Live updates: Trump hush money trial resumes with Michael Cohen’s banker returning to stand

As we gear up for the start of week three of Trump’s historic trial, here’s Ariana Baio with a reminder of the key runners and riders.

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The right-wing news channels seem to be getting more desperate than ever these days.

On Newsmax, Eric Bolling has been claiming Joe Biden is too old to eat salad and, on Jesse Watters’ Fox show, former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany forgot who was president three years ago while Newt Gingrich engaged in some outstanding projection work.

Neither of them appear to be able to tell Biden and Trump apart.

Trump’s former fixer was once so close to him that he once declared that he “would take a bullet for” his boss.

But in the seven years since professing his unwavering loyalty, the disbarred lawyer has suffered his own very public downfall and criminal conviction and is now recast as star witness in the Manhattan’s district attorney’s hush money case against the former president.

It is a role that Cohen both relishes — as a reformed “truth-teller” who enthusiastically pulls back the curtain on the alleged murky dealings of Trumpworld — and reviles.

Kelly Rissman offers this profile.

You can watch our latest Manhattan livestream below as day nine of Trump’s hush money is set to get underway shortly.

Here’s more on the former US attorney general’s disturbing revelation about his ex-employer’s outbursts in the White House, which Barr appeared determined to dismiss as not serious but which feeds into a long history of threats and violent rhetoric from the candidate.

Here’s more from Alex Woodward courtside on what else the defendant has planned this week and who precisely is still showing up in the Big Apple to support him:

“It’s a big week for Trump, who’s gonna fit in two rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday before coming back to New York for a Thursday morning hearing about his gag order-violating statements. Can’t imagine he won’t violate the gag some more at those rallies.

“Outside the court, there’s a growing line for the public – a handful of Trump supporters including two women in American flag hats and matching bandannas and a high schooler who has the day off – while a small group of MAGA hats are assembling by the small park near satellite TV trucks.”

“The red hats have entered the park, with a man dressed as what I can best describe as a MAGA Santa, and unfurled a massive yellow banner reading ‘FINISH THE WALL’ above another banner reading ‘TRUMP SAVE AMERICA’, which is the name of the campaign’s chief fundraising PAC.

“This group has been out here most trial days but appears to have arrived a bit early today (Trump has falsely claimed that thousands have been turned away. Anyone can enter the park. These are the people who do, and it’s not a lot.)

“A white van waving a massive US flag with a Trump 2024 flag (‘Take America Back’) just drove by, laying on the horn as the small protest crowd cheered.”

We definitely still feeling good about this guy getting the nuclear codes?

Here’s the latest worrying development on Jack Smith’s national security indictment from Martha McHardy.

Our man in Manhattan Alex Woodward is back at the courthouse bright and early and says this:

“It’s a relatively warm morning outside the courthouse for the second week of witness testimony in Donald Trump’s criminal trial.

“We’ll be hearing more from Michael Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro, who left us on a cliffhanger on Friday as he explained how Cohen had a ‘sense of urgency’ in creating a shell company LLC in the fall of 2016 – which we now know was used to send hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

“We still don’t have a witness list; prosecutors have feared that advance notice could give Trump more fuel for online threats and intimidation. We also don’t have a ruling on alleged gag order violations from Justice Juan Merchan that he promised a week ago.

“He’ll hold a hearing on even more allegations on Thursday.”

A fresh survey of 2024 voters has found that one in six dislike both former president Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden – and that group could decide November’s vote.

A Monmouth University poll released on Monday shows 60 per cent of voters were slightly or not at all enthusiastic about the election given the matchup between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees.

In addition, a large group of voters fall under the category of “double haters,” a name for those who dislike both Trump and Biden.

Some 78 per cent of “double haters” say they are not happy about either man leading the top of their party’s ticket.

John Bowden and Eric Garcia have more on the phenomenon.