From 1h ago
Joshua Steinglass is now asking Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win.
“There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand.
Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
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Donald Trump’s lawyers are likely to seize on Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, insisting that he would never characterize the $130,000 payment to Daniels as “hush money” but as “consideration for a settlement agreement” – which sounds legal-related.
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Recall that the Manhattan DA’s underlying case is that Trump falsified business records because the $130,000 to Daniels was recorded as legal expenses or legal retainers to Michael Cohen. It is likely that Trump’s lawyers will try to argue “consideration” is a legal expense.
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Keith Davidson insisted that her denial was “technically correct.”
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“I think you’d have to hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual, and affair,” Davidson said.
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“Well, I don’t think that anyone had ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr Trump was romantic.”
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“OK…” Steinglass said with a laugh.
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“How about sexual?”
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“Well that would be a sexual and/or romantic [affair],” Davidson said.
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Steinglass asked about Daniels’ statement that “rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.”
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“How is that technically true,” Steinglass said, later asking, “Would you use the phrase hush money?”
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“I would never use that word.”
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“And what would be the word that you would use to describe it?”
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“Consideration” in a civil settlement, Davidson said.
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Joshua Steinglass is now asking Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win.
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“There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand.
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Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
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Right now, on continued direct examination, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is asking Keith Davidson questions about Michael Cohen’s transfer of money to him for the Stormy Daniels payoff.
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Recall: Davidson said that Daniels had been growing impatient in early October 2016 when Cohen had not paid up. But, toward the end of the month – several weeks after a hot mic recording emerged where Trump bragged about groping women – Cohen came through.
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Steinglass asked Davidson about texts he exchanged with then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about the payment. “Money wired I am told,” Howard said in a 27 October 2016 text to Davidson. Several hours later, Davidson said, “Funds received.”
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Steinglass asked whether the funds were wired to Davidson’s escrow account from Essential Consultants (Cohen’s hastily incorporated LLC). He said “Yes.”
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Later, Steinglass asked Davidson about more texts he exchanged with Howard after the deal was done. “Unbelievable,” Howard said in one text. To which Davidson replied, “was never really sure…”
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Juan Merchan is not buying Todd Blanche’s “Donald Trump is a victim to media” narrative.
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“Whats happening in this trial is no surprise to anyone,” the judge said.
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“The former president of the United States is on trial. He’s the leading candidate for the Republican party right now. Everybody came into this knew that this would happen – we all expected it. There’s no surprises here, so I don’t know how it reflects on Mr Trump if 10 outlets are talking about Mr Pecker.”
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“Everybody can say whatever they want, except President Trump,” Blanche said.
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“They’re not defendants in this case,” Mechan said.
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Merchan referred to one of the alleged gag order violations in the courthouse hallway, before a press gaggle.
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“It wasn’t the press that went to him, he went to the press,” Merchan said, adding, “You’re telling me that the scrutiny is outrageous. Nobody forced your client to go stand where he did that day.”
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“Nobody’s forcing him, but he’s running for president,” Blanche said, adding, “He has to be able to speak.”
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Chris Conroy is now referring to Donald Trump’s recent comments on Michael Cohen, his one-time consigliere-turned-star prosecution witness.
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“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.”
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Conroy said they are asking for financial penalties again. “To minimise disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail,” he said.
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Prosecutor Christopher Conroy is now moving on to the second alleged violation – Donald Trump’s comments about David Pecker outside court.
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“The defendant knows what he’s doing, He talks about the testifying witness, says nice things, in front of the cameras,” Conroy said.
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He argued that this is intentional – not Trump just blathering in response to a barrage of reporters’ questions.
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“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.”
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The prosecution started off by pointing to Juan Merchan’s order.
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“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,” Christopher Conroy said of Donald Trump.
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“He was on the media and he used that platform there to criticized the seated jury in the case,” the prosecutor said.
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“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.
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Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.
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His suit is navy and his satiny tie is marigold-toned – a step away from his normal blue-on-blue or blue-and-red attire.
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Donald Trump’s hush-money trial will pick up again today after the trial took a break on Wednesday – and jurors are due to hear again from the lawyer who negotiated deals on behalf of two women alleged to have had affairs with the former US president.
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Keith Davidson has already given colorful testimony about how deals to pay Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels came together in 2016. Prosecutors are using his testimony to help jurors understand the mechanics of Trump’s efforts to pay off women and convince jurors that it was done in service of his campaign.
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The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, will also hold a hearing on four more instances where Trump is alleged to have violated the gag order that bars him from attacking a number of people linked to the trial. Merchan has already fined Trump $9,000 for nine violations of the order.
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Here’s a quick recap of what happened in court on Tuesday:
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Davidson testified that he began representing McDougal in 2016 “to provide advice and counsel … regarding a personal interaction that she had” with Trump. Davidson reached out to Dylan Howard, the editor of the National Enquirer, promising a “blockbuster Trump story”. Howard replied by text message: “I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why.”
\n
Davidson was questioned by prosecutors about texts in which he was asked whether Trump had cheated on his wife. In those texts, Howard asked Davidson: “Did he cheat on Melania?” “‘I really cannot say yet, sorry,’” Davidson said, reading his text to Howard aloud.
\n
Davidson testified that the leak of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape had “tremendous influence” on the interest in Stormy Daniels’s story. He said that Daniels’s agent, Gina Rodriguez, had reached a deal with Howard for the tabloid to acquire the rights to her story for $120,000, but Howard backed out of the deal.
\n
Howard told Rodriguez to call Cohen and complete the deal directly with him, but she refused to negotiate with him following a previous interaction after which she described Cohen as a “jerk” and “very, very aggressive”. Rodriguez asked Davidson to step in and negotiate the deal with Cohen, he testified.
\n
Davidson said he used a pair of pseudonyms: Stormy Daniels became Peggy Peterson; Donald Trump became David Dennison.
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Davidson testified that the payment to Daniels did not come even after both parties had reached a deal. Cohen made a series of excuses for the delay, Davidson said, noting that he “thought he was trying to kick the can down the round until after the election”.
\n
Davidson was asked if Cohen ever told him whom he was representing in the Daniels negotiations. He said the implication was clear and that Cohen “leaned on his close affiliation with Donald Trump … He let me know it at every opportunity he could that he was working for Donald Trump.”
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Court is expected to resume at 9.30am ET. We’ll bring you the latest updates from the Manhattan courthouse as we get them.
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Key events
Sam Levine Emil Bove, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, is cross examining Keith Davidson.
Davidson is offering more details about his conversation with Michael Cohen’s state of mind in December 2016.
“I thought he was gonna kill himself,” Davidson says. Davidson says Cohen believed he would be chief of staff or the US attorney general but was dismayed Trump was not taking him to Washington.
Here are some images coming through the newswires:
Sam Levine Prosecutors just had a bit of a stumble with Keith Davidson, as they questioned him about why he told CNN in 2018 that he believed Michael Cohen paid for the deal with Stormy Daniels.
Davidson had previously testified that he believed Trump would ultimately pay, but as election day neared and the deal was not going through, Cohen said “Fuck it, I’ll do it myself.”
After the election, Cohen spoke to Davidson and bemoaned that he had not been paid back. This is an obstacle for prosecutors because Davidson is not linking Trump to the payments.
Keith Davidson’s direct testimony ends for now with one last query from Joshua Steinglass. “Mr Davidson, do you have any stake in the outcome of this trial?”
“No, not at all,” Davidson said.
Joshua Steinglass is now walking Keith Davidson through texts with Michael Cohen on 31 January 2018 where Trump’s then consigliere was frenetic.
“She just denied the letter,” Cohen said. “Claiming it’s not her signature.”
“You said she did it in front of you,” Cohen also texted.
“She did. Impossible – she posted it on her own Twitter page,” Davidson said.
Cohen then pointed to Stormy Daniels’ appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.
“They showed her signature and she claimed it was not hers on Kimmel.”
Steinglass asked Davidson: “How did you respond?”
“WTF.”
“I hate to ask, but what does that mean?“ Steinglass asked of the acronym.
“Sort of a signal of exasperation, ‘what the fuck,’” Davidson said.
Hugo Lowell Donald Trump’s lawyers are likely to seize on Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, insisting that he would never characterize the $130,000 payment to Daniels as “hush money” but as “consideration for a settlement agreement” – which sounds legal-related.
Recall that the Manhattan DA’s underlying case is that Trump falsified business records because the $130,000 to Daniels was recorded as legal expenses or legal retainers to Michael Cohen. It is likely that Trump’s lawyers will try to argue “consideration” is a legal expense.
The statement read, “Over the past few weeks, I have been asked countless times to comment on reports of an alleged sexual relationship I had with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago.”
“I’m not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money,’” the statement read, adding, “I’m denying this affair because it never happened.”
“I will have no further comment on this matter. Please feel free to check me out on Instagram at @thestormydaniels.”
Again, asked about whether this statement was accurate, Davidson focused on linguistic intricacies. “I think it’s technically true.”
How was this technically true, Joshua Steinglass pressed.
“It’s out,” Michael Cohen texted Keith Davidson on 30 January 2018.
“Apparently there was a news article that had been published. I was receiving hundreds of phone calls at my office,” Davidson said of an account of Stormy Daniels’ and Donald Trump’s affair.
That night, Daniels was supposed to go on Jimmy Kimmel.
He described the drafting of a Daniels’ denial before that appearance. He was in the Marilyn Monroe suite at the Roosevelt Hotel, in Hollywood. “There were makeup artists,” he recalled.
Keith Davidson insisted that her denial was “technically correct.”
“I think you’d have to hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual, and affair,” Davidson said.
“Well, I don’t think that anyone had ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr Trump was romantic.”
“OK…” Steinglass said with a laugh.
“How about sexual?”
“Well that would be a sexual and/or romantic [affair],” Davidson said.
Steinglass asked about Daniels’ statement that “rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.”
“How is that technically true,” Steinglass said, later asking, “Would you use the phrase hush money?”
“I would never use that word.”
“And what would be the word that you would use to describe it?”
“Consideration” in a civil settlement, Davidson said.
Sam Levine Keith Davidson is walking through the January 2018 statement Stormy Daniels gave, denying an affair and is making a tortured argument that if you read it in a highly technical way you could construe the statement to be accurate.
For example, the statement says “I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump”. Davidson is telling the court no one would consider the interaction to be romantic, prompting loud laughter in the overflow room.
Right now, Joshua Steinglass is questioning Keith Davidson on Stormy Daniels’ 2018 denial of an alleged affair with Donald Trump, after news surfaced about the alleged hush money scheme.
Sam Levine Keith Davidson is describing a December 2016 phone call with Michael Cohen in which Cohen was despondent.
He said something to the effect of “Jesus christ, can you fucking believe I’m not going to Washington? After everything I’ve done for that fucking guy. I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s ass so many times you don’t even know.”
“He said I never even got paid. That fucking guy is not even paying me the $130,000 back.”
“What have we done?” Keith Davidson wrote to Dylan Howard.
He called the phrasing “gallows humor”.
“You refer to [it] as gallows humor, can you explain that a little bit more, what do you mean when you say, ‘what have we done?’”
“I think there was an understanding that this was a text between Dylan Howard and I, and that there was an understanding that … our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”
“And how did Dylan Howard respond to your text?”
“Oh my god.”
“I should ask you the obvious question, who won the election?”
“Donald Trump.”
Joshua Steinglass is now asking Keith Davidson about a series of exchanges on election night, when it appeared that Donald Trump would win.
“There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the campaign of Donald Trump,” Keith Davidson said on the stand.
Prosecutors showed his election night texts with Dylan Howard. Davidson wrote “what have we done?” and Howard wrote back “oh my god”.
Right now, on continued direct examination, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is asking Keith Davidson questions about Michael Cohen’s transfer of money to him for the Stormy Daniels payoff.
Recall: Davidson said that Daniels had been growing impatient in early October 2016 when Cohen had not paid up. But, toward the end of the month – several weeks after a hot mic recording emerged where Trump bragged about groping women – Cohen came through.
Steinglass asked Davidson about texts he exchanged with then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about the payment. “Money wired I am told,” Howard said in a 27 October 2016 text to Davidson. Several hours later, Davidson said, “Funds received.”
Steinglass asked whether the funds were wired to Davidson’s escrow account from Essential Consultants (Cohen’s hastily incorporated LLC). He said “Yes.”
Later, Steinglass asked Davidson about more texts he exchanged with Howard after the deal was done. “Unbelievable,” Howard said in one text. To which Davidson replied, “was never really sure…”
“Can I ask you to address the comments that were made about the jury?” Juan Merchan asked shortly thereafter.
“We very much believe this is a political persecution, a political trial,” Todd Blanche said.
As he continued to try making this argument, the judge said, “Did he violate the gag order, that’s all I want to know.”
“I’m making an argument that he didn’t,” Blanche said. Merchan said he was not buying it, and that is why he was asking.
“He spoke about the jury, right?” Merchan asked, adding, “He said the jury was 95% Democrats and the jury had been rushed through.”
Todd Blanche raised the bogeyman of Michael Cohen’s TikTok account.
“As has been reported, because it’s true, Michael Cohen has been going on TikTok, nightly, – literally making money… He actively encourages folks to give him money… His TikTok repeatedly criticizes President Trump,” Blanche said.
“This is not a man who needs protection from the gag order,” he added.
Hugo Lowell Donald Trump is sitting passively as his lawyer, Todd Blanche, reads out Michael Cohen’s tweets attacking him on Twitter, including Cohen calling him “Von Schitzenpants” and a “petulant defendant” and that he will not donate to Trump’s jail commissary.
Hey Von ShitzInPantz…your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense. pic.twitter.com/FVsWbRnNkB
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) April 22, 2024 "}}” config=”{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false,"assetOrigin":"https://assets.guim.co.uk/"}”>
Hey Von ShitzInPantz…your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense. pic.twitter.com/FVsWbRnNkB
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) April 22, 2024 Hugo Lowell Judge Juan Merchan does not seem particularly impressed by Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche’s contention that the gag order is unfair to Trump because he cannot respond to attacks against Trump by people like Michael Cohen, an expected trial witness protected by the gag order, and media coverage of other trial witnesses’ testimony.
“They’re not defendants in the case. They’re not subject to the gag order,” Merchan says flatly.
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