At Trump's trial, judge clears room after disorder in court

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : "Client says thank you for what you do," the text message read, appearing to refer to Trump.
51% : To underscore the idea that Trump approved of Cohen's conduct, she produced a text message from one of Trump's lawyers, who expressed appreciation for Cohen's telling the media -- he now says falsely -- that he had paid off Daniels on his own initiative.
50% : He said it would be better if Trump escaped unscathed, because "it gives me more to talk about in the future.
49% : Trump, who faces probation or up to four years in prison, is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, one for each document related to his reimbursement of Cohen in 2017: 11 checks to Cohen (most of which Trump signed), 11 invoices submitted by Cohen and 12 entries in Trump's ledger.
40% : Hoffinger also asked Cohen to assess the impact of his falling-out with Trump, who had been the focus of his existence for years.
38% : He was the only witness to offer firsthand evidence directly linking Trump to the records that underpin the charges against him.
33% : Cohen's $130,000 payment on the eve of the 2016 presidential election silenced her account of a sexual rendezvous with Trump that had threatened to derail his campaign.
28% : They swept into the courtroom to back up Trump as his face-off with his former fixer and current nemesis continued.
27% : Blanche also emphasized how much money Cohen has reaped from his attacks on his former boss and mentor, Trump, suggesting that his testimony was motivated by greed, not truth-telling.
26% : Trump, he said, approved a plan to falsify the records to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn actor.
24% : Blanche asked Cohen about his recollection of speaking to Trump.
22% : Costello recalled that Cohen said at the spring 2018 meeting, "I swear to God, Bob, I don't have anything on Donald Trump.
20% : Finally, Hoffinger returned to the records that the prosecution says Trump faked to conceal the hush-money deal.
19% : The group of more than a dozen included not only Republican lawmakers and Alan Dershowitz, the high-profile lawyer, but also a legal adviser to Trump who is under indictment in Arizona, Boris Epshteyn, and Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner whom Trump pardoned for federal felony charges.
18% : He illustrated much of the prosecution's case as no one else could, harmonizing disparate facts to portray Trump as a criminal.
18% : Leaving court for the day, Trump praised Costello, but called Merchan a "tyrant" and the trial a "disaster.
18% : "Blanche sought to finish the crucial exchange with a flourish, returning to his claim last week that Cohen had lied on the stand about speaking to Trump in late October 2016 about the hush-money deal.
15% : "Amid a chorus of objections from Hoffinger -- most of which the judge sustained -- Costello and Trump both shook their heads in apparent frustration.

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