Several witnesses appear in court for Trump’s hush money trial as he gets $9K fine for violating gag order

NEW YORK – It was an active day of news coming from New York City and the trial of Donald Trump. While Trump was in a different courtroom, an appeals court denied his motion to stop the trial.

RELATED: The Latest | Hush money trial enters 9th day, begins with gag order ruling and $9K fine for Trump

That goes back to April 10 and a request for emergency relief. At that time, a single judge denied the request. Now all five members of the panel have decided to reject the request.

During the trial, several witnesses appeared for the prosecution, including Keith Davidson.

The attorney represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and model Karen McDougal as they negotiated payments to stay silent about their relationships with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen’s former banker, Gary Farro also testified. Cohen was Trump’s attorney and arranged a payment to Daniels of $130,000.

“This is a trial that is nonsense. It should have been brought and it’s showing loud and clear,” Trump said.

Before testimony today, Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to pay $9,000 in fines. That’s $1,000 for each violation of the judge’s gag order in the case, which is the maximum allowed by New York state law.

“This gag order is not only unique, it’s totally unconstitutional. I’m the Republican candidate for the President of the United States,” Trump said.

The judge said Trump criticized witnesses in posts on social media and on his campaign webpage. That doesn’t stop Trump from criticizing the judge or the case.

“You have a judge who is totally conflicted. Totally, absolutely conflicted. And he’s rushing this case though. I’ll tell you what, somebody just told me, they’ve never sat for such a long period of time in a courthouse,” Trump said.

The judge ordered the social media posts removed by 2:15 p.m. Tuesday and that happened.

Trump has until Friday to pay the fine and Merchan threatened jail if Trump violated the gag order again.