Written by 
The court heard that Lai received a confidential request in July 2020 calling for a list of people deemed to have undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Lai said the message was sent to him via Signal, which he described as a messaging app with a “very strict” encryption protocol, from someone who had access to then US president Donald Trump’s administration.
Asked why he had forwarded the supposedly secret message to Chan Pui-man, then Apple Daily’s associate publisher, Lai said: “Because I thought it was an important document by somebody who sent it confidentially, but I don’t remember who he was.”
Lai’s trial entered its 94th day, with around 50 mostly middle-aged and elderly residents lining up outside the court on another rainy morning hoping to grab a public gallery seat to watch the proceedings.