Day Nine Insights from the Trump Hush Money Case Trial
The judge reprimanded the ex-president with a written edict, emphasizing that further transgressions could possibly lead to imprisonment - a unique manifestation of this case's historic and bizarre character.
Once the trial commenced on Tuesday, the jury heard from attorney Keith Davidson, who discussed his ordeal with Trump's previous fixer Michael Cohen while negotiating the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal hush money agreements.
Davidson testified about his hardships with Cohen in the final fray of the 2016 presidential campaign to secure the funds promised to Daniels for her silence. He elaborated that a tabloid editor deemed Daniels' story as the "final nail in the coffin" for Trump's hopes of becoming president back in October 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced. However, instead, Davidson negotiated a $130k hush money arrangement for Daniels and she avoided public statements until the 2016 elections.
Key points from the ninth day of the Trump hush money trial:
Fines for Trump and looming penalties ahead
Fines were imposed on Trump by Judge Merchan for breaching his gag order that forbids public discourse about witnesses or the jury in the case. He was fined $9,000 before the jury was brought in.
Merchan doled out the fines, each worth $1,000, as he sanctioned the former president after prosecutors introduced a motion to punish Trump for his social media posts and public statements about Cohen, Daniels, and the composition of the jury pool. However, this is not Trump's last encounter with Merchan's gag order. Lawyers from the district attorney's office had identified four more violations from Trump's remarks, and a planned hearing on these transgressions is slated for Thursday.
The comments from Trump criticized by prosecutors stemmed from his commentary on witnesses. Prosecutors claimed that the comment was a directive to other witnesses to "be nice" in court.
In his order, the judge asserted that he would not tolerate these deliberate disregard for his orders and could punish Trump with incarceration. Merchan has the potential to lock Trump up for up to 30 days if he is found in contempt.
Stormy's lawyer takes the witness box
To recount all the intricacies of his looping dealings with American Media Inc.'s then-chief content officer Dylan Howard, LA-based attorney Davidson took the stand. He divulged details of his communication with Howard, assisted by texts exchanged between them, as he managed a $150k deal for McDougal's story and later a $130k deal directly with Cohen for Daniels after AMI stepped away.
Davidson explained that Daniels' manager, Gina Rodriguez, contacted him and implored him to conclude the deal. "It's going to be the easiest deal you've ever done in your entire life," Davidson said, before laughing a little. Rodriguez informed him that the agreement was already settled. "All you have to do is talk to that **** Cohen," Davidson recollected.
Jurors heard how Davidson set up the contracts for Cohen and the various flimsy excuses he received in response.
Davidson shed some lighter moments. In the contract, he used pseudonyms: Peggy Peterson for Daniels as she was the plaintiff, and David Dennison for Trump as he was the defendant.
Assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass enquired whether Dennison was a real individual. "Yes, he was in my high school hockey team," Davidson responded.
Daniels' attorney also issued unflattering remarks about Cohen. When asked to delineate Cohen's demeanor while handling the payment negotiations, Davidson described him as "highly excitable, like a 'squirrel!' kind of guy."
Jurors hear indepth details about the Stormy Daniels payment trail
Gary Farro, Cohen's former banker, testified regarding Cohen's banking activities around the Daniels payment.
The records signify that Cohen hurriedly established an Essential Consultant LLC account and used it to transfer $131,000 to Daniels' attorney within 24 hours of receiving the funds from his home equity line of credit.
On October 27, 2016, Cohen hurriedly requested his bank to approve an advance on his personal home equity line of credit. Followed by the approval, the money was shifted into the recently established Essential Consultant LLC account, where Cohen claimed it was for a time-pressing real estate transaction.
The next day, Cohen proceeded to wire $130k to an account under the supervision of Daniels' lawyer.
Farro attested that when he dealt with Cohen, the latter's crises were, in most cases, deemed "urgent matters."
A banker announced that First Republic Bank had shut down all of Cohen's accounts, except for his existing mortgages, following the exposure of the Daniels hush money payment incident.
Tuesday morning, records custodians entered several video clips into evidence. These included three C-SPAN clips, which were displayed in open court, featuring Trump making statements at various public events. In one 2016 campaign event, Trump vehemently denounced accusations from women who publicly claimed he had sexually assaulted them after the "Access Hollywood" scandal was released. He said, "I have no idea who these women are."
In a second 2016 campaign event, Trump called Michael Cohen a "very talented lawyer" and a "good lawyer" in his firm.
These clips, along with snippets from Trump's October 2022 deposition taken for his E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, were also admitted as evidence and played in court. Prosecutors also shared a clip from the deposition in which Trump said he opened Truth Social as an alternative to Twitter.
They also played a clip from the deposition where Trump said he is married to Melania, since 2005. Trump also acknowledged himself as the speaker in the "Access Hollywood" tape during his deposition, although no video was played, and only the transcript was admitted as evidence.
Before the trial began, Trump's lawyers requested a day off on May 17 so that he could attend Barron's graduation. The judge had remained uncertain about this previously but ultimately granted the request since the trial's process was moving quickly enough.
Eric Trump, Trump's son, along with Susie Wiles, his senior campaign adviser, were present at the trial, making them the first family members to attend since the proceedings started. Other attendees included Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, and David McIntosh, who co-founded conservative political groups like the Club for Growth.
These visits may signal the start of a new trend for Trump's allies: instead of visiting him at Mar-a-Lago, they might decide to come to the courtroom where he's standing trial in New York.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
