Prosecutors can confront Trump about defamation and fraud if he testifies in hush money trial

Manhattan prosecutors can question Donald Trump about a blockbuster fraud ruling, gag order violations and the E Jean Carroll defamation verdicts if he chooses to testify in his hush money trial.

Before opening arguments on Monday morning, New York Justice Juan Merchan largely granted a request from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to introduce lines of questioning around prior court rulings if the former president takes the stand to testify in his historic trial.

Under cross-examination, prosecutors can now bring up Mr Trump’s other cases where he was found liable for fraud and defamation.

Judge Merchan also will allow prosecutors to bring up his repeat violations of a gag order in a civil trial targeting allegations of fraud in his real estate empire.

A pair of federal court rulings that found Mr Trump liable for sexually abusing former Elle magazine columnist Ms Carroll will be off the table, however. Prosecutors also cannot bring up the total monetary damages – totalling tens of millions of dollars – facing Mr Trump in that case and the fraud ruling.

The judge’s determination, which followed a hearing on Friday afternoon, arrived moments before jurors were walked into the courtroom to hear opening arguments in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.

Mr Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a so-called hush money scheme to pay off an adult film star to bury allegations of an alleged affair, a revelation that prosecutors claim posed a threat to his 2016 presidential election prospects.

The former president has volunteered to testify, opening the door for prosecutors to grill him about his previous alleged misconduct.

Speaking at a press