Trump braces for verdict in blockbuster New York fraud trial: Live

Never a bad time to ask this question these days.

John Bowden offers this answer.

Very much enjoying himself, Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen told Erin Burnett on CNN’s OutFront that he is confident his estranged ex-boss is in big trouble over the payout to Stormy Daniels.

“I believe, based upon the information that I know, and based upon, not just the documentary evidence but the corroborating testimony from so many people, I believe that he will be found guilty on all charges,” Cohen said.

“I would say, at best, it would be a four-week case,” he added, describing it as “very simple”.

Cohen has been subpoenaed to testify in the case and predicted it would be less “fun” for him, explaining: “They get personal, they get nasty.”

Donald Trump will face a criminal trial in New York next month on nearly three dozen charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels at the onset of his 2016 presidential campaign.

The former president will stand trial on 25 March, what will likely be the first trial among the four criminal cases against him and the first criminal trial against any current or former president.

With Trump in attendance, New York Judge Juan Merchan held a pretrial hearing on Thursday to affirm the former president’s previously scheduled court date and rejected his attorneys’ attempts to dismiss the case altogether.

Alex Woodward filed this report from Lower Manhattan on Thursday.

Here’s Kelly Rissman with some of the key takeaways from yesterday’s heated hearing in Atlanta.

A co-defendant in the sprawling election interference case against Trump in Georgia was warned he could be removed from the courtroom in Atlanta yesterday after he laughed during testimony.

David Shafer, the former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was reprimanded on Thursday during the hearing about the misconduct allegations against Fani Willis.

Julia Reinstein has more.

Fulton County’s district attorney is set to return to the witness stand today as the case that was supposed to be about efforts to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results has become embroiled in controversy over the love lives of the prosecutors seeking to hold Trump accountable.

The Georgia prosecutor leading a sprawling election interference case against Trump testified in court on Thursday about allegations of misconduct levelled against her over accusations of a romantic relationship between her and fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade levelled by the former president and his co-defendants – questions that could potentially disqualify them from the case.

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis appeared in an Atlanta courtroom after defence attorneys questioned Wade about the timeline of their relationship and the expenses they shared.

The attorneys had already admitted to their relationship but firmly rejected the “meritless” and “salacious” allegations as “bad faith” attempts to see her kicked off a case that Trump has baselessly labelled a conspiracy against him, according to court filings.

Willis proved a formidable presence in court, telling defence attorney Ashleigh Merchant. “It’s ridiculous that you lied on Monday and yet here we are… I’m actually surprised that the hearing continued. But since it did, here I am.”

Defending herself stoutly, she got in plenty of zingers:

On Truth Social, Trump was working overtime to firefight the situation, insisting the “Fani Scandal” should lead to all involved being “immediately terminated and permanently erased from everyone’s memory”, which is not the conclusion impartial onlookers will have reached.

He resorted to baselessly smearing the DA and repeating claims she had already explicitly debunked in her testimony, such as the conspiracy theory that she had visited the White House to “collude” with Joe Biden.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on Willis’s day in the witness stand.

Trump attorney Alina Habba was getting her excuses in early during an interview with Newsmax this week.

“If I could file the appeal now, I would,” she told the conservative broadcaster. “There’s no surprises coming here.”

She continued: “I’ll be loud and booming right after the decision. I don’t have high hopes.”

Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to deliver a verdict in Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial on Friday that could see the former president hit with millions of dollars in fines and sanctions.

The justice has already ruled that Trump inflated his wealth on financial statements that were given to banks and insurers to make deals and secure favourable loans.

New York attorney general Letitia James is seeking $370m and a ban on the defendant and his fellow Trump Organization executives from doing business in the state.

A penalty like that could potentially wound the real estate empire that helped Trump craft his image as a savvy billionaire businessman and vaulted him to fame and the White House.

Judge Engoron is set to rule after 10 weeks of testimony from 40 witnesses, including Trump. Closing arguments were held on 11 January. The judge is deciding the case because juries are not allowed in this type of lawsuit and neither James’ office nor Trump’s lawyers asked for one.

The justice is expected to release his decision today, barring unforeseen circumstances that would necessitate a delay, court officials said.

Unsurprisingly, Trump has been raging about his fate on Truth Social, insisting the whole sorry business is just another example of election interference in action.

Here’s more on what to expect today.