience. For example, instead of saying "extensive experience in project management," you could say "comprehensive experience in project management."

It's appropriate to use 'extensive' on your resume when you want to emphasize a wide-ranging experience or deep knowledge in a particular area. For instance, you might say "extensive experience in project management" or "extensive knowledge of data analysis". However, ensure that you can back up this claim with specific examples or achievements, as employers will likely probe deeper during an interview.

You can gauge if 'extensive' is relevant for your resume by assessing if you have a wide-ranging, comprehensive experience or knowledge in a particular skill or field. For instance, if you have worked in customer service for many years across multiple industries, you can say you have 'extensive customer service experience'. However, avoid using 'extensive' if your experience is limited or not diverse, as it may be perceived as an exaggeration.

Which Job Titles use Extensive the Most?

Top 5 titles/functions with the most mentions of extensive on their resume:, related resume synonyms, explore full resume examples to find other improvements.

Guidance to Improve Your Resume Language for Greater Impact

15 Synonyms for “Responsible for” on Your Resume

So, you’re a responsible person.

You’ve been given responsibilities in a workplace, and you want to show that on your resume.

But are you worried “responsible for” might be too repetitive or generic?

Well, you’ve come to the right place! This article will explore what to use instead of “responsible for” on your resume to help you mix things up.

Other Ways to Say “Responsible for”

• Tasked with
• In charge of
• Accountable for
• Involved in
• Taking care of

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• “Responsible for” is a great resume word that shows you are in charge of something important.
• “Tasked with” is a great replacement showing you’re happy to take charge of something.
• “In charge of” is another great way to discuss your responsibilities in a CV or cover letter

Keep reading to learn another way to say “responsible for” on a resume. We’ve covered the best two options to show you how each works.

You can also skip to the final section to learn whether you can use “responsible for” on your resume. It’s worth looking over that before you decide to include it in your job application!

Tasked With

You can use “tasked with” instead of “responsible for” on your resume. It’s a great formal synonym that shows you were made responsible for something.

Generally, this is a great way to show you were given a project to look after . Typically, that means an employer trusts you and wants you to do something for them.

If you can prove that a former employer trusted you, you’re bound to get a new employer to follow that trend.

So, you can use “tasked with” in your job application to show that you’re happy to take charge of certain tasks.

After all, the sooner you can prove you’re reliable and effective , the sooner you’ll secure yourself an interview.

These resume examples should also help you:

I was tasked with completing the payroll at the end of each month. I learned a lot about how it worked from my time doing that.

They knew they could trust me to be tasked with hiring and firing. I was very good at it and made sure to do it well.

In Charge Of

“In charge of” is another word for “responsible for” on your resume, which shows you’re capable of looking after something .

Whenever you discuss your responsibilities in a professional setting, you need to show you’re capable and willing to help.

Therefore, it’s good to use a phrase like “in charge of” to get to the point quickly. Employers will understand that you were given the responsibility and see you as a more reliable candidate.

Generally, employers will be more likely to look into you if you appear as a reliable candidate.

They’ll want to learn more about you and often ask you to come to an interview to see what you’re about.

If you’re still unsure, review these CV samples:

They put me in charge of the budget because I understand it better than most. For that reason, I learned a lot about this field.

I’m currently in charge of ordering office supplies. It’s not much, but it’s a great way to show accountability and awareness.

Can You Use “Responsible for” on a Resume?

You can use “responsible for” on a resume. Responsibilities are important in the workplace. So, the more things you’re in charge of, the better you’ll appear to an employer.

It’s a good resume word because it’s professional and direct.

It lets employers know you’re capable of being in control of something. After all, you won’t be made “responsible for” anything unless you’ve proven yourself to be trustworthy and reliable .

Here are some things you can be responsible for in the workplace:

• Hiring and firing
• Opening and closing the store
• Ordering office supplies

As you can see, all of these are quite important things. So, it makes sense that you’d have to be an important and reliable worker if you’re the one who has to do them.

Here are some examples to help you see how to use “responsible for” in a sentence, too:

I am responsible for hiring and firing new employees. It’s taught me a lot about how I present myself and being respectful.

I’m responsible for ordering office supplies when they’re running low. My employer knows I can get them sorted.

We recommend using it to show you’re ready and willing to step up in the workplace. Remember, responsibilities are always good to share!

• 12 Other Ways to Say “Excited to See You”
• 12 Synonyms for “Assisted” on Your Resume
• 14 Other Ways to Say “Hope You Enjoyed”
• 11 Synonyms for “Basic Knowledge” on Your Resume

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Supreme Court immunity case: Updates of oral arguments in Trump's fight for immunity

Lawyers for the former president argue trump can't be criminally charged for any action he took in office..

• Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with conspiring to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
• Trump is currently on trial in New York, charged with covering up hush money payments made to to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
• Trump is the first former president to face criminal trial.

Can presidents get away with murder?

Nine Supreme Court justices heard Donald Trump’s arguments today that yes, maybe they can. 

The former president's lawyers say all presidents are immune from prosecution for anything they do in office – even murder, bribery, and corruption . The only way to hold one criminally accountable, Trump's attorneys will argue today, is if a president is first impeached in the House of Representatives and then convicted by two-thirds of the Senate. 

Here are USA TODAY's live updates from Trump’s remarkable stand at the Supreme Court .

The case is submitted

The historic arguments wrapped up after more than two-and-a-half hours of debate with Trump’s attorney, John Sauer, forgoing his opportunity for a final rebuttal after the Justice Department made its case.

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

“I have nothing further,” Sauer said.

And with that, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that the case is submitted.

--Maureen Groppe

Jackson pushes for quick, narrow decision

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared to be trying to convince her colleagues to decide the case quickly and narrowly.

If the court wanted to use the case to decide all the possible times when a president does or doesn’t have immunity, she asked the Justice Department, “is this the right vehicle to hammer out that test?”

“I don’t see any need in this case for the court to embark on that analysis,” Justice Department Michael Dreeben responded.

Barrett looks for way for Trump trial to proceed

Justice Amy Coney Barrett asks the Justice Department whether the government can get to trial faster by prosecuting only on the Trump acts that his lawyer agrees are private conduct so are not immune.

Michael Dreeben, the Justice Department attorney, said Trump’s official and private acts are part of an “integrated conspiracy.”

But he added that a trial could proceed by allowing the government to introduce anything considered an official act as information that has relevance even if not a crime itself.

Does presidential motive matter?

Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed the Justice Department on whether the court should consider the motive of a president when deciding whether a presidential act deserves immunity. Everything a president does can be seen through the prism of his interest in getting re-elected, he said.

Michael Dreeben, the Justice Department’s attorney, said motive doesn’t have to be considered for a core presidential act – such as a veto, or appointment – which is protected from prosecution.

“None is involved in this case,” Dreeben said.

Gorsuch said he’s not asking so much about Trump’s case but whether accusations about a president’s motives can be a future basis for prosecution.

“We’re writing a rule for the ages,” Gorsuch said.

Dreeben said wanting to get re-elected is not an illegal motive.

“And you don’t have to worry about prosecuting presidents for that,” he said.

Ham sandwiches, grand juries and solar eclipses: Alito has questions

Justice Samuel Alito asked Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben if a former president should be left to the mercy of prosecutors, noting the old saying on the pliability of grand juries: That grand jurors would indict a ham sandwich if a prosecutor asked them to.

Alito asked Dreeben if he knew of a single case in which a federal prosecutor had asked a grand jury to indict a suspect “and the grand jury refused to do so.” 

Drebeen said it had happened. 

“Every once in  a while there’s an eclipse too,” Alito replied. No prosecutor wants to indict without sufficient evidence, Drebeen said, because the case would end in an acquittal. 

--Dan Morrison

More: What does 'SCOTUS' mean? Here's a brief rundown on the country's highest court.

Trump back in New York courtroom

As attorneys at the Supreme Court argued over a president’s ability to escape prosecution for official acts, Donald Trump returned to the Manhattan courtroom where he is on trial on charges he doctored business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump entered the courtroom at 11:22 a.m. ET, taking a look at reporters in the audience as he walked past them to the defense table.

– Aysha Bagchi

Trump named unindicted co-conspirator in Arizona election case

Former President Donald Trump was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona fake elector case unsealed yesterday. The indictment charges 18 state Republicans and former Trump aides including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and attorney John Eastman.

The defendants are charged with crimes including conspiracy and forgery for falsely claiming they were presidential electors and that Trump won the state in the 2020 election. Trump was identified as “unindicted coconspirator 1" in the indictment.

--Bart Jansen

All That Jazz: Demonstrators drum, clang, and sing their views of Trump

As justices and lawyers solemnly discussed the finer points of law inside the Supreme Court, the scene outside featured the clang of bells, the shrill of whistles, the throb of electric music, and the chants of demonstrators - most of them anti-Trump.

“The whole world is watching!” a crowd of demonstrators chanted at one point. A small brass band serenaded the crowd of three-to-four dozen with jazz-like tunes.

In addition to attacking Trump, the crowd also weighed in on other issues, particularly abortion rights and the campaign between Trump and President Joe Biden. “Feminists vs. Fascists,” said one sign.

The two sides exchanged a few f-bombs, but nothing serious broke out and the dozen or so police officers who watched the proceedings had little to do.

-- David Jackson

Roberts asks what protects against political prosecutions

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed on whether there are enough protections against retaliatory or harassing prosecutions for presidents.

Dreeben, the Justice Department’s lawyer, said politically driven prosecutions would violate the Constitution.

The chilling effect of prosecutions is one of Trump’s main arguments for why presidents should have immunity.

Who are the conservative Supreme Court justices?  

There are six conservative-leaning justices, making up the majority of the Supreme Court bench : Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas. 

Thomas is the longest serving of the group, nominated by former President George H. W. Bush in 1991. Former President George W. Bush nominated Roberts and Alito in 2005, while former President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett. 

– Savannah Kuchar  

More: Who are the current Supreme Court justices? Get to know the bench in 2024.

Thomas raises the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba 

Apparently picking up on Justice Elena Kagan’s earlier questions touching on a military coup in the U.S., Justice Clarence Thomas asked why past presidents haven’t faced criminal charges for fomenting coups in foreign countries, using Operation Mongoose, the failed 1961 CIA attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, as an example.

“There were no prosecutions” after the so-called Bay of Pigs affair, Thomas said. (President John F. Kennedy, who ordered the operation, was assassinated before the end of his first term.)

Michael Dreeben, arguing for the Justice Department, replied that U.S. law has a “public authority defense” that protects a president from prosecution for overseas acts. The defense “would prevent it from being a violation of law.” 

–Dan Morrison

Who are the liberal Supreme Court justices?  

There are three liberal-leaning justices on the Supreme Court bench: Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan. 

Sotomayor and Kagan were nominees of former President Barack Obama, while Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court. 

J ustice Department: `Such presidential immunity has no foundation in the Constitution’

Opening his argument for the Justice Department, Michael Dreeben said the Supreme Court has never recognized absolute criminal immunity for any public official.

But Trump, Dreeben said, is asking that presidents be protected from prosecution for bribery, treason, sedition, murder and for conspiring to use fraud to overturn an election.

“Such presidential immunity has no foundation in the Constitution,” Dreeben said. “The framers knew too well the danger of a king who could do no wrong.”

Immunity for official acts versus private

Although Trump’s lawyer concedes that presidents can be prosecuted for private acts, Justice Ketanji  Brown Jackson pressed why that should be different for official acts.

“If there’s no threat to criminal prosecution, what prevents the president from doing whatever he wants?” she asked.

Sauer said the president is required to follow the law for his official acts. But the question is whether the punishment for not doing so is impeachment or criminal prosecution.

 Jackson asked how Trump's argument didn't "risk turning the oval office into the center of criminality in this country." 

--Maureen Groppe and Dan Morrison

How to watch today’s Supreme Court case live  

Cameras are not allowed inside the nation’s highest court, so there is no televised coverage of today’s oral arguments. 

But the justices and lawyers can be listened to live on USA TODAY’s broadcast or via C-SPAN. 

Coup could be an official act, Trump lawyer says

Trump lawyer D. John Sauer, speaking in a notable rasp, found himself cornered by Justice Elena Kagan as she pushed him to draw a line between a president’s official and unofficial acts.

Kagan asked Sauer whether a president could officially order the military to stage a coup at the end of their term. “Is it an official act?”

“It could well be,” Sauer replied. 

“It certainly sounds very bad,” Kagan said. 

Sauer said the Constitution and the military’s code of justice prevents “that very extreme hypothetical.”

Can presidents self pardon?

Justice Neil Gorsuch raised the issue of whether presidents can pardon themselves.

“Happily,” Gorsuch said of that issue, “it’s never been presented to us.”

Sauer, Trump’s lawyers, said if the court agrees with him that presidents have absolute immunity, they will never have to decide if presidents can self pardon.

Should trial be further delayed for fact finding?

The Justice Department has urged the court not to delay the trial further even if the justices find presidents have immunity in some  circumstances.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared to side with that position, pressing Trump’s lawyer on why fact-finding questions about immunity in Trump’s particular case can’t be done at trial.

Sauer said it would be difficult to do that.

Sotomayor asks about fake electors

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Trump’s lawyer why he can claim that Trump’s actions were part of his official duties instead of being done for personal gain. Trump, she said, created a fraudulent list of presidential electors.

“Is that plausible that that would be within his right to do?” she asked.

Sauer, Trump’s lawyer, disputed Sotomayor’s characterization that Trump was doing anything fraudulent with the electors he was pushing.

“This was being done on an alternative basis,” Sauer said.

-- Maureen Groppe

Justice Alito stands up for Navy SEALs

Amid a blizzard of hypothetical questions over whether a president can order Navy SEALs to assassinate a rival, Justice Samuel Alito took a moment to stand up for the armed forces. 

 “I don’t want to slander SEAL Team Six,” Alito said. “They are honorable officers, bound by the military code of justice not to obey an illegal order.”

Sotomayor: 'Fundamentally evil' acts must be prosecuted

Challenging former President Donald Trump’s argument that a president is entitled to complete immunity, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “there are some things that are so fundamentally evil that they have to be protected against.”

“Immunity says even if you did it for personal gain,” Sotomayor told attorney D. John Sauer, president’s actions, including murder and bribery, ”cannot be prosecuted.”

-- Dan Morrison

Sotomayor brings up assassination of political rival

Justice Sonia Sotomayor goes right to a key issue that came up during the appeals court review: does a president have immunity if he orders the assassination of a political rival?

Sauer, Trump’s lawyer, said that depends on the situation, but it could well be an official act for which a president is immune.

Sotomayor said Trump wants the court to find that presidents are entitled to use the trappings of their office for total personal gain without facing criminal liability.

Kangaroo masks and revolutionary war hats

More than two dozen demonstrators organized by the group Women’s March protested Trump’s immunity claim, and criticized the Supreme Court for even considering the matter.

“We’re here to demand that they wrap this up,” said Amanda Chavez Barnes, senior program director for Women’s March, protesting that the court’s decision to take up the case delayed Trump’s trial on Jan. 6-related charges.

Some of the protesters wore kangaroo masks in order to mock the “Kangaroo Court.” They rang cowbells, banged on small drums, and chanted slogans like “lock him up!”

Just a few Trump supporters counter-demonstrated. Matthew Atwood, 62, a local DJ and classical pianist, mounted a sign describing other people as “the real authoritarians.” Wearing a Revolutionary War-style uniform, Atwood described himself as “pro-American.”

He also sought to engage the anti-Trump faction in debate, asking members of three crowd at one point, “are you better off now than you were three years ago?”

“Yes we are,” replied a Trump opponent.

Trump lawyer: Without immunity, `there can be no presidency as we know it.’

In his opening argument, Trump lawyer John Sauer told the justices presidents should be immune from prosecution because otherwise “there can be no presidency as we know it.”

No president has ever been prosecuted for their official acts, he said.

Without immunity, he continued, the threat of prosecution will “distort the president’s decision making.”

Every president will face defacto blackmail and distortion from his political rivals while he’s still in office, Sauer said.

Could Supreme Court presidential immunity arguments impact Trump's New York case?

Early this month, New York trial Judge Juan Merchan rejected an argument from Trump to delay Trump's New York criminal trial until after the Supreme Court rules on the scope of presidential immunity in Trump's federal election interference case. Merchan said Trump raised the immunity defense in his New York case too late.

If Trump is found guilty in the New York criminal trial, he could challenge Merchan's immunity ruling on appeal, and potentially point to a Supreme Court immunity ruling as a basis for re-trying the New York case.

Where is Donald Trump today?

Trump held a campaign event en route to the courthouse in New York, stopping at a nearby construction site to speak with supportive union members .

Reporters asked the former president about the Supreme Court’s immunity hearing, but his comments were drowned out by the cheers of his audience.

What are the charges against Trump?

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump last August on four charges, to which he’s  pleaded not guilty.

Trump is charged with conspiring to try to steal the 2020 election and remain in power by spreading lies about election fraud that fueled the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump is also charged with obstructing Congress because the riot interrupted lawmakers counting Electoral College votes to certify that President Joe Biden won the election.

Protesting 'fake news' and tyranny

Outside the Supreme Court, protestors who traveled from Minnesota, Florida, and other states to register their support and concern about the historic Trump case.“Absolute Immunity = Absolute Tyranny,” reads the sign carried by Demitri Morgan, 38, who said he traveled from his home in Montana for the high court hearing.

Another hand-painted sign says “Loser.”

“Yo, fake news! What’s up with fake news?,” chanted Jim Whalen, 61, an ad salesman who said he came up from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.-- David Jackson

Trump immunity argument ‘ridiculous’: Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called former President Donald Trump’s immunity argument “ridiculous” and said the Supreme Court shouldn’t have agreed to hear the case.

“Today, SCOTUS hears Trump’s ridiculous claim of total immunity. He's obviously not immune,” Schumer wrote on X , formerly Twitter. “SCOTUS is only protecting Trump and slowing his trial. SCOTUS should not have taken this case or frozen the district court.”

What is presidential immunity?

The Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that presidents are immune both while in office and after from civil damages for official acts, including those on the “outer perimeter of a president’s official responsibilities.”

In 1997, the court said presidents can be sued for their private acts.

The court has also said presidents have no broad immunity from complying with subpoenas in criminal cases brought by states or the federal government.

The Justice Department has long argued that presidents can’t be criminally prosecuted while in office.

But the court has never weighed in on whether former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.

What is Donald Trump trying to do with his Supreme Court immunity argument?

Donald Trump is trying to quash federal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election after his bitter loss to President Joe Biden .

Without sweeping immunity, a president “will always be concerned, and even paralyzed, by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

Is Donald Trump at the Supreme Court today?

The presumptive Republican nominee won’t be at the Supreme Court for today’s blockbuster arguments.

Trump is on trial in New York , charged with doctoring records to hide $130,000 in hush money paid to an adult film star . Trump also faces two other criminal indictments.

The judge in his New York trial told him he was required to be in court , which meant he was not able to attend his historic hearing.

Significance of being the first president to face criminal charges

What should the justices make of the fact that Donald Trump is the first president – former or current – to face criminal charges?

Trump’s lawyers say it’s evidence that presidents can’t be prosecuted.

“The long history of not prosecuting Presidents for official acts, despite ample motive and opportunity to do so over the years, demonstrates that the newly discovered alleged power to do so does not exist,” they wrote in their main brief previewing their oral argument.

Special counsel Jack Smith counters that the fact that no previous president has been prosecuted underscores the unprecedented nature of Trump’s alleged crimes.

Recent ruling: Supreme Court snubbed House Republicans who dodged metal detectors after Jan. 6

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Middle East crisis live: Egyptian delegation due in Israel seeking to kickstart Gaza ceasefire talks, say reports

Israeli media reports planned visit, citing unnamed officials, in the wake of stalled talks mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt

• See all of our Israel-Gaza war coverage
• 17m ago Premature baby delivered by emergency caesarean after Israeli airstrike killed her mother has died
• 3h ago Welcome and opening summary

Welcome and opening summary

Welcome to our latest liveblog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Martin Belam in London and I will be with you for the next while.

An Egyptian delegation is set to travel to Israel on Friday to kickstart a new round of ceasefire talks, according to reports in Israeli media and picked up by Agence France-Presse, citing unnamed officials.

Qatar , the US and Egypt have been mediating talks to secure a truce and the release of hostages, but those have stalled for days.

Israel has also vowed to move on with a planned military operation in Rafah , despite international outcry and concern for about 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in the city.

The Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Israel’s war cabinet was meeting on Thursday “to discuss how to destroy the last battalions of Hamas”.

Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said that ahead of the planned visit, the cabinet also discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release.

Here is a summary of the latest developments:

US troops have finally begun construction of a pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid , the Pentagon has said, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the aid will be delivered.

The US and 17 other countries including the UK, France and Germany are calling for the release of hostages by Hamas , and saying that there is a deal on the table that offers “an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza” in return. In a letter, they write: “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern. We emphasise that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza.”

Briefing the media about the letter, a senior US administration official said the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had prioritised holding on to the hostages over securing a ceasefire. “Hamas is holding hostages, they are releasing videos of the hostages and refusing to let the hostages go back to their families. And if they would do that, this crisis will wind down. It’s just a very clear path.”

Israel appears to be readying to send troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought shelter. Haaretz reported: “The Israeli army has informed the government that its forces have completed their preparations for an upcoming operation in Rafah, and that the date for such an operation is to be decided by the cabinet.”

An aid worker who was part of Belgium’s development aid efforts has been killed by an Israeli strike on Gaza, the country’s development minister, Caroline Gennez, said on Thursday. The statement said at least seven people were killed by the strike on a building that housed about 25 people, including displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip. “The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians goes against every international and humanitarian law and the rules of war,” Gennez said. More than 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October , the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. That number includes 43 deaths in the last 24 hours. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes represented the “best of humanity” and risked everything “to feed people they did not know and will never meet”, José Andrés, the celebrity chef who founded the organisation, told mourners on Thursday . Speaking at Washington National Cathedral to those gathered to honour the aid workers, Andrés said there was no excuse for the killings and renewed calls for an investigation into the deaths.

Progressive activists in the US have condemned Mike Johnson , the speaker of the House of Representatives, for “wilfully spreading misinformation” and “inciting violence” in a TV interview about student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Premature baby delivered by emergency caesarean after Israeli airstrike killed her mother has died

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday.

Associated Press reports Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her.

The baby’s home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by an Israeli airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday. Her parents and 4-year-old sister were all killed.

Al-Sheikh told The Associated Press that Sabreen was buried next to her father on Thursday.

Al Jazeera is reporting that an Israeli airstrike on al-Wehda street in Gaza City has killed and injured “numerous Palestinians”. The news network has also reported earlier strikes and artillery shelling in several districts in Gaza City. In addition, it reports that one person has been killed when Israeli forces opened fire on fishers working off the coast of Rafah . The claims have not been independently verified.

More details soon …

Associated Press report that there are conflicting accounts of the events that led up to the death of Israeli citizen Sharif Suad in northern Israel , close to Lebanon .

Hezbollah claims that it attacked an Israeli military convoy with anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, and that it destroyed two vehicles.

Israel ’s military have not commented on claims about the destruction of vehicles, but said “an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead.”

The incident took place in a disputed area known in Lebanon as the Kfar Chouba hills and in Israel as Har Dov.

In its statement, Israel’s military said as a result:

IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility and a launcher used by the terrorist organization. In addition, IDF soldiers fired to remove a threat in the area.

None of the claims have been independently verified.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Lebanon over the news wires which show the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Shebaa .

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that seven Palestinians have been detained by Israeli security forces during raids inside the occupied West Bank. The riads have been near Jenin , Nablus and Ramallah .

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, writes that he is seeing “constant artillery shelling on the eastern part of the city”, and there is “a concentration of attacks on Gaza’s central area, mainly refugee camps, such as Nuseirat and Bureij camps, as well as on Deir el-Balah city.”

Peter Beaumont has this analysis for the Guardian from Jerusalam:

Earlier this week senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya suggested the Islamic militant group might be willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel , and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

The comments came in an interview on Wednesday amid a stalemate in months of talks for a ceasefire in Gaza . It is not clear that the idea enjoys the backing of Hamas’s military wing who have long called the shots in Gaza.

Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, Al-Hayya said Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank. He said Hamas would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state” and if that happens, he said, the group’s military wing would dissolve. “All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army,” he added.

Over the years, Hamas has sometimes moderated its public position with respect to the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But its political programme still officially “rejects any alternative to the full liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea” – referring to the area reaching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which includes lands that now make up Israel.

Over the past two decades senior Hamas officials have at times floated the idea of a so-called “hudna”, a kind of ceasefire mandated in Islamic jurisprudence.

Literally meaning a period of calm, it does not imply a negotiated end to hostilities, but rather suggests a pause, with some officials having suggested a truce lasting a generation in the past.

Two things remain murky: how serious Hamas is about the proposition, and whether it has any real buy-in from either Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, not least its armed leadership.

There has long been a debate about whether there exists, or has existed within Hamas, a more moderate and pragmatic strand, a debate often focussed on expressions of support for a long term hudna.

Historically Hamas has deployed the suggestion at times where it wants to appear more flexible,including after Hamas assumed power in Gaza in 2007.

While the proposed truce in this case is shorter than some that have been mentioned, Hamas’s declared support for long truces in the past, including by some of its early founders, has also tended to be defined by Hamas’s worldview. History, Hamas believed, is on their side, not Israel’s, which it sees as bound to eventual failure.

Importantly for Hamas, the concept of a hudna – which is not seen as a means to an end in itself – has offered the possibility of a way of dealing with accumulating pressures on the group within Palestinian society

Al-Hayya’s remarks come in a period where Hamas is facing increasingly obvious Israeli preparations to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah and at a time when its principle interlocutor, Qatar, has spoken of its frustration over ceasefire talks, raising speculation that Hamas’s political leadership might leave Qatar.

And while both Israel and Hamas have been publicly cleaving to maximalist positions around ceasefire talks, a flurry of discreet activity in recent days has suggested some potential for movement, perhaps putting pressure on Hamas to want to appear not to be the deal breaker.

What is clear, as it always has been when the issue of similar long term truces have been floated in the past, is that there is zero chance Israel would accept such a truce on the conditions suggested. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas.

Israeli media is reporting that one person was killed by Hezbollah anti-tank fire from Lebanon into northern Israel . Named as Sharif Suad , it is reported he was a civilian killed while “he was carrying out infrastructure activities on behalf of the IDF”.

הותר לפרסום: שריף סועאד, ישראלי מהכפר סלאמה, נהרג הלילה מירי נ"ט של חיזבאללה לעבר הר דב בשעה שביצע פעילות תשתית מטעם צה"ל pic.twitter.com/TbUJx6wFbP — איתי בלומנטל 🇮🇱 Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) April 26, 2024

In an overnight update on its operations, Israel ’s military has said that it carried out airstrikes inside Lebanon at what it described as “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”. It also claims that IDF artillery and tanks struck at the source of “two anti-tank missile launches” that were fired at northern Israel and identified as originating in Lebanon.

• Israel-Gaza war
• Middle East crisis live
• Middle East and north Africa
• US foreign policy
• Palestinian territories

More on this story

‘We are with them’: support for Hamas grows among Palestinians in Lebanon

USC cancels main commencement ceremony amid Gaza protests

‘Selfless and strong’: memorial honours World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in Gaza

Why we need to stop using ‘pro-Palestine’ and ‘pro-Israel’

Leaders of 18 countries urge Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza

Netanyahu labels US student protests ‘antisemitic’ and calls for them to end

Israel thought to be preparing to send troops into Rafah

Fox journalist among dozens arrested at Texas university as protests swell

Germany to resume funding of Unrwa aid operations in Gaza

UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals

Most viewed.

Judge skewers Trump defense's 'credibility' in gag order hearing ahead of 'catch and kill' testimony

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money trial asserted Tuesday that the former president has been violating a gag order barring him from attacking witnesses on social media in an attempt to get locked up for political purposes.

Debate over the order, which took place in a hearing before the jury returned to the courtroom, included the judge telling a defense lawyer that he was "losing all credibility" with his argument that Trump was being "very careful to comply" with the gag order. Lawyers with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office argued that Trump should be held in criminal contempt over a series of posts on Truth Social that they say violated Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order .

“The purpose of this hearing is to find out whether the defendant Mr. Trump should be held in contempt for one or all of these violations,” Judge Juan Merchan said as the hearing began.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy said the DA's office was not yet seeking to have Trump jailed over the gag order, while adding that he "seems to be angling for that."

The judge's order prohibits Trump from publicly attacking witnesses and jurors, something prosecutors say he’s done at least 10 times since the order went into effect.

The DA’s office is seeking the maximum $1,000 fine for each of the 10 posts it says violated the order, along with an order that Trump remove the posts from his social media platform. It also wants Merchan to warn Trump any future violations risk not just additional fines but also as long as 30 days in jail.

“His disobedience of the order is willful, it’s intentional,” Conroy said. “He knows what he’s not allowed to do and he does it anyway.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued “there was absolutely no willful violation” of the April 1 order and said his client was merely responding to a “barrage of political attacks.”

When Merchan pressed Blanche on what specific attacks Trump was responding to when he made the posts, the attorney struggled to answer.

“I keep asking you over and over to give me an example and I’m not getting an answer,” the judge said, appearing frustrated.

Merchan reserved a decision on the issue until a later time, but he made clear that he was not impressed by the arguments from Trump's legal team. Prosecutors, he said, had presented him with relevant case law. "You have presented nothing," the judge told Blanche.

Trump did not seem concerned during Blanche’s exchange with the judge — he sat with his eyes closed for a portion of it. He took to Truth Social immediately after the hearing to vent about the judge and Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the DA’s office. (The judge is not covered by the order.) The post questioned whether Pomerantz will be “prosecuted.”

The heated back and forth came before the jury was brought into the room to hear testimony from a key witness in case, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who outlined the “catch and kill” scheme between himself, Trump and Michael Cohen that prosecutors say ultimately led Trump to break the law by falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

A 'mutually beneficial' agreement

During his opening statement Monday, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said Pecker conspired with his longtime friend Trump and Cohen , who was then Trump's lawyer, in an effort to suppress scandalous stories about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"They agreed that Pecker would help the defendant's campaign by acting as eyes and ears for the campaign," Colangelo said.

It was Pecker who alerted Cohen to the news that adult film star Stormy Daniels was about to come forward with a claim that she had had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, when he was married, Colangelo said. Trump has denied her claim.

Cohen ultimately paid Daniels $130,000 to get her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Prosecutors allege that Trump falsely claimed his reimbursement to Cohen as legal payments. He’s charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a low-level felony, and faces up to four years in prison if he’s convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

Pecker testified Tuesday that he'd known Trump since the late 1980s and had "a great relationship with Mr. Trump over the years." He said that when he purchased the Enquirer in 1999, Trump told him: “Congratulations! You have purchased a great magazine.”

Pecker said Trump later became a source for news on his hit show "The Apprentice." He said they generally spoke every few months, but their contacts became more frequent after Trump declared he was running for president in 2015. Pecker also said he attended Trump's campaign announcement at Trump Tower after Cohen told him he should be there.

"No one deserves to be there more than you," Cohen told him in an email that was shown to the jury.

He then recounted a meeting he had at Trump Tower with Cohen and Trump in August 2015, which is when prosecutors said the election scheme was hatched. Pecker said the pair asked him what he could do to help the campaign.

"I said what I would do is I would run, or publish, positive stories about Mr. Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponents," Pecker recounted, adding he also told them he'd be their "eyes and ears" on stories that could be damaging.

He said he "thought that a lot of women would come out to try to sell their stories because Mr. Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women. And it was clear that based on my past experience, that when someone was running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up magazines like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

They agreed if that happened, Pecker would notify Cohen, and "he would be able to kill" the stories, Pecker said. He called the agreement "mutually beneficial" because he thought the positive Trump stories — and negative stories about his opponents — would help the paper's newsstand sales.

He said Cohen would call and say "we would like you to run an article" on a specific target, and the Enquirer would "embellish it from there." Asked who the "we" was that Cohen referred to, Pecker said he understood it to mean Cohen and Trump. He said he would send Cohen copies of the stories before they published, and would sometimes make additions requested by Cohen.

The articles included stories about then-Trump rivals — and now allies — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ben Carson. The headlines included “Boozin Ted Cruz Fixin To Lose” and “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge in Patient’s Brain!"

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass also asked Pecker about a notorious headline linking Cruz's father to the John F. Kennedy assassination. Pecker said the story was "created" by mashing together pictures of Cruz's father and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Cruz accused Trump of being behind the Enquirer stories at time, something Trump denied in a March 2016 statement , saying, "I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin’ Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchmen and then pretend total innocence."

Catch and kill

Pecker then described the first of three stories prosecutors said he helped to kill in order to aid Trump. He said that in October of 2015, Enquirer editor Dylan Howard reached out to him — as he'd been instructed to do — with a salacious Trump story. A doorman at one of Trump's New York buildings, Dino Sajudin , was "selling a story that Donald Trump fathered an illegitimate girl with a maid in — at — at Trump Tower, and may have worked in his — in Mr. Trump’s penthouse.”

He said he "immediately" called Cohen, who didn't think the allegation was true but said he would check it out. In the meantime, Howard negotiated to buy the rights to Sajudin's story for $30,000. Pecker said he told Cohen, “I’ll pay for it. This’ll be a very big story. I believe it’s important he should be removed from the market, so we’ll acquire the story.”

The deal included a $1 million penalty if the doorman spoke about it to anyone else.

Cohen told him "the boss" was "very pleased," Pecker said, adding that he didn't discuss the plan directly with Trump — only with Cohen.

"Prior to this arrangement to purchase this story from Dino, had you ever paid a source to kill a story about Donald Trump?” Steinglass asked.

“No,” Pecker answered. He added that it was much more than the tabloid would typically pay for a story — especially since Howard hired investigators who determined the doorman's story was "absolutely 1,000% untrue."

Pecker said he eventually wanted to release the doorman from agreement because he was "difficult," but that Cohen asked him not do so until "after the election." Pecker said he agreed.

The Playboy model

Pecker recounted another tip Howard got in June of 2016 involving Karen McDougal , "a Playboy model who is trying to sell the story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.”

Pecker said he again alerted Cohen, who told him he didn't think the claim was true. He told Cohen he'd keep him "apprised" of any developments. He said he then got a call from Trump, who said Cohen "told me about Karen." He said Trump asked him, "What do you think?" Pecker said he suggested to Trump that he buy the story, but Trump demurred and said, “I don't buy any stories." "Anytime you do anything like this, it always gets out,” he quoted Trump as saying.

Pecker said Howard arranged an interview with McDougal, and Cohen called several times while it was happening. "He kept on calling, and each time he called he seemed more anxious," Pecker said, adding that he believed but did not know that Cohen was being pressed for details by Trump.

Trump has denied McDougal's claim of an affair.

Trump's social media posts

The contempt hearing on Tuesday morning focused on prosecutors' allegation in two court filings that Trump "willfully violated" the gag order with repeated posts on Truth Social. The cited posts include one that referred to Cohen and Daniels as "sleaze bags" and others that linked to a New York Post story calling Cohen a "serial perjurer."

The partial gag order Merchan slapped on Trump this month bars him from making “public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.”

Trump's attorneys have argued that the posts didn't violate the order because he was largely sharing posts from other people and news outlets, and the posts are political speech. Asked by the judge what case law he had to support that position, Blanche said he didn't have any, but "it's just common sense."

Blanche defended one of the posts about Daniels, saying it concerned her credibility, not her anticipated testimony.

“Her credibility doesn’t matter a whole lot if she doesn’t take the stand in this trial,” Merchan said.

Conroy told the judge that Trump's use of his acronym for his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" in some of the posts doesn't change the nature of their message.

“Throwing a ‘MAGA’ into a post doesn’t make it political. It may make it more ominous,” he said.

Trump's lawyers have also contended that the order allows Trump to defend himself from attacks, so he was within his rights to speak out because Cohen and Daniels have criticized him publicly. Merchan said last week that he doesn't believe his order makes such an exception.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office also cited comments Trump made to reporters Monday, when he repeatedly called Cohen a liar. Conroy said he’d be filing another motion on those comments later Tuesday.

Court proceedings for the day ended earlier than normal because of the Passover holiday.

As previously stated by the judge, the court will not be in session on Wednesday. The trial will resume Thursday with further testimony from Pecker.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Lisa Rubin is an MSNBC legal correspondent and a former litigator.

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Judge Questions Credibility of Trump’s Lawyer as Witness Details Coverup Allegations

Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan is off to an ominous start for the former president, and it might not get any easier in the days ahead.

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By Jonah E. Bromwich ,  Ben Protess and Maggie Haberman

The judge questioned his defense lawyer’s credibility. The prosecution accused him of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. And his former friend corroborated that accusation, delivering hours of gripping testimony about their secret plot to protect his campaign.

The judge presiding over the case, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule soon on a request from prosecutors to hold Mr. Trump in contempt of court for attacking witnesses and jurors alike. And the first witness — David Pecker, longtime publisher of The National Enquirer — will return to the stand on Thursday after the trial’s weekly Wednesday hiatus.

Mr. Pecker, who was once close to Mr. Trump, is expected to face hours of additional questioning from prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, before Mr. Trump’s lawyers get a chance to cross-examine him.

Already, Mr. Pecker has delivered some compelling testimony, transporting jurors back to a crucial 2015 meeting with Mr. Trump and his fixer at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.

Prosecutors called it the “Trump Tower conspiracy,” arguing that Mr. Pecker, Mr. Trump and Michael D. Cohen, who was then Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, hatched a plot at the meeting to conceal sex scandals looming over Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Their effort led Mr. Pecker’s tabloids to buy and bury two damaging stories about Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen purchased the silence of a porn star, a deal at the heart of the case against the former president.

From the witness stand on Tuesday, Mr. Pecker recalled how Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump asked what he and his magazines — fixtures of American supermarket checkout lanes — could do “to help the campaign.” The account bolstered the prosecution’s argument that the men were protecting not just Mr. Trump’s personal reputation, but his political fortunes.

“I would be your eyes and ears,” Mr. Pecker recalled telling them, as he explained the tabloid practice of “catch and kill,” in which an outlet bought the rights to a story, only to never publish it.

Mr. Pecker’s testimony came after a bruising hearing for Mr. Trump and his legal team, as prosecutors argued that the trial is threatened by Mr. Trump’s repeated attacks on witnesses and jurors, mostly launched on social media and his campaign website. They urged the judge, Juan M. Merchan, to hold Mr. Trump in contempt over what they said were 11 violations of a gag order that bars the former president from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff, as well as their relatives.

When Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, claimed that the former president was trying to comply, Justice Merchan upbraided him, replying with words that no lawyer wants to hear: “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”

The case against Mr. Trump, the first American president to face a criminal trial, centers on Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 hush-money payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say he paid Ms. Daniels at Mr. Trump’s direction during the 2016 campaign to keep her quiet about a sexual tryst she said she had with Mr. Trump. He denies ever having had sex with her.

Mr. Trump who faces up to four years behind bars if convicted, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for the way in which he accounted for the $130,000 repayment to Mr. Cohen. Each count reflects a different false check, ledger and invoice that, according to prosecutors, Mr. Trump used to disguise the reimbursement’s true purpose.

Who Are Key Players in the Trump Manhattan Criminal Trial?

The first criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump is underway. Take a closer look at central figures related to the case.

Mr. Trump, 77, who is once again the presumptive Republican nominee, faces three other criminal cases in three different cities on charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandled classified records once he was no longer president. But with those cases delayed, the Manhattan case may be the only one that makes it to trial before Election Day.

The Manhattan case, in just its sixth day, has become a media and political spectacle as Mr. Trump’s campaign-style attacks on Mr. Cohen and the jury test the limits of the legal system and the judge’s patience.

The gag-order hearing, held with the jury out of the courtroom, demonstrated a jarring reality for Mr. Trump as he seeks to reclaim the White House while under indictment: His political reflexes, and the norm-busting ethos that has defined the Trump era, often clash with the letter of the law.

Witnesses in the case “rightly fear” being subjected to the former president’s “vitriol,” a prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, told the judge. He rattled off statements that Manhattan prosecutors believe crossed the line, including calling Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels “sleaze bags” and reposting an attack on the jury pool. That happened the night before a juror who had already been seated asked to be excused.

“What happened here was exactly what this order was meant to prevent, and the defendant doesn’t care,” Mr. Conroy said.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, argued that Mr. Trump’s posts were not personal and did not violate the order, because he was simply responding to “a barrage of political attacks.”

But Justice Merchan bridled, imploring Mr. Blanche to stick to the facts and the law.

“I need to know what is true,” Justice Merchan said, underscoring Mr. Trump’s penchant for using social media to spread lies.

It then got worse for Mr. Blanche, who appeared flummoxed by the judge. At one point, Justice Merchan called one of his arguments “silly.”

Prosecutors have asked Justice Merchan to fine Mr. Trump $1,000 for each statement, although Mr. Conroy wondered aloud if Mr. Trump, who has sold campaign merchandise with his mug shot, was actually angling for jail time. The judge, whose daughter has been among Mr. Trump’s targets, did not immediately rule.

The case against Mr. Trump commenced Monday, when both sides delivered opening statements that offered dueling visions of Mr. Trump and the evidence. A prosecutor accused the former president of orchestrating a “criminal conspiracy and a coverup.” Mr. Trump’s lawyer proclaimed, “President Trump is innocent.”

The prosecution then called its first witness, Mr. Pecker, who returned to the stand on Tuesday for a second day of testimony.

In about two and a half hours of examining Mr. Pecker on Tuesday, the prosecution placed him firmly in Mr. Trump’s orbit, as a longtime fan and friend who became an extension of the 2016 Trump campaign. His closeness to Mr. Trump — and his gentle, almost grandfatherly affect — appeared to bolster his credibility.

“I would call him Donald,” Mr. Pecker recalled, adding that he had “a great relationship with Mr. Trump over the years,” and that he had launched a magazine with him called “Trump Style.”

Mr. Pecker described a symbiotic relationship between Mr. Trump and The National Enquirer during the former president’s turn as a reality television host on “The Apprentice.” Mr. Trump would leak details of the show to the magazine, which in turn would run stories on the contestants.

The relationship took on national significance after the crucial 2015 meeting at Trump Tower.

“I received a call from Michael Cohen telling me that the boss wanted to see me,” Mr. Pecker recounted for the jury.

Afterward, Mr. Cohen routinely contacted Mr. Pecker, checking in weekly, or even daily. The purpose of their conversations was often to protect Mr. Trump from negative stories, including a doorman’s apparently false claim that Mr. Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Mr. Pecker, who purchased the story, testified that Mr. Cohen had told him “the boss would be very pleased” to have that story suppressed.

Mr. Pecker, who later also bought a story from a former Playboy model who said she had had an affair with Mr. Trump, explained that Mr. Cohen was “physically in every aspect of whatever the campaign was working on.” But, in a detail that the defense may seize on, he testified that Mr. Cohen, who was not a campaign employee but Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, may have “injected himself” into the campaign at times.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have not yet cross-examined Mr. Pecker, but when they do, they are likely to seize on that description of Mr. Cohen. A central theme of Mr. Trump’s defense is to portray Mr. Cohen as a renegade and a liar, and to distance the former president from the most problematic evidence.

Yet Mr. Pecker’s testimony placed Mr. Trump directly in the middle of their conspiracy. And in a sign that at least Mr. Pecker knew that their arrangement was problematic, he noted that he wanted to keep it “confidential.” When a prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, asked why, Mr. Pecker explained that he did not want it to “leak” that he helped the campaign.

Under questioning, Mr. Pecker acknowledged that he did not merely spike detrimental stories but promoted helpful ones. Mr. Cohen, he explained, would feed him information about Mr. Trump’s Republican primary opponents, and The National Enquirer would sometimes “embellish” them.

The tabloid, for example, ran stories about Mr. Trump’s primary opponents, including Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The prosecutors illustrated the point for jurors, posting several lurid headlines on screens: “Donald Trump Blasts Ted Cruz’s Dad for Photo with J.F.K. Assassin,” “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson left Sponge in Patient’s Brain!” and, in a moment of ironic foreshadowing, “Ted Cruz Shamed by Porn Star.”

At the Trump Tower meeting, Mr. Pecker said, he had indicated that he expected many women “would come out to try to sell their stories” about Mr. Trump, because he was known as “the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women.”

Mr. Trump was not, in fact, a bachelor. He had married his third and current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005.

Kate Christobek , Alan Feuer , Wesley Parnell and Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.

Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state criminal courts in Manhattan. More about Jonah E. Bromwich

Ben Protess is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies. More about Ben Protess

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

Prosecutors accused Donald Trump of violating a gag order four additional times , saying that he continues to defy the judge’s directions  not to attack witnesses , prosecutors and jurors in his hush-money trial.

Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan is off to an ominous start for the former president, and it might not get any easier  in the days ahead. Here’s why.

The National Enquirer  was more than a friendly media outlet  for Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. It was a powerful, national political weapon that was thrust into the service of a single candidate , in violation of campaign finance law.

More on Trump’s Legal Troubles

Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations  at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

Case Tracker:  Keep track of the developments in the criminal cases  involving the former president.

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Could he go to prison ? And will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know , and what we don’t know .

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here  to get the latest news and analysis  on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

• International

Testimony ends for the day in Trump hush money trial

By CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Brynn Gingras from the courthouse

Gag order hearing moved to May 2

From CNN’s Kara Scannell

Judge Juan Merchan's gag order hearing will now take place at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, May 2.

It’s unclear why the date and time changed.

Before leaving the bench today, t he judge said the hearing would take place on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. ET.

It came after the prosecution filed a motion and argued in court that former President Donald Trump violated the gag order four more times over the past few days.

These are takeaways from today's hush money trial

From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell, Nicki Brown and Brynn Gingras

Former American Media Inc. chairman  David Pecker  took jurors in  Donald Trump’s  hush money case inside how he paid for  Karen McDougal’s story  to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Trump – and how his decision not to pay for  Stormy Daniels’ story  led to Michael Cohen ultimately paying for it.

Prosecutors on Thursday wrapped up their direct testimony with Pecker, who was on the stand for three days describing in detail how he worked with Trump and Cohen to buy up damaging stories about Trump throughout the 2016 campaign.

His testimony laid the foundation for the rest of the  Manhattan district attorney’s case  against Trump that focuses on the payment to Daniels.

Here are the takeaways from Thursday in the hush money trial:

• Pecker details payment conversations: Pecker’s testimony included the nuts and bolts of how AMI paid McDougal on Trump’s behalf, Pecker’s private conversations with Trump about the catch-and-kill deal and the fallout when her story became public.
• No gag order decision yet: Merchan had   spent Tuesday morning hearing arguments on Trump’s alleged violation of the gag order – which limits the former president from publicly discussing witnesses, the jury, the district attorney’s staff or Merchan’s family – but he did not issue a ruling on Thursday when court came back into session. Instead, prosecutors submitted another motion to hold Trump in contempt for additional violations of the gag order over the past three days – including comments he made Thursday morning.
• Trump wanted to be elsewhere: Trump’s attorneys had asked for his appearance Thursday to be waived so he could attend the Supreme Court arguments on presidential immunity. The judge denied that request.
• Pecker agrees in cross-examination that suppressing stories was "standard operating procedure": Trump’s attorney   Emil Bove cross-examined Pecker for about an hour. Quizzing Pecker with rapid-fire leading questions, Bove got the witness to confirm to the jury that Trump’s symbiotic relationship with Pecker and his tabloids was not unusual and long pre-dated Trump’s run for office. Pecker confirmed source agreements like the ones used to suppress stories from McDougal and  former Trump Tower doorman   Dino Sajudin  are “standard operating procedure” for AMI to give the company control of how the information might be released, if at all.
• Trump’s attorney asks Pecker about tactics National Enquirer used for other celebrities: Bove’s cross-examination of Pecker elicited testimony about other celebrities whom Pecker had purchased stories about so they wouldn’t be published, offering a fascinating glimpse into the celebrity tabloid world while he was chairman of the publisher of the National Enquirer. Trump’s attorney sought to establish with Pecker that AMI used “checkbook journalism” to control narratives in the press and fostered mutually beneficial relationships with several celebrities – not just Trump.

Trial exhibit shows Trump at the White House with former tabloid boss

From CNN's Elise Hammond and Lauren del Valle 

Exhibits that the Manhattan District Attorney's office admitted as evidence were shown during former President Donald Trump's hush money trial Thursday. 

One of them is a photo of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, and Trump at the White House.

Another exhibit is the licensing agreement between American Media Inc. and Playboy playmate Karen McDougal. Pecker testified in court that he negotiated a deal that would give McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story that she and Trump had an affair. 

The agreement, dated August 5, 2016, also included that McDougal was going to get a monthly column on aging and fitness in Star and OK Magazines.

The invoice for the payment to McDougal’s lawyer, Keith Davidson, is also included in the exhibits, among other documents and text messages.

The ex-National Enquirer publisher answered questions from the prosecution and defense. Here's what happened

From CNN staff

David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified Thursday about a deal made with Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and outlined the involvement of Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

After paying for two other “catch-and-kill” stories, Pecker said he refused to pay money to Stormy Daniels, testifying that he didn’t want the Enquirer “to be associated with a porn star.”

After the prosecution finished its direct questioning, the defense had a chance to start its cross-examination , which will continue on Friday.

Here’s what happened in court:

Karen McDougal: 

• The prosecution's questioning picked up with Pecker testifying about how he vetted allegations of an affair between Trump and McDougal. He said he negotiated to buy the story for $150,000 five months before the election after conversations with Cohen and Trump. Pecker said he believed he would be reimbursed by the Trump Organization or Trump himself.
• He testified that he had concerns about the legality of paying to kill a story concerning a political candidate. He also said that he knew at the time  the deal with McDougal was illegal , and he wouldn’t have entered into it if it wasn’t for Trump’s benefit .
• Pecker said he intended to kill McDougal’s story so it did not hurt Trump’s campaign. He also said he was aware that corporations making campaign expenditures in coordination with a campaign without disclosing them was unlawful . The transaction was not reported under campaign finance obligations, Pecker said. He later testified he and Cohen received letters from the Federal Election Commission in 2018.
• To be reimbursed for the money to McDougal, Pecker said he used an outside service to facilitate the digital payment. He said he did this because he did not want the finance department at the Enquirer's parent company to receive money from the Trump Organization or Cohen, adding it would “raise a lot of questions and issues .” But, Pecker said American Media Inc. was never reimbursed for the McDougal agreement.
• Pecker testified that Trump inquired about McDougal twice in settings where she wasn’t immediately relevant. “How's Karen doing, how's Karen doing? ” Pecker said Trump asked during a dinner at the White House in 2017. Pecker said he told him she’s doing well and “she’s quiet.”
• Pecker said he assumed Trump was worried stories would impact his campaign because in conversations with Cohen and the former president, Trump’s family was never mentioned .

Stormy Daniels:

• Pecker testified that he was told Daniels was "trying to sell a story that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump." When he told Cohen AMI was not going to buy the story , Cohen told Pecker that Trump would be furious with him, he said.
• He said he didn't know the details of the transaction between Cohen and Daniels in real-time. He said he later learned Cohen had paid Daniels out of his own funds .

Cross-examination:

• Trump attorney Emil Bove pressed Pecker about this history with Trump — long before the election. Pecker confirmed that he had been giving Trump a heads-up on negative stories for about 17 years before Trump decided to run for president. He also said he had “mutually beneficial” relationships with celebrities other than Trump and said it was standard for politicians to work with the media.
• Bove walked Pecker through several other deals. One he made with Arnold Schwarzenegger where he paid to kill negative stories from dozens of women. He also confirmed that the company purchased photos of Tiger Woods to use them as leverage to get him in the magazine.
• The defense also tried to poke holes at Pecker’s memory , challenging him about the timing of a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015. Bove said these things happened a long time ago.

Gag order: Judge Juan Merchan said he would consider four new violations of a gag order on Trump and set a hearing for next Wednesday. Prosecutor Chris Conroy said these violations include comments Trump made to cameras outside the courtroom, in an interview and at an event. Merchan did not issue a ruling or hold Trump in contempt.

Few people think Trump is being treated the same as other criminal defendants, poll finds

From CNN's Jennifer Agiesta, CNN Polling Director

As the first criminal prosecution of a former American president began just 13% nationwide feel  Donald Trump  is being treated the same as other criminal defendants, according to a new  CNN poll conducted by SSRS . 

Most of the country was divided over whether he is being treated more harshly (34%) or more leniently (34%) than other defendants.

The poll, which began fielding a few days after the trial’s jury selection phase kicked off April 15, finds only 44% of Americans express confidence that the jury chosen for the case will be able to reach a fair verdict, while 56% more skeptical that a fair outcome is in the cards. More see Trump’s behavior during the trial thus far as inappropriate (42%) than appropriate (25%), with about a third saying they haven’t heard enough to say.

Those assessments of how things are playing out in the courtroom come as a rising share of Americans say the charges in the ongoing trial – related to allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to an adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election – are irrelevant to his fitness for the presidency even if true (45% say so now compared with 39% last summer, before he became the presumptive Republican nominee for president)

About three-quarters of voters currently backing Trump against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election say they will stick with him even if he is convicted of a crime, while 24% of Trump’s backers say a conviction might cause them to reconsider their support. 

Read more about the poll here

See courtroom sketches from Trump's trial today

From Christine Cornell and Jane Rosenburg

No cameras are allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump's hush money trial is underway, but CNN sketch artist Christine Cornell captured the scenes from today's proceedings:

The defense began cross-examination of Pecker. Here's a recap of some of the top lines

From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb, and Nicki Brown

The defense started its cross-examination of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer.

Trump attorney Emil Bove tried to argue that Pecker’s work helping Donald Trump during the 2016 election was nothing new or out of the ordinary.

Bove’s cross-examination lasted just over an hour before court ended for the day. The defense will continue its questioning with Pecker on Friday.

Here are some of the key points:

• Bove started his cross-examination by asking Pecker to confirm he was with American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company, from 1999 to 2020. When asked, Pecker acknowledged he still has equity in AMI.
• Trump's attorney asked Pecker if he managed AMI to make money. 

"That's correct," Pecker said.  "AMI wasn't a charity?" Bove asked. "No, it was not," Pecker said. "Part of AMI's business model was to purchase stories, correct?" Bove asked. "Yes, it was," Pecker responded.

• Bove confirmed with Pecker that the business model included buying stories, reiterating Pecker's own words that AMI uses "checkbook journalism."
• Bove also confirmed source agreements were "standard operating procedure" for AMI, to give the company control of how, if at all, the information might be released.

Merchan says there will be a hearing Wednesday about prosecution's request to hold Trump in contempt

From Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb, Nicki Brown, and Kristen Holmes

Before leaving the bench, Judge Merchan reiterated that he signed the order to show cause regarding the prosecution's latest request to hold Trump in contempt for the four new violations of the gag order. It came after the prosecution filed a motion and argued in court that Trump violated the gag order four more times over the past few days.

There will be a hearing next Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. ET about that, he said.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Conroy addressed the additional violations in court Thursday morning, providing the judge with another proposed order to show cause, which Merchan signed.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, prosecutors had already asked Merchan to hold Trump in contempt for violating the gag order, citing 10 social media posts from before and during the trial. They also want the posts taken down. Merchan has yet to rule on these alleged violations.

Trump has two campaign events next Wednesday. He is required to be in court for the gag-order hearing unless the judge signs a waiver to excuse him.

Trump: What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was "breathtaking"

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was "breathtaking," former President Donald Trump said after court wrapped for the day.

He also described former tabloid boss David Pecker's testimony as "amazing."

"Open your eyes, we can't let this continue to happen to our country," he added, reiterating his complaint that this trial should have "never happened."

Trump also commented on the "monumental" US Supreme Court hearing on the matter of his immunity in the federal election subversion case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

"I hope it was made clear that a president has to have immunity or you don't have a president. Or at most you can say it would be a ceremonial president. That's not what the founders had in mind," he said, adding he heard that the hearing was "quite amazing" and that the justices "were on their game."

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