AP Top News at 11:00 a.m. EDT

Associated Press

Updated May 16, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.·1 min read

Will jurors believe Michael Cohen? Defense tries to chip his credibility at Trump's hush money trial

NEW YORK (AP) — With prosecutors' hush money case against Donald Trump barreling toward its end, their star witness was back in the hot seat Thursday as defense lawyers sought to chip away at Michael Cohen's crucial testimony implicating the former president. Trump’s attorneys resumed the potentially explosive cross-examination of Cohen, trying to paint him as bent on destroying his former boss's reputation and to undermine his credibility, which could determine the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s fate in the case. Cohen is prosecutors' final witness — at least for now — as they try to prove Trump schemed to suppress a damaging story he feared would torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign and then falsified business records to cover it up.

The Daily Beast
‘The View’s’ Ana Navarro Uses Nude Melania Trump Photo to Defend Kamala Harris
Ana Navarro, a long-time co-host of The View, posted on her Instagram Thursday an old photo of nude Melania Trump as a way to troll her husband’s supporters, saying: “You wanna go low? ... I’ll happily go 20,000 leagues under the sea.”It was a picture from 2000 featured in British GQ, five years before Donald Trump married her.Navarro also included a picture of both Trumps partying with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, also from 2000. Her explanation for posting these images was that it wa
The Daily Beast
FBI Is Not Fully Convinced Trump Was Struck by a Bullet
FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during a marathon testimony on Wednesday that investigators still do not know if former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel during his attempted assassination.Twice during the hours-long session, Wray told lawmakers that the FBI was still working to determine what exactly struck the former president on his right ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “My understanding is that either it [a bullet] or some shrapnel is wha
The Daily Beast
Donald Trump Seen in Public Without Ear Bandage
Donald Trump ditched his ear bandage for his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. The former president’s right ear returned to public life after being injured during the assassination attempt on the former president on July 13.The former president’s large bandage became an impromptu fashion statement during the Republican National Convention with some attendees donning DIY wound dressings. Following the convention, Trump swapped out his bulky white gauze for a thin n
Miami Herald
Ana Navarro just posted a racy throwback pic of Melania — and the Internet has opinions
The GQ spread appeared in 2000
HuffPost
Trump Responds To Claims He's 'Cognitively Challenged' In Bafflingly Weird Way
The former president brought it up twice during a rally in North Carolina.
BuzzFeed
Kamala Harris' Press Release About Donald Trump's Fox News Appearance Is Going Viral
"Something about the question mark after 'old and quite weird' is taking me out."
Rolling Stone
Harris Taunts Trump After He Backs Out of Debates
“What happened to ‘any time, any place’?”
HuffPost
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Puts Elon Musk In His Place With Perfectly Patronizing Reminder
The New York legislator only needed a tweet to shut down the tech billionaire.
The New York Times
Major Shifts Beneath the Surface in a New Trump-Harris Poll
After all the political tumult of the last month, Thursday’s latest New York Times/Siena College poll is full of findings unlike any we’ve seen this cycle, with one exception: who leads the presidential race. The poll found Donald Trump ahead of Kamala Harris by 1 percentage point, 48% to 47%, among likely voters. Other than the name of the Democratic candidate, “Trump +1” is a result that could have been from any other Times/Siena poll before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate. Sign up for
The Daily Beast
Harris Campaign Trolls ‘78-Year-Old Criminal’ Donald Trump After Fox News Appearance
Kamala Harris’ campaign trolled Donald Trump after his appearance on Fox News Thursday morning with a statement attacking his age and criminal conviction.The Republican gave his two-cents to Fox & Friends on a range of issues over the course of a roughly 30-minute interview, variously describing President Joe Biden as a “problemmed man” and slamming Harris as “real garbage.” Harris for President quickly hit back, releasing a: “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance.”“After wat
HuffPost
Stephen Colbert Taunts Trump With Absolutely Brutal Reminder About Melania
The "Late Show" host mocked the former president over one curious claim.
Reuters
Two billionaire Harris donors hope she will fire FTC Chair Lina Khan
Billionaire Democratic donors Barry Diller and Reid Hoffman said in interviews this week they hope Kamala Harris will replace Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan if she becomes U.S. president, openly rejecting a pillar of President Joe Biden's antitrust policy. Khan has been at the forefront of the Biden administration's push to use U.S. antitrust law to boost competition and address high prices and low wages. Khan, who oversaw the FTC's ban on noncompete agreements, has drawn the ire of corporate groups, but won fans including Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, for her skepticism towards big business.
HuffPost
Donald Trump's Critics Actually Agree With His Latest Wild ‘Instruction’
The GOP nominee's comment on Fox News prompted no end of snarky replies.
USA TODAY
Donald Trump's real estate fraud judge won't recuse based on 'forced encounter' with lawyer
Judge Arthur Engoron said he won't recuse from former President Donald Trump's civil fraud case based on a "forced encounter" he had with a lawyer.
HuffPost
Critics Cook Ted Cruz Over Kamala Harris Food Fixation: 'Sure As Hell' Not Taking That!
Cruz entertained a false claim about the "radical" vice president's stance on red meat consumption.
CNN
How Doug Emhoff is amplifying his wife’s historic presidential bid
Confronted with a barrage of negative social media posts from former President Donald Trump aimed at his wife, second gentleman Doug Emhoff eschewed machismo or defensiveness.
The New York Times
In JD Vance Country, an Addiction Scourge That Won’t Go Away
POMEROY, Ohio — Sitting in a KFC restaurant in the former coal-mining town of Pomeroy, Ohio, a few hours before JD Vance addressed the Republican National Convention, Curtis Ramsey, 18, recalled the first time he heard the Ohio senator’s name. It was last month, he said, in the Washington office of another Ohio Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan. Ramsey, who had never been to a big city or flown on an airplane before, was in the capital with two filmmakers seeking to draw attention to a new documentary
BuzzFeed
"The Apple Does NOT Fall Far From The Tree": People Are Reacting To A Video Of Donald Trump Jr. Calling His Daughter "Sexy"
This is not a House of the Dragon plot. This is a US election cycle.
CNN
New York urges Supreme Court not to intervene in Trump’s hush money criminal case
New York’s attorney general urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to stay out of Donald Trump’s hush money criminal case, arguing the nation’s highest court should not grant a novel request by Missouri to pause his sentencing hearing and lift the gag order imposed on the former president in the case.
USA TODAY
'Haley voters for Harris' ignore Nikki Haley's warning letter after she knocks group
The PAC rejected Haley's demands that it stop using her name to advertise.

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