Chris Conroy is now referring to Donald Trump’s recent comments on Michael Cohen, his one-time consigliere-turned-star prosecution witness.

“Michael Cohen is not a political opponent, defendant’s comments about Michael Cohen relate to issues at the heart of the proceeding,” he said, adding, “Defendant is doing everything he can to make this case about his politics – it’s not it’s about his criminal conduct.”

Conroy said they are asking for financial penalties again. “To minimise disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail,” he said.

Prosecutor Christopher Conroy is now moving on to the second alleged violation – Donald Trump’s comments about David Pecker outside court.

“The defendant knows what he’s doing, He talks about the testifying witness, says nice things, in front of the cameras,” Conroy said.

He argued that this is intentional – not Trump just blathering in response to a barrage of reporters’ questions.

“He selectively responded to this question and not others,” Conroy argued, noting that even though his comments on Pecker were positive, they are nonetheless “deliberate shots across the bow [for] anyone who comes to this courtroom to talk about the defendant and what he did.”

The prosecution started off by pointing to judge Juan Merchan’s order.

“The order was issued because of the defendant’s persistent and escalating rhetoric aimed at participants in this hearing… He’s already been found by the court to have violated the order nine times and has done it again here,” prosecutor Christopher Conroy said of Donald Trump.

“He was on the media and he used that platform there to criticized the seated jury in the case,” he said.

“By talking about the jury at all, he places this process and this proceeding here in jeopardy – this is what the order forbids, and he did it anyway,” Conroy continued.

Court has started for the day.

“I looked at the exhibits that were provided by both the people and the defense,” judge Juan Merchan says of the prosecution’s most recent push for contempt.

He is now asking prosecutors to go through each of the alleged violations.

Prior to heading inside the courtroom, Donald Trump stopped and addressed the press.

He bragged about his rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, saying, “We had tremendous rallies, sold-out rallies that were packed and the enthusiasm’s never been better.”

Trump also spoke about inflation, saying, “Interest rates are obviously not going to be able to be reduced prior to the election because inflation is roaring back.”

He went on to praise the police crackdowns on the Palestinian solidarity student encampments at UCLA and Columbia and blamed the “radical left lunatics.”

“The right is not your problem, despite what law enforcement likes to say,” he added.

We’re still waiting for proceedings to kick off.

As Donald Trump and Todd Blanche, his defense lawyer, are chatting at the table, the ex-president appears to be more animated, more engaged, than he has generally been.

As Donald Trump walked down the aisle to the defense table, he looked around at the gallery.

His expression hadn’t changed much since his last appearance in court.

Trump arrives in courtroom

Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the courthouse, according to pool reports.

Here are some images coming through the newswires:

Earlier this week Trump was fined $9,000 for violating a gag order imposed by Juan Merchan, the trial judge. And on Thursday, prosecutors will seek another $4,000 fine for four more alleged violations.

Merchan said on Tuesday that he might jail Trump if he continues to defy the gag order, saying the fines allowed by New York law – $1,000 per violation – might not be enough to serve as a deterrent for someone of Trump’s wealth.

The gag order aims to prevent the former president from intimidating witnesses, jurors and other participants in his first criminal trial. It does not prevent Trump from criticizing prosecutors or the judge himself.

Trump says the gag order restricts his free-speech rights and prevents him from responding to political attacks. Merchan will consider whether Trump violated the gag order on four separate occasions last week, by referring to Michael Cohen as a “liar” and to David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher and another witness, as a “nice guy” in statements to news media.

Prosecutors say Trump also violated the gag order by saying in a television interview that “that jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”

The Guardian’s David Smith was on the campaign trail with Trump and reports the former president ran through his familiar litany of falsehoods and complaints.

David has this dispatch:

At a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise’s film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane’s side – “TRUMP” – and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue “TRUMP” lectern.

A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call “central casting” made their way down the stairs. “Trump! Trump!” the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.

How different the warm embrace from Trump’s recent experience as a defendant on criminal trial in a chilly, dingy courtroom in New York. On those days, threatened with prison, he looks old, vulnerable and small. Back on the election campaign trail, it is all about hypermasculine energy and bigness – big plane, big crowds, big promises and big lies.

During his brief break from court, Trump returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday – and used a campaign stop to repeat his attacks on the trial judge as “crooked”.

The AP writes:

Trump’s remarks at events in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan were being closely watched after he received a $9,000 fine for making public statements about people connected to the criminal case.

“There is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He’s a totally conflicted judge,” Trump claimed as he spoke to supporters at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, claiming again that this and other cases against him are led by the White House to undermine his campaign.

Later at a rally in Freeland, Michigan, he said he was being forced to spend days in a “kangaroo court room”, and claimed without evidence the district attorney was taking orders from the Biden administration.

Trump trial to hear further testimony from Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson