The prosecution's THIRD witness: Gary Farro.

Farro is a senior managing director at First Republic Bank, which he testifies is now defunct but was a private bank. Farro appears as a Records Custodian for First Republic Bank and to authenticate exhibits, which includes emails, account opening records, and other documents.

Bove's cross of Pecker resumes. He is now asking about when the FBI seized his phone.

Pecker: They came to my home, it was April 9, 2018, and they gave me a search warrant and they took my phone. Pecker met with the FBI a few times after that event.

Eventually AMI entered into a Non Prosecution Agreement with the Government in 2018.

David Pecker resumes his place at the witness stand.

Judge Merchan addresses the jury directly to explain that the lawyers can meet with witnesses before they testify to go over their testimony, review possible exhibits, etc. and that it is perfectly acceptable to do so. Now, Bove begins asking Pecker about how he knew Hope Hicks.

JUST IN: Harvey Weinstein's conviction has now been overturned by the New York Court of Appeals, which is New York's highest court. In a 4-3 ruling, the appeals court found that the trial court judge committed reversible error when he allowed the prosecution to call as witnesses other women who claimed that they had been assaulted by Weinstein. The appeals court found that Weinstein's jury improperly heard evidence of Weinstein's "other alleged bad acts"/past behavior and that he did not receive a fair trial.

Now, the DA's Office shifts to a line of questioning about Karen McDougal. Pecker says Dylan Howard advised in June of 2016 that she claimed that she had a sexual, romantic relationship with Trump for a year.

After a brief 15-minute recess, Pecker's testimony resumes.

Pecker is handed a thumb drive. He testifies that he reviewed its contents (AMI emails) and that they are consistent with how AMI maintained its emails. After a longer than usual sidebar, the thumb drive is admitted into evidence.

Prosecution shows Pecker Exhibit 152, which is a document containing several headlines about Trump between August 2015 and the election, and Pecker confirms the headlines correspond to stories that actually ran in the Enquirer during that period. Pecker on negative stories about Trump's opponents: Michael Cohen would call me and say we would like you to run an article on a certain person...and then Cohen would send me a piece on Ted Cruz, for example, and the Enquirer would embellish it from there.”

B/c Cohen wasn't a part of the campaign, when Cohen said "we" I always thought Cohen meant him and Trump.

Pecker: "I was the person who 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 magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.” Pecker: "Yes, when i say mutually beneficial, writing positive stories about Trump and covering the election and writing negative stories about his opponents will only help newsstand sales so to me that was my incentive, it was also going to benefit his campaign and both parties benefited from it."

Court is back in session. Let's see if Merchan rules from the bench on the contempt motion before bringing the jury back in. Ok so the jury is coming back into the courtroom. David Pecker has resumed his place in the witness stand.

Merchan: What is your caselaw that supports your position that your client can repost and that doesn't violate the gag order?

Blanche: I don't have any cases. It's just common sense.

Katie's Sidebar: DON'T do this in court. Merchan: Reposting is not passive conduct. Someone had to do something.

Now, Blanche gets up for Trump and argues that Trump knows what the gag order says and nothing that he posted violated the gag order. Blanche: Trump's repost regarding Avenatti's comments on the gag order's hypocrisy - Michael Cohen responded directly to Avenatti's tweet and he did so politically and not about the trial. Trump is allowed to respond to political attacks.

Now: Judge Merchan begins to address the prosecution's motion for contempt. He reminds that it is the People's burden to prove that Trump violated the gag order. Prosecution: Trump violated, TEN TIMES, the expanded gag order. 8 were on his Truth Social account and 2 were on his official campaign website.

"The People call David Pecker." Pecker is 72 years old and married for 36 years.

Blanche: "@MichaelCohen212 is obsessed with Donald Trump. Cohen has talked extensively about Trump going to prison." @MichaelCohen212 Blanche repeatedly calling Cohen a liar. Prosecution objects and the parties approach for a sidebar.

The Defense Opening (by Blanche):

"He's innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan DA's Office should never have brought this case." Blanche: "We will call him President out of respect...He is not only a President. He's a man, a husband, a father. He's just like me."

The Prosecution's Opening:

"This case is about a criminal conspiracy. Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his NY business records over and over and over again." Matthew Colangelo, is delivering the Opening for the prosecution.

And the Trump trial has begun...

The People have advised that their Opening Statement will take 45 minutes.

The defense says 25 minutes for its Opening. UPDATE on trial scheduling today: Court will recess at 12:30 pm ET today, not 2 pm.

➡️ Katie’s Sidebar: A (non-exhaustive) List of What I Am Looking for in tomorrow’s Opening Statements? 👀

• As a housekeeping matter: how long will Judge Merchan give both sides to do Openings? My best guess is 60-90 minutes for each side.

(Remember court recesses early at 2 pm ET tomorrow and Tuesday, and the prosecution said they’re putting on a witness tomorrow. So Merchan will want to move things along.) • Themes: I cannot stress this enough. Themes are *so important* because they give the jury something to relate to/connect with when listening to the evidence and it helps jurors follow your theory of the case.

Let’s say you’re the prosecution and you’ve got a murder case and the defendant is a woman who allegedly killed her boyfriend. Your theme might be: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” And your case theory might be that she killed him because she was angry that he dumped her for another woman.

You introduce the jury to your theme in Openings (frankly it gets previewed in some small and subtle ways during jury selection) and you weave your theme into your case all the way to Closing Arguments.

Themes can sometimes be movie lines, song lyrics, fables, parables, etc. Again, something that’s relatable for a jury and that a juror can connect with.

JUST IN: Judge Merchan confirms Opening Statements in Trump’s NY election interference trial will take place on Monday morning. Judge Merchan: “We’re going to have opening statements on Monday morning. This trial is starting.”

Court has now resumed for the Sandoval hearing.

https://twitter.com/katiephang/status/1781389960899125350

Emil Bove, on behalf of Trump, is up to argue against the Sandoval notice filed by the prosecution.

Day 4 of Trump’s NY election interference trial begins in just a few minutes with 22 prospective jurors in the box to answer the 42 questions from the juror questionnaire. 22 people are filing into the box.