Media photographers cannot take former President Donald Trump’s photo during his New York trial over “hush-money” payments, a court officer said on Thursday.
A court officer said that Judge Juan Merchan said that photography won’t be allowed in the courtroom because someone in the photo pool violated a court order, according to pool reports and journalists in the courtroom. They will no longer be able to take photos for the remainder of the trial, which is expected to last at least two more weeks.
A photo was taken of President Trump from the aisle while he was walking into the area where court proceedings occur, the officer said, according to pool reports. Court papers say that the judge’s previous order allowed photographers to take shots from the well, not the aisle of the courtroom, reports said.
Other details were not provided about the incident.
It means that there will be no more photos of President Trump sitting at the defense table in the courtroom. Photos of President Trump entering and exiting the courthouse will be the only pictures snapped of the former president for the remainder of the trial.
Lawyers for President Trump nor the former president himself have not publicly responded to the order barring photography.
For Thursday’s proceedings, pornography performer Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, again took the witness stand for a second time. On Tuesday, she told the court of an alleged 2006 encounter with the former president that is at the center of the trial, which the former president has said is false.
At one point Tuesday, President Trump’s attorneys sought to have Judge Merchan declare a mistrial, which he denied, due to her testimony. They argued that it was needlessly detailed and prejudiced the jury. The judge claimed that defense attorneys should have spoken up sooner and objected to her claims.
Prosecutors allege that the former president engaged in a 2016 campaign scheme with his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to falsify business records to cover up payments to Ms. Daniels and another woman to prevent them from going public with allegations of affairs. The former president has denied both women’s claims and has pleaded not guilty.
Meanwhile, the former president cannot speak about any witnesses or potential witnesses in the trial, court staff, jury members, or members of Judge Merchan’s family due a previous gag order. Earlier this week, the judge fined the former president for a 10th time for what he said was a violation of his order, warning him that he could be jailed if he continues to make comments related to individuals connected to the case.
After Ms. Daniels’s allegations on Tuesday, President Trump suggested in a Truth Social post that because of the gag order, he cannot respond to claims made about him during the trial. He and his lawyers have said the gag order violates his constitutional right to free speech.
“It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you,” he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, adding, “It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond … you will be put in prison, maybe for a long period of time.”
The former commander-in-chief did not go into specifics about the “lies and false statements,” and he also did not indicate who was making those comments.
Prosecutors have argued that the political firestorm in late 2016 hastened Mr. Cohen to pay Ms. Daniels to keep her from going public with her claims that could further hurt President Trump in the eyes of female voters. But the former president’s lawyers have sought to show that he was trying to protect his reputation and family by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life.
The former president shook his head through much of Ms. Daniels’s claims in the courtroom. At one point, the judge told defense lawyers during a sidebar conversation that he could hear the former president “cursing audibly.”
“I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him,” the judge said, according to a transcript of the proceedings.
Prosecutors will also likely call Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the payments, to the stand during the trial. Since the 2016 election, Mr. Cohen has frequently criticized the former president in media appearances and via his social media accounts.
On Wednesday, House Republicans again referred Mr. Cohen to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, while they have accused him of making false statements to Congress on several occasions. Mr. Cohen’s lawyers have not responded to an Epoch Times request for comment.
