Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper what were going to start today with our Law And Justice lead a stern warning for donald trump today from the bench. Keep violating your gag order and your Hush Money Cover of case, and you may well end up in jail. Judge juan merchan, Finding Today The Trump via lord, violated that gag order for the 10th time. He find a trump 1,000 which is the maximum penalty. But judge, where shine went on to tell the former president , quote, at the end of the de, i have a job to do and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the judicial system and compel respect as much as i do not want to impose a jail sanctioned and ive done everything i can to avoid doing so i want you to understand that i will if necessary, and appropriate, unquote. Today weve also heard testimony from two witnesses who went through check by check, the payments made by donald trump to his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. Those payments are at the very heart of this case because
Crossexamining the prosecutions first witness, former Tabloid Executive if david pecker, this is peckers third day on the stand and today for the very first time, he described the deal that he helped broker with Adult Film Star and director Stormy Daniels, a deal that is at the center of this case, the fusion has used packer to set the scene for the jury, introducing them to keep players in the case. How they all fit together in the story right now, the Defense Tactic in its early questioning is part of a strategy two, strategy to argue the David Pecker Is Work Helping Trump during the 2016 election was nothing new who . Nothing unusual. Also notably today, judge juan merchan so far still has declined to issue a ruling from tuesdays Hearing On Whether Trump has violated his gag order, despite the prosecution arguing that this morning that trump continues to violate this order against disparaging members of the jury and the witton this is of course this is four times over the last three
and numbers, my friends, don t lie. from ohio to virginia, to kentucky, victory laps today for democrats. abortion access is the law of the land in ohio. the voters said, look, the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. we ve become a party of losers. i m sick of republicans losing. do you think we did the right thing by not participating? anybody who is going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jails and courtrooms cannot be lead this party or this country. i ll not be running for reelection for the united states senate, but what i will be doing is traveling the country. maybe, you know, flirting with some kind of presidential run. which, again, it s another blow democrats from manchin. good evening once again i m stephanie ruhle, it is the end of the week and our friday night cap is officially back. i know you ve been waiting for it. this is our breakdown of the biggest
real estate empire on the line. his testimony framed by anger, defiance, and disdain for the process. the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers. and numbers, my friends, don t lie. from ohio to virginia, to kentucky, victory laps today for democrats. abortion access is the law of the land in ohio. the voters said, look, the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. we ve become a party of losers. i m sick of republicans losing. do you think we did the right thing by not participating? anybody who is going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jails and courtrooms cannot be lead this party or this country. i ll not be running for reelection for the united states senate, but what i will be doing is traveling the country. maybe, you know, flirting with some kind of presidential run. which, again, it s another blow democrats from manchin. good evening once ag
american bases in iraq and syria have taken incoming fire 46 times. 56 servicemembers have been hurt and there is real concern a major strike could drag america into a conflict that the white houses they are working to stay out of. you are watching fox and friends first on friday, i m todd piro. carley: i m carley shimkus. our presence in the region is strong, 17,000 military personnel have been deployed in the last month and u.s. naval ships are surrounding the middle east. also a nuclear powered submarine somewhere in the waters below. todd: get an update from trey yingst live from southern israel. trey. trey: todd, carley, good morning. the battles inside gaza rage on behind me. israeli forces are reportedly surrounding three separate hospitals in the gaza strip where they say militants are hiding. northern part of gaza, we ve been watching the israelis renew strikes against this area. israel says 37 soldiers in total have been killed in the battle since the ground