Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Trump has not shown much reaction during this long line of questioning today.

He is sitting hunched over, looking forward and not in McConney's direction as he testifies about the behind-the-scenes details of Trump's reimbursements to Cohen.

McConney, who worked for the Trump Organization for more than three decades, could be on the stand for a while as one of the trial's key witnesses.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

We're going through the business records that form the spine of this case.

Prosecutors have now introduced records of transactions from the Donald Trump revocable trust, which held his assets during his time at the White House, and Trump's personal account.

Both were used to repay Cohen.

We're seeing spreadsheets recording each payment to Cohen. They are recorded as legal expenses.

The documents show Cohen was paid $105,000 from Trump's revocable trust for the first three months of 2017 and was paid a total of $315,000 from Trump's personal account from April - December 2017.

Pratiksha Ghildial
BBC News

Trump walked into the courtroom at about 11:35 after the break and did not respond when a pool reporter shouted a question about the jury.

Trump had spoken in the hallway in the usual pen of metallic barricades,where he called the gag order in the case "unconstitutional."

He also did not answer a question about Michael Cohen citing the gag order.

In the back of the hallway stood Eric Trump, Boris Epshteyn - a former Trump adviser - Alina Habba and Susan Necheles - who have worked as his attorneys - and Emil Bove, one of the lawyers in the case.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

There’s a reason that Jeffrey McConney has testified in several Trump Organization trials and why he is here today. Documents don’t lie, as prosecutors love to remind jurors.

As they noted in opening statements, neither Trump nor the Trump Organization could just write a check to Cohen “with a memo line that said reimbursement for porn star payoff.”

The Trump Organization controller at the time, McConney is breaking down how they allegedly “cooked the books.”

At a January 2017 meeting with CFO Allen Weisselberg, McConney testified that he was given a copy of Cohen’s bank statement showing his wire $130,000 wire to Stormy Daniel’s lawyer.

His personal handwritten notes from that meeting detailed the math that eventually led to Cohen’s $35,000 monthly payments over a year.

He also testified that he never saw a legal retainer agreement for Michael Cohen, a blow to the defense which said in opening statements that the payments were for legitimate legal work.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney is now back on the stand after a short break.

Justice Merchan warned Trump earlier today that further violation of his gag order could mean time behind bars for the ex-president. The US Secret Service has issued a short statement giving clues on how that could work.

USSS spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in the statement that, under federal law, the agency must provide protection for current government leaders, former presidents and first ladies, visiting heads of state and "other individuals designated by the President of the United States".

He continued: "For all settings around the world, we study locations and develop comprehensive and layered protective models that incorporate state of the art technology, protective intelligence and advanced security tactics to safeguard our protectees. Beyond that, we do not comment on specific protective operations."

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Court is taking a short break after a morning of testimony focused heavily on various documents.

Though a series of bank statements and emails do not make for the most salacious details in a high-profile case involving an adult film star, they are central to prosecutors’ case.

The documents we just saw show Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair. (Trump has denied the affair).

This reimbursement is at the heart of the Manhattan District Attorney Office’s case.

To prove Trump committed a felony, prosecutors will have to keep trying to show that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the sake of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Through this latest evidence, they are trying to establish a key part of their argument: that Trump did indeed classify a hush-money reimbursement to a porn star as “legal expenses”.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Bloomberg via Getty Images

McConney’s testimony is now taking us from the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan to the inner sanctums of the White House.

At some point in 2017, Michael Cohen started being reimbursed from Trump’s personal account. Trump was already president and living in the White House.

Jeffrey McConney explains that he created an entirely new process to get the payment approved.

Only Trump could sign those cheques, he said. They now had to get the cheques for Cohen’s reimbursement to the White House for Trump to sign, and they would be returned back to New York City where the Trump Organization was headquartered.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re now seeing an email chain between Michael Cohen, Jeffrey McConney, and ex-Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. The chain from February 2017 is discussing Cohen’s reimbursement.

This is a key document.

The men make Cohen send an invoice, and here we see a crucial message from Cohen: that the reimbursements are “pursuant to the retainer agreement.”

McConney said he never personally saw Cohen's retainer agreement. Prosecutors have alleged that the repayments to Cohen were falsely recorded as legal expenses pursuant to a retainer agreement, when in fact it was a reimbursement for the Stormy Daniels hush money.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

As prosecutors begin to submit these series of key documents into evidence, the jury is studiously paying attention.

Several appear to be taking notes, or watching the evidence on their screens.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

The evidence we’re seeing now is crucial to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s case because it connects Trump directly to the hush-money payment and a reimbursement to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Remember that hush-money payments themselves are not illegal. But the DA’s office alleges that Trump falsified business records when he allegedly classified a reimbursement to Cohen as “legal expenses”.

We’re seeing that reimbursement plan being laid out on documents stamped with the Trump Organization seal right now. On one, former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg details plans to reimburse Cohen on a monthly basis with funds from Trump’s personal account, McConney is explaining.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We're looking at some new key evidence from prosecutors now. They're showing a bank statement from Michael Cohen that details the $130,000 hush-money payment he sent to Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels' former lawyer.

There are handwritten notes from McConney and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. about a reimbursement plan for Cohen

The notes say a total of $180,000 should be reimbursed - $130,000 for the payment to Davidson, and $50,000 to be paid to a company called "Red Finch" for "tech services".

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We've been bringing you details today on Justice Merchan's gag order ruling.

It is the most serious warning from the judge yet about what awaits Trump if he keeps violating his gag order: jail time.

But in issuing his ruling, the judge also hinted at just what a logistical nightmare imposing that punishment would be.

Merchan said he was worried about those who would be responsible for arranging Trump’s imprisonment - court officers and others - and for good reason.

A former president has never been jailed before, creating an unprecedented challenge for the Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting former presidents for the rest of their life.

The Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies have already held conversations about how to move Trump to a courthouse holding cell if Justice Merchan imposed jail time, according to the New York Times, external.

But many other details remain to be figured out.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Eric Trump, who is seated behind his father, seems to be looking up at one of the courtroom monitors mounted to the wall at his left. From his seat, he can't see his father's face. But the courtroom camera trained right at Donald Trump is feeding to the monitors.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Jeffrey McConney is going over the accounting and approval processes within the Trump Organization.

He also gave us some insight into how the revocable trust that Trump used to hold all his assets during his presidency worked, and who controlled it.

This rather dry accounting talk seems to be heading towards the major question of how Michael Cohen could have gotten reimbursed for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. Those reimbursements, and how they were recorded, are at the center of this case.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

There are a few familiar faces in the courtroom today.

I can see Trump's son Eric Trump, and his lawyer in his civil fraud case, Alina Habba, seated behind Trump in the first rows.

Also in the room is Boris Epshteyn, a longtime aide to Trump who was indicted over his role in a so-called "fake electors" scheme in Arizona.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Over the past few months, I've watched three different judges reprimand Trump for his conduct inside and outside the courtroom.

Justice Merchan's warning about jail time, delivered in a low, even, but firm tone, is the strongest one I've heard yet.

He never raises his voice at Trump, but his tone grows harder as he has something serious to say.

His warning that he would in fact send Trump to jail if he keeps violating the gag order was the steeliest we've heard him. From my seat in the audience, he certainly sounds like he means it.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

As we heard, the judge issued his strongest warning to Donald Trump that jail is on the table after he ruled that he willfully violated the gag order for the tenth time.

In Judge Merchan’s written ruling, he said Trump was held in contempt because he made public statements about the jury and how it was selected.

He said: “In doing so, the defendant not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones.”

The judge said that constituted a direct attack on the rule of law.

But it’s important to note that the judge has said multiple times that the gag order is meant to be a shield and not a sword to be used by Trump’s opponents.

Therefore, in relation to posts that relate to calling Michael Cohen a liar, the judge said he couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump’s statements were not protected political speech made in reference to political attacks by Cohen.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’ve just heard from McConney that he hasn’t spoken to Trump since he retired from the Trump Organization last February.

McConney testified last year that he had been given a total of a half of a million dollars in severance - and he just told us the company is paying for his lawyer today.

But it’s been a tense time since the longtime controller left the Trump Organization.

McConney broke down in tears while taking the stand in Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, saying the numerous investigations into the company had forced him to leave a place he had enjoyed working for 35 years.

“I just couldn’t do it anymore,” McConney said in November.

“I just wanted to relax and stop being accused of misrepresenting assets for the company that I loved working for.”

Image source, Bloomberg via Getty Images

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

"The people call Jeffrey McConney".

We now have our first witness a week, the ex-controller of the Trump Organization.

He was also a figure in the civil fraud trial that took place last year, and in which a judge fined Trump hundreds of millions of dollars for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.

Prosecutor Michael Colangelo will be questioning McConney today.

McConney, who spent more than three decades at the Trump Organization, acknowledges that the company is paying for his attorney.