NEW YORK — During a devastating day for Donald Trump at his Manhattan hush money trial, a jury heard damning testimony from his decades-long ally David Pecker about a wide-ranging plan to hoist him out of obscurity and into the White House — and the presiding judge said his lead lawyer was “losing all credibility with the court.”

Before the trial resumed, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan heard arguments from prosecutors requesting that the former president be held in criminal contempt for violating an order prohibiting him from publicly attacking trial participants.

Rattling off a laundry list of offending Truth Social posts disparaging jurors and key witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, Assistant District Attorney Chris Conroy asked Merchan to impose thousands of dollars in sanctions and issue a stern warning to Trump, who he said had violated his order “repeatedly,” posing “a very real threat.”

“He did it right here in the hallway outside” on Tuesday and on camera, the prosecutor said. “He says whatever he needs to say to get the results that he wants.”

Trump’s team has argued that he has been defending himself as a political candidate in his online rants, not as a defendant. But Conroy said that was nonsense and that “Throwing ‘MAGA’ into a post doesn’t make it political; it may make it more ominous.”

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche — who said Trump sharing things others said didn’t violate the gag order — balked when asked outright if he could reference specific “attacks” that Trump was defending himself against.

“You’ve presented nothing,” Merchan said, later excoriating the lawyer. “Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you that right now. You are losing all credibility with the court.

The judge reserved issuing a decision.

Here are highlights of Tuesday’s testimony:

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