Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial, Week 3: Live Updates

Trump is speaking at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, this afternoon — his first such campaign event since the hush money trial began last month.

Speaking from a teleprompter in what appeared to be prepared remarks, Trump addressed the trial only briefly, calling Judge Merchan “crooked” and “totally conflicted.”

Trump also suggested the jury won’t be fair since “it’s a 95% or so Democrat area,” and repeated the claim that he’s done nothing wrong to merit any of the four criminal trials he’s facing.

The remarks come one day after the former president was fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order in the trial.

Trump’s trial isn’t in session on Wednesdays, allowing him time to travel and campaign as he sees fit. Instead of campaigning last Wednesday, Trump went golfing at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

With court not sitting Wednesday, Trump is finally stretching his legs on the campaign trail. Trump has bemoaned not being able to see the whites-of-the-eyes of voters because each day of the trial he’s been required to attend the Manhattan courtroom – a venue the ex-president has characterized as an “icebox.”

Trump will get the chance to thaw out as he holds his first proper rallies since the hush money trial began, and two crucial swing states are on the itinerary. He’ll first campaign in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and then head to Freeland, Michigan. Biden took both Midwest states from Trump in 2020, and they remain on a knife-edge ahead of November’s vote. He plans to attack Biden on the economy and crime, with the latter likely to be informed by Trump's own grievances with the justice system.

But before firing up the base, Trump fired off some invective on social media. Inevitably, he’s turned his gaze to the college campus protests dominating the news cycle, blasting “the Radical Left Lunatics” who are apparently holding pro-Palestine protests to “take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border.” It’s an opinion.

Court has been dismissed for the day. There's no trial on Wednesdays — jurors have been instructed to show up on Thursday at 10 a.m.

The entire process of orchestrating Daniels’ hush money payment was “very frustrating” because of the repeated delays in payment, Davidson said. He affirmed that he sent an email to Cohen for the “fourth or fifth time” with instructions to wire money on Oct. 26, 2016.

The same day, Davidson described receiving a forwarded email from a third party stating that funds had been deposited into Cohen's account. To Davidson, the email meant "nothing," because Cohen was just “saying that he had the money, not that he sent the money to me.”

Asked to describe Cohen's demeanor around this time, Davidson replied: “He was highly excitable, sort of a pants-on-fire kind of guy. He had a lot of things going on, frequently [I'd] be on the phone with him and he’d take another call, be talking out of two ears. Sort of like that movie ‘Up’ with the dog — ’Squirrel! Squirrel!’”

Prosecuting attorney Steinglass appears to be trying to get Davidson to say more explicitly that Trump was ultimately the one paying to kill Daniels’ story, but he was preventing Cohen from fulfilling the deal because he was cheap. The defense keeps objecting.

“It was my understanding that Mr. Trump was the beneficiary of this contract,” Davidson said, adding that the beneficiary is usually the one who pays. Merchan struck the latter part of the answer from the record.

Davidson read a text from Howard from around this time: “I reckon that Trump impersonator I hired has more cash.” Davidson, who replied "lol" at the time, said in court that he took Howard's comment to mean that Trump “wasn’t as wealthy” as he led people to believe he was.

Back from a short break, Keith Davidson read more texts between himself and Dylan Howard, including one where Howard wrote about being pestered by Cohen in mid-October 2016.

“Cohen was leaning on Dylan to placate Gina [Rodriguez, Daniels’ manager],” Davidson said. He went on to explain how he believed Daniels and her manager had a backup plan to generate “tremendous media attention” around the story if Cohen or somebody did not make good on their original deal.

“All because Trump is tight,” read one of Howard’s texts to Davidson remarking on the situation.

Not believing Cohen to be true to his word, Davidson testified that he tried to cut his ties to the deal after receiving no payment for several days. He emailed Cohen and Daniels to say the agreement should be considered void and he was no longer Daniels' lawyer.

“I said to Cohen and to my client, I’m out. Go in peace,” Davidson said. He added of Cohen: “I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election.

To avoid using their client’s real names, Keith Davidson said they used code names in the agreement. Trump was “David Dennison” while Stormy Daniels was referred to as “Peggy Peterson.”

Why Dennison? Because he was the defendant, said Davidson. They chose “Peterson,” he said, because Daniels was the plaintiff.

Davidson told Steinglass that Dennison was also a real person who was on his high school hockey team.

"How does he feel about you now?" asked Steinglass.

"He's very upset," said Davidson.

Keith Davidson testified that the terms of the deal stipulated a payment was owed by Friday, Oct. 14, 2016. But no payment was received that day, or all weekend. On Monday, Oct. 17, 2016, Davidson sent Cohen an email demanding to know what was going on. He said that Cohen gave him “excuses” that involved the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, the Secret Service and computer systems that were “all fucked up.”

Davidson said he came to believe Cohen did not have the authority to spend the money. He expressed how frustrated his client was, and then recalled Cohen saying, "Goddamn it, I'll just do it myself."

Before the tape surfaced and threw Trump’s campaign into disarray, there was not much interest from any publisher in buying Daniels’ story about her alleged affair with Trump, Keith Davidson testified. But he said the tape sparked “tremendous” interest. He then read a text exchange between himself and Dylan Howard.

“Trump is fucked,” Davidson said, abbreviating the text as he read it aloud in court.

Howard replied: “Wave the white flag. It’s over, people!”

Both men, however, soon became involved in a deal to smother Daniels' story as they did with McDougal.

Keith Davidson recalled how Gina Rodriguez, Daniels’ then-manager, told him “some jerk called” and threatened to sue over a blog post on gossip website The Dirty claiming Trump had an affair with Daniels. That "jerk" was Cohen, Davidson said.

Upon calling Cohen back, Davidson said, “I was just met with a hustled barrage of insults and insinuations that went on for a while … I don’t think he was accusing us of anything. He was just screaming.”

Davidson said that, eventually, he expressed to Cohen that his client, Daniels, also wanted the blog post taken down. He sent a cease-and-desist letter, and the post was removed.

Asked whether he had “any understanding as to why AMI would be purchasing this story" from McDougal with no intention to print it, Keith Davidson said he thought there were two reasons.

“One explanation I was given was that they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn’t want to diminish her reputation. And the second was more of an unspoken understanding that there was a close affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump and AMI would not run this story … because it would tend to hurt Donald Trump," Davidson said. Asked whether he meant Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Davidson said yes.

The contract between McDougal and AMI was dated Aug. 5, 2016.

We have Keith Davidson back on the stand answering questions about the shape of the deal between AMI and McDougal in August 2016. Asked whether AMI would pay McDougal a total of $150,000, Dylan Howard replied: “Fuck it. Not my money. I’ll ask.” (Davidson abbreviated the swear word when he read the text aloud in court.)

Davidson said that an attorney for AMI asked him to reach out to Cohen, but that he did not want to do so because of a past experience talking to Trump’s attorney, which he described as “not pleasant or constructive.” Davidson did end up calling Cohen, because he understood the deal would benefit Cohen's client, Trump. (Trump, however, wasn't named on the paperwork.) AMI paid Davidson the sum for McDougal's story.

“Glad it all sorted,” Davidson texted Howard afterward.

“Fuckin’ Jesus,” Howard replied.

The nine posts and statements Trump made that violated his gag order have all been removed from his social media and campaign website, in compliance with Judge Merchan’s order from earlier this morning.

Trump will also have to pay a $9,000 fine ($1,000 per violation) and faces potential jail time should he find himself in contempt of court again.

Keith Davidson read a message between himself and AMI executive Dylan Howard during negotiations for her story.

Responding to Howard’s assertion that “we are going to lay it on thick for her,” Davidson responded: “Good. Throw in an ambassadorship for me. I’m thinking the Isle off Man.”

In court, he explained: “It was sort of in jest. That was just a joke.” He said the understanding was that, “somehow, if Karen did this deal with AMI, it would help Trump’s candidacy,” leading to a potential perk for him.

At this point in the negotiations, it was clear that McDougal's story would be purchased but not be made public.

We're now breaking for lunch.

Judge Merchan ruled this morning that Trump’s public attacks on witnesses put him in contempt of court, and Trump’s campaign immediately bragged about it in a fundraising email.

“A Democrat judge JUST HELD ME IN CONTEMPT OF COURT!” the email soliciting donations reads. “I was fined $9,000 for 9 gag order violations. THEY WANT TO SILENCE ME! They think they can BLEED ME DRY and SHUT ME UP, but I’ll NEVER stop fighting for YOU.”

The email then casts the gag order as a form of “election interference” before directing people to donate to the Trump National Committee.

Davidson testified that Howard eventually told him there was concern over McDougal’s lack of documentation regarding her alleged affair with Trump.

Later, Davidson texted Howard: “It’s a story that should be told.”

“I agree,” Howard replied.

The following month, in July, Howard texted asking to speak about Trump, saying that he thought he had “an entree” to pitch the story again. In another message, Davidson wrote to Howard: “Don’t forget about Cohen. Time is of the essence. The girl is being cornered by the estrogen mafia." In court, the attorney called it a “regrettable” phrase.

“That was a term I think [came from] one of Karen’s associates at that first meeting, there were several women who were leaning on Karen to sign a deal with ABC,” he explained. McDougal was rumored to be mulling an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars" because she was trying to reinvigorate her career. When Howard told him to "get me a price on McDougal," Davidson initially came back with a whopping price tag of $1 million.

Davidson claimed that McDougal did not want to tell her story about Trump. Yet the deals he was trying to negotiate for her — a story in tabloid media or an appearance on a reality show — would require her to do so, he said.

Davidson affirmed that he knows the key figures in the case: Daniels’ former manager Gina Rodriguez, American Media Inc. executives Dylan Howard and David Pecker, McDougal and Cohen.

He first came to know Cohen in 2011, after a blog post linked Trump to a client of his, whom he described as “Stephanie Clifford, AKA Stormy Daniels.” He said McDougal was a former client whom he met around 25 years ago when she dated a friend of his. They were reacquainted in June 2016, according to an email between Davidson and McDougal that was shown to the jury. The email also contained a retainer agreement regarding the story of McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump.

Davidson testified earlier that he would sell stories to tabloids, but only “rarely.”

Keith Davidson, a 53-year-old from California, has taken the stand. In the past, Davidson represented both Daniels and McDougal, and was responsible for transferring Daniels’ $130,000 hush money payment to her.

From 2016 to 2017, he testified that his firm was “heavily involved with media cases,” which meant lots of nondisclosure agreements.

We are going through clips of Trump’s Oct. 19, 2022, deposition that he gave from Mar-a-Lago. A video clip is played and then Thompson is asked to read the transcript for that portion.

Asked in the video deposition what Truth Social is, Trump replied, “It’s a platform that has been opened by me as an alternative to Twitter.”

In another clip, he is asked to confirm that he is married to Melania Trump since 2005. In another, he is asked whether he is familiar with the “Access Hollywood” tape.

Thompson is then dismissed, with no cross-examination.

Next up: attorney Keith Davidson.

Phillip Thompson, who works as a custodian of records for Esquire Deposition Solutions, is the next witness for the prosecution. He came from Texas to testify under a court order.

He’s explaining what a deposition is, and how it’s recorded.

Thompson affirmed that his company handled the deposition for one of writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation cases against Trump. He appears to be here simply to swear that Trump’s October 2022 deposition video and transcript are accurate.

“I have no idea who these women are. I have no idea,” Trump told a crowd shortly before the 2016 election in one of the clips played for jurors, apparently speaking about Daniels and McDougal.

“Whoever she is, wherever she comes from … the stories are total fiction. They’re 100% made up. They never happened. They never would happen,” Trump was heard saying. He called the stories “lies," “totally invented fiction,” and said, "It's a total setup.” Another video clip was shown from a Trump campaign event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in which Trump said, “All of these lies will be sued when the election is over.” In a final clip, as president-elect, Trump called Cohen a “very good lawyer.”

Browning is done, with no cross-examination.

Next up on the stand is Robert Browning, who has run CSPAN’s archives for 37 years and never before testified. He is there from Indiana under court order. Asked if he was nervous, Browning replied, “little bit.”

Colangelo asked Merchan for permission to bring up Trump’s attacks on Cohen and Daniels for three reasons: “to offset the defense claim that the witness are benefitting from their willingness to testify,” “to explain why both witnesses initially denied certain facts and have now acknowledged those facts,” and to present evidence of “the defendant’s consciousness of guilt.” Examples included comments from early 2018 where Trump defended Cohen’s loyalty before turning on him later that year, saying that Cohen was not a very good lawyer.Blanche argued that Trump’s attacks on Cohen were understandable given the circumstances and did not indicate guilt.

While the jury was out, attorneys from both sides haggled over text messages sent by witnesses and what role, if any, they should play in the trial.

One text, sent by Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal’s lawyer to American Media’s chief content officer on July, 1, 2017, reads, “He owes AMI everything & he fucked u. Idiot.” Presumably “he” is Trump, though it’s unclear.

Another text, sent by Stormy Daniels’ publicist Gina Rodriguez to former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard on Oct. 19, 2016, reads, “There is some shady shit going on.”

Trump complains regularly about the trial forcing him to forgo the usual campaign stops and rallies, yet he didn’t attend a single such event over the long three-day weekend. There was no court Monday in observance of Passover.

Court is also out on Wednesdays for this trial. Last week, Trump spent Wednesday playing golf at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Farro affirmed that after his bank learned the true purpose of the wire Cohen organized in late October 2016, they shuttered what Cohen-related accounts they could. He testified that the bank has "the optionality to close an account at any time."

"We choose not to be attached to what we consider to be negative press,” he said. “Once a client is not completely honest with us, we choose not to do business with them going forward,” Farro added.

Farro's testimony has now concluded. Jurors have been dismissed for their morning break.

Eric Trump appeared to be following the proceedings intently, switching his focus between the exhibits displayed on screens around the courtroom and Blanche, who is handling cross examination of Farro. Blanche is speaking quickly and at times, Farro seems irritated.

“He was a challenging client because of his desire to get things done so quickly,” Farro said of Trump’s longtime personal attorney, who had an office in Trump Tower. Over his direct testimony, Farro confirmed that Cohen had formed a shell company, created and funded a bank account and initiated a wire transfer all within a span of a few days.

“Ninety percent of the time, it was an urgent matter,” Farro said of his conversations with Cohen. They were infrequent calls, he said, only three or four times per year. He affirmed that his managers chose him to work with Cohen because they thought Farro could handle him. Once information on the hush money transfer became public, he said he was pulled away from Cohen as a client.

There would have been “additional due diligence” on the bank’s part that could have delayed or prevented the transaction from taking place if Farro knew it was related to a presidential candidate’s campaign or that it was a hush money payment for a porn star. That type of wire could have been considered a “reputational risk” for the bank, he said.

Prosecutors walked him through records showing how Cohen took out a home equity loan and used the funds to transfer a hush money payment to Keith Davidson, an attorney for Stormy Daniels. The implication was that Cohen made the wire look like a real estate transaction.

We're now done with direct examination, and are on to cross examination.

A prosecutor walked the banker through documents and emails he was on that referenced Cohen’s request to set up a new bank account in the name of a shell company on Oct. 26, 2016, and then wire $131,000 to that account. It was dry testimony; jurors were observed looking intently at the exhibits on their screens.

Judge Merchan warned Trump that he could be jailed if he continued to violate the gag order on him, according to the AP.

Trump must remove the offending social media posts by 2:15 p.m. today, according to CNN.

According to the order, "THEREFORE, Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment."

You can read the ruling here.

Another hearing on four more alleged violations will be held Thursday morning.

Merchan cleared up a scheduling issue that had come up at the start of the trial — Trump's request to take Friday, May 17, off to attend his youngest child's graduation.

Another date that Trump requested, June 3, depends on whether the jury is in deliberations by then. If they are, he won't be able to take the day off.

With jurors back in their box, a former banker for Cohen, Gary Farro, has resumed his testimony about a bank account Cohen asked him to open under the name “Essential Consultants LLC” in October 2016.

A somber Trump walked into the courtroom with his team of lawyers, some carrying boxes of documents. His second-eldest son, Eric Trump, is in court today to support his father. The two chat over the bar before Trump takes his seat.

This is the first time a member of Trump's family has shown up at the trial.

Trump’s motorcade has made it to the Manhattan courthouse ahead of another day of proceedings, according to CNN's live coverage.

His son, Eric Trump, was spotted joining the motorcade, the network reported.

Trump’s new interviews in Time magazine provide an alarming backdrop as we wait for the former president to enter the courtroom for the third week of his criminal trial. Trump spoke with reporter Eric Cortellessa twice in order to describe his goals for a second term, providing what Cortellessa called “the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”

Among the sweeping changes Trump would aim to make would be mass detention camps for migrants along the border, a federal government filled with his acolytes and permission for red states to monitor women’s pregnancies. Read the full profile here.