Trump hush-money trial enters third week as banker who worked with Michael Cohen testifies – live

And we’re back: Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial enters its third week today, after a fallow day yesterday.

Expected today? A possible ruling on whether Trump owes at least $10,000 for violating his gag order, and more testimony from the private banker Gary Farro about dodgy financial maneuvering to hide Trump’s dirty laundry from American voters.

Farro already told the court last week that in 2015 he became the contact for Michael Cohen – then Trump’s attorney – at First Republic Bank, where he says he witnessed Cohen’s financial chicanery to protect Trump.

Prosecutors say Trump, Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker plotted in the summer of 2015 to bury any negative stories that could harm Trump’s run for president.

The next year, with crucially less than a month to go before the election, came the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about groping women.

And a day after that – 8 October 2016 – prosecutors say Cohen learned that Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film star, was alleging an affair with Trump.

Prosecutors say Trump’s campaign feared that any additional accounts of boorish behavior could sink his chances in the general election – so, they say, Cohen set up LLCs to facilitate hush-money payments without the candidate’s fingerprints.

As evidence, they say Cohen sought to open accounts for two new companies in October of 2016. Into one of them – Essential Consultants – he plunked his own money. This was the account that wired $130,000 to Daniels’ lawyer, so she would not go public with her story.

We’ll learn more today: court is expected to resume at 9am ET.