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

"I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize," said Trump in a taped video after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape during the 2016 presidential campaign. This was a chastened Trump, after he called the tape "locker room talk."

In the recorded video, he calls the tape a "distraction" that depicts him saying "foolish things." Another bizarre moment in this trial.

The prosecution is continuing with its questioning of Longstreet — after describing the Washington Post article they just agreed not to enter as evidence — a David Fahrenthold story, I believe one describing the "Access Hollywood" tape.

The jury is still out on break and the defense is going through a series of pieces of evidence — one Washington Post article and several social media posts — that the defense is seeking to exclude.

Prosecutors say they’ll withdraw their request to enter the Post story — perhaps they will simply describe the article — but they stick with various exhibits showing Twitter and Social media posts.

Given the testimony of Longstreet, the paralegal, the judge says that for purposes of this discussion and each individual exhibit, “I’m satisfied that it’s reliable” — a reference to Longstreet’s work logging the various posts. He allows those exhibits.

Trump, hands in suit pockets, is glancing around the courtroom during this brief break, occasionally rubbing his eyes. It’s true what journalists in attendance have said — it is truly bizarre seeing the former president of the United States in a state criminal courtroom.

I just made a few seconds of eye contact with the former president – or maybe he was staring at CNN's Anderson Cooper, who’s sitting a row in front of me and, fittingly, reading a paper copy of the Wall Street Journal’s “Mansion” section.

Merchan has dismissed the jury for their morning break, and now Trump and his defense attorneys are discussing an early hearsay objection regarding social media evidence — including details such as handles and publishing times and dates.

The courtroom is now about half empty as members of the audience take bathroom breaks.

Longstreet is now explaining how she retrieved news articles and social media posts on the “Wayback Machine,” sometimes known as the Internet Archive. The website is essentially an internet archiving service that can be used to show how websites looked on a day in the past. Longstreet explains how she assembled various archived websites of articles and Trump’s social media posts.

In a truly bizarre moment in front of Trump — who used to be perhaps the world’s most prominent Twitter user — Longstreet is describing how Twitter, now X, works. She’s explaining terms like “followed” and “verified.”

Back in 2016, she says, “verified” Twitter users were politicians, celebrities, or others of “prominent social status.” (Now, people can just buy the status, she says.) She affirms verifying Trump’s Twitter activity by checking against the National Archives.

She's going through the same questioning with regard to Truth Social, the right-wing Twitter clone that's now Trump's online home.

Longstreet says she’s used an application called “SnapIt” to save around 1,500 files related to Trump’s case — the result of reviewing between 5,000 and 10,000 public articles and posts, she says. Now, she’s describing how saved files are indexed.

The prosecution has called a new witness, Georgia Longstreet, a woman in a blazer who says she’s from Brooklyn. She’s a paralegal at the Manhattan district attorney’s office and says she worked on the Trump case for “about a year and a half,” identifying publicly available material on the case, including social media posts and news articles.

Prosecutor Conroy just established with Daus that the forensic accounting of a recording previously discussed in the trial was the evidentiary "gold standard."

When Conroy asked Daus if there was “evidence of tampering or any manipulation” of the recording, Trump’s team objected and asked for a sidebar with the judge.

Merchan overruled the objection and Daus said he saw no evidence of tampering with the recording – and repeated the answer when asked if there was evidence of tampering with any of the prosecution’s evidence: “No.”

“Is it unusual for a phone to be used?” prosecutor Christopher Conroy asked Daus, somewhat cheekily, at the beginning of his questioning just now.

“No,” Daus said.

Conroy noted that the defense just went over several recordings on Cohen’s phone that aren’t related to the trial. “Is it unusual for a phone to be used to make recordings?” Conroy asks. “No,” Daus says again.

Bove just pressed Daus on the laptop to which Cohen synced his phone. Daus affirmed he hasn’t examined the computer. Then Bove turned to Cohen’s phone. “We’d have to take Michael Cohen’s word” for what was happening with the phone prior to the tech getting his hands on it, Daus established.

Bove pressed on the details of the laptop and phone’s activity over the years, including the phone being turned on and off repeatedly. The activity raises “questions about how this phone was handled,” he says. Such activity would “have to be taken into account,” Daus says.

After Daus agrees that we’re basically taking Cohen’s word for what happened over the years with his phone, Bove ends his questioning.

Bove is asking Daus about the Cohen-Trump call previously discussed at trial, and a transcript of it that was subsequently released by Cohen’s lawyers publicly in 2018. He has Daus confirm that Cohen and his attorneys were handling the file “external to the phone."

Bove also confirms that Daus wasn’t able to do any forensic analysis on a potential call interrupting the recording under discussion; the last 46 seconds of the file were cut off.

“If that recording was modified or edited at some point later,” Bove says, then time stamps would reflect as much.

“The file shows the same metadata information as the time,” Daus says. Bove moves to strike the testimony, but Merchan overrules him. Bove tries again, asking if there’s any sign the recording has been modified — no, Daus says, just a timestamp showing when it was created.

Bove is now asking Daus about the phone’s “factory reset” function, which can be used to wipe data off of a phone. Daus agrees the phone has been wiped by the phone’s user, and also that it had been “synced” on Jan. 25, 2017, to a laptop belonging to Cohen.

“There was some kind of sync where Mr. Cohen plugged the phone into his laptop” and it transferred some files onto the laptop? Bove asks. Daus says that Cohen was bringing an iTunes backup onto the phone, saying “an entire backup happened.”

Emil Bove, a defense attorney, is questioning Daus, seemingly attempting to introduce doubt about the chain of custody of one of Michael Cohen’s phones.

He discusses a “gap” in custody of the phone, detailing the spaces for witnesses’ names on an evidence custody form, and going over a Signal app that was on Cohen’s phone. He noted that the app allows users to set messages to self-delete — ”there appears to be a self-destruct timer” set to seven seconds on one conversation, Daus says.

Bove brings up another app, “Dust,” on Cohen’s phone, another messaging app with a function allowing users to delete messages automatically.

The first witness today was here yesterday as well — Douglas Daus, a digital evidence analyst for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The jury has entered the courtroom, wearing mostly business casual with a couple wearing suits and a couple in more casual attire. The judge apologizes for keeping them waiting.

Both sides just argued for and against including certain aspects of the so-called “Access Hollywood” tape as trial evidence; the recording includes audio of Trump describing assaulting women.

Judge Merchan, describing it as “powerful evidence,” said the prosecution could include a transcript of the tape, but not Trump’s face or voice: “I don’t want those words to be associated with Mr. Trump’s face or his voice,” the judge said.

Both sides then went back and forth over how to establish the date and time that the tape was made made public – either through an archived screenshot of news coverage or verbally, via a witness.

Both sides are now conferring with the judge.

The judge says there may have been a “misunderstanding” regarding extrajudicial statements: Merchan told Trump he has an "absolute right to testify at trial if that’s what you decide to do in consultation with your attorneys.”

Trump falsely said yesterday that he’d been prohibited by the judge from testifying. Merchan says Trump is not prohibited from doing so “in any way,” and that the order “only applies to extrajudicial statements.”

Judge Juan Merchan just entered the courtroom, following the exit of a group of photographers that took the former president’s photo.

He's wearing a blue suit and tie and a scowl, surveying the courtroom with sweeping glances as he approaches his seat at the front of the courtroom.

Bove is using his cross-examination to cast doubt on Daus’ extraction tools and methodology, seemingly hinting that the data could have potentially been tainted by someone outside his office.

“There’s room for user error in the acquisition process, right?” Bove asked. Daus says yes.

Trump’s voice reverberated throughout the courtroom when another of Cohen’s secretly recorded conversations was played. Although difficult to make out at times through rustling noises, Trump could be heard saying, “It’s so false what they’re saying. It’s such bullshit.” Cohen agreed.

Cohen then told Trump he needs to “open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” referring to David Pecker, the head of AMI and the National Enquirer who agreed to help Trump with his 2016 campaign.

“I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up” regarding “financing,” Cohen said in the recording. Trump told him to pay cash.

Cohen had two phones that he consented to be analyzed by the government: an iPhone 6 with a gold case and an iPhone 7 with a black case. (The models were released in 2015 and 2016, respectively.)

Daus, the IT expert, said that he found a whopping 39,745 contacts on the first phone — a highly unusual amount. Usually he saw “hundreds” of entries, maybe up to 1,000. Some of the names listed: Rona Graff, Hope Hicks, Gary Farro and Melania Trump.

The second phone had a much more reasonable 385 contacts.

The next witness to take the stand is Douglas Daus, a forensic data analyst at the Manhattan DA’s office.

He is talking about what kind of data can be extracted from digital devices — texts, contact lists, calendar entries, emails, audio files and more.

A conversation with Davidson that Cohen surreptitiously recorded is played for the jury — the first time one of Cohen’s tapes has made an appearance. The conversation took place in early 2018 as Cohen's relationship with Trump was starting to crumble.

“And what would you do if you were me?” Cohen said in the recording, sounding exasperated.

“I can’t even imagine,” Davidson replied.

Cohen went on: “I mean, would you write a book? Would you break away from the entire Trump — we’ll call it — ‘doctrine’? Would you go completely rogue? Would you join with [Steve] Bannon? Any — any thoughts? Because it’s not just me that’s now being affected. It’s my entire family and there’s no … nobody’s thinking about Michael.”

“Who else would do that for somebody? Who else?” Cohen asked, apparently speaking about the Daniels payment, which Cohen handled before being reimbursed months later. “I did because I care about the guy … and I’m saying to myself, ‘What about me? What about me?’”

“Even if you wanted to write a book, you probably couldn’t,” Davidson told Cohen, referencing the attorney-client privilege Cohen shared with Trump.

“Nah, I could. I could,” Cohen responded. Murmurs in the gallery.

Cohen also said he "couldn't even tell you how many times" Trump had told him "I hate that we did it," which Davidson took to mean the Daniels payment.

Now that prosecutors played their clip of choice from the conversation, Trump's team has their clip played, so the jury can hear Davidson use phrases like "leverage" that potentially cast doubt on his credibility.

Davidson’s cross-examination is complete. Prosecutors have asked for a five-minute break in order to gather an exhibit. With jurors out of the room, Trump stands and speaks to Bove, who was handling the cross. For several long seconds, Trump faces the public gallery, looking down his nose at all the reporters typing away. He presses his lips out in an O shape.

Davidson is being asked about a conversation he had with Cohen that Cohen had secretly recorded. He puts on headphones to listen to the recording to refresh his recollection about using phrases like “settlers’ remorse” and “leverage” in regard to Daniels. Bove’s delivery is clear and strong; he will occasionally step back from the microphone and raise his voice nearly to shouting volume.

“You used the word ‘leverage,’ correct?” Bove asks.

“Yes,” Davidson responds.

“And that was Ms. Daniels’ goal, was it not, to create leverage over President Trump?”

“No.”

Davidson stressed that he was speaking two years after coordinating Daniels’ hush money agreement, when she’d heard that a third party was willing to potentially give her the $1 million she would need to breach her contract.

We’re back with Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer answering questions from Trump attorney Emil Bove. Davidson is answering questions about his relationship with Cohen after the Daniels deal went through.

“He sent me a non-paying client,” Davidson said of Cohen.

Davidson pushed back on the suggestion that he worked "together" with Cohen, but accepted the phrasing that he interacted professionally with Cohen.

The judge pushed back on Trump’s team’s request for more guidance on what he can and cannot post online and still be in compliance with his gag order, saying that he was not going to put himself in a position of vetting Trump’s Truth Social posts for him.

“I think the best advice you can give your client is if there’s any doubt, steer clear,” Merchan said. “I think if in doubt, steer clear. That’s all I can say.”

We'll be back in around an hour.

Bove has been trying generally to discredit Davidson by questioning his memory and ethics. Davidson at one point responded by saying he’s had a lot of clients —more than 1,500 — in his career.

Davidson has been investigated over extortion accusations in the past. His client list has included celebrities like the wrestler Hulk Hogan and reality star Tila Tequila. Bove has attempted to get him to confirm he “extracted” money from famous figures, like the actor Charlie Sheen for other clients, but Davidson said he largely did not remember settlements from more than a decade ago. He also objected to Bove's phrasing.

“Look, we’re both lawyers. I’m not here to play lawyer games with you,” Bove told Davidson at one point.

“If you’re not here to play legal games, then don’t say ‘extract,’” Davidson told him.

At another point, Davidson told Bove, “You are getting truthful answers … sir.”

Trump attorney Emil Bove has launched a line of questioning about “extortion,” asking Davidson to define the term.

“Extortion is the obtaining of property by threat or fear of force,” Davidson replied.
When Bove asks Davidson whether he thought he was particularly good at getting close “to the line” without actually committing extortion, Davidson replied that he did not understand the question. Bove rephrased it.

“I did everything I could to make sure my activity was lawful,” Davidson said.

Davidson was asked to recall Cohen’s demeanor after Trump won the election and Cohen found out he would not be given a place in the new administration. He previously testified about how distraught Cohen had been when he found out he was not going to Washington.

“I thought he was going to kill himself,” Davidson said of Cohen.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is now questioning Davidson for the defense. He begins by asking whether Davidson knows Trump; Davidson said he does not.

In brief, previously unscheduled remarks Thursday morning, President Biden addressed the growing pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the country that have at times been marred by violence and vandalism.

Speaking from the Roosevelt room, Biden praised both the right to free speech and the rule of law as "fundamental American principles" and urged both be upheld and respected. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," he said, describing peaceful protest as "in the best tradition" of American democracy.

"But neither are we a lawless country," he said. "We’re a civil society and order must prevail.”

“There’s no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” he said. “There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind — whether it’s anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans.

“I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions,” he continued. “In America we respect and protect the right for them to express that. But it doesn’t mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate, and within the law.”

Asked afterward by a reporter if the protests have forced him to reconsider his polices in the region, where Israel has carried out an unrelenting assault since the Oct. 7 attack, Biden answered, "No."

He also stated he didn't believe the National Guard should intervene in any of the protests, either.

The President headed to North Carolina after the remarks, where he’s scheduled to pay respects to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in Charlotte earlier this week.

Asked whether he had a “stake” in the outcome of the trial, Davidson said he did not.

Cross-examination will begin after a morning break. Trump exited the courtroom expressionless.

Davidson said he was contacted by reporters for the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 10, 2018, who wanted comment on a story they were just about to publish detailing the hush money payment and alleged affair. Cohen suggested he write “a strong denial” for Daniels, which Davidson did. Daniels’ statement denied any “sexual and/or romantic affair" between herself and Trump and stated that “these stories are not true.”

“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” read Daniels' statement.

“An extremely strict reading of this denial would technically be true,” Davidson said of the statement, eliciting a couple snickers from the audience. For example, he said he did not think "anyone has alleged that any interaction" between Trump and Daniels would have been "romantic."

Later he pushed back on the term “hush money,” saying, “It wasn’t a payoff and it wasn’t hush money. It was consideration in a civil settlement.”

Davidson testified that he occasionally spoke with Cohen after the Daniels payment went though. He recalled Cohen telling him on one occasion: “Jesus Christ, can you believe I’m not going to Washington?”

“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. You know I never even got paid. That fucking guy’s not even paying me the $130,000 back.”

Davidson read a text sent late in the evening on Election Day 2016, as the results seemed to be favoring Trump.

He texted Howard, “What have we done?”

“Oh my god,” Howard responded.

“This was sort of gallows humor on election night as the results were coming in,” Davidson said in court. “There was an understanding that our efforts — strike that — that our activities may have assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”

The contract Daniels signed to receive her money contained a stipulation that she would owe $1 million if she spoke about her alleged affair.

“I believe the paragraph, the way this was drafted, was unenforceable,” Davidson said, explaining the damage amount was too excessive. Cohen had wanted the high number, he said.

With jurors seated in their box, Davidson, an attorney who represented McDougal and Daniels in 2016, is back fielding questions from the prosecution.

He is read part of an email between himself and Cohen from October 2016, when Davidson was trying to secure Daniels’ $130,000 payment. He said it “followed a conversation … between Dylan Howard, Michael Cohen and I” where Howard “came in as sort of the mediator” after Davidson “had lost trust in what [Cohen] was saying.”

On Oct. 27, 2016, Howard texted Davidson, “Money wired I am told.” Davidson replied, “Funds received.”

Merchan does not appear to be buying Blanche’s argument that Trump’s gag order is too limiting.

“He can’t just say ‘no comment’ repeatedly — he’s running for president,” Blanche said of his client. But Merchan told him that comments about one witness in the case could have a chilling effect on any other witness. The judge also pointed out that Trump seems to be going out of his way to comment on the case; he generally talks to a hallway press gaggle at the start of the day and at the end.

“It was your client who went down to that [press area] and started to speak. He didn’t need to go that direction. The door that he uses is to the right,” Merchan told Blanche.

Merchan tipped his hand regarding one of the alleged violations, though, telling Blanche that he was “not terribly concerned” about Trump’s remark on Pecker.

While Blanche attempted to defend another of the alleged violations, wherein Trump claimed the jurors were Democrats, Merchan interrupted him to say: “I’m not accepting your argument.”

Merchan fined Trump $9,000 on Tuesday for nine gag order violations. Now, prosecutors are arguing that he violated it four more times, through comments he made about the trial's fairness outside the courthouse on April 22; comments he made about the judge and jurors during an interview with Real America’s Voice News the same day; comments to a Philadelphia ABC affiliate about Cohen that aired April 23; and comments he made about former AMI CEO David Pecker on April 25.

Merchan warned Trump on Tuesday that further violations might lead to “incarceratory punishment.”

Prosecutors are asking for $1,000 fines per incident.

"His statements are corrosive to this proceeding, and to the fair administration of justice," prosecuting attorney Christopher Conroy said.

Pointing out that the statements in question were made before Merchan ruled against Trump, Conroy added that "we are not yet seeking jail."

The former president has taken his seat in the courtroom. Unlike Tuesday, when his son Eric Trump appeared in court, no family members are with him.

Trump has arrived at the courthouse, CNN reports. First up is a hearing over alleged violations of his gag order.

He made comments to reporters on the way in as has become customary. He bragged about campaign rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin "The enthusiasm has never been better," he said. "It was nice to be able to campaign one day without being in this ridiculous show trial. Biden trial, I call it."

He commented on campus protests. He praised police and blamed "radical left lunatics."

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.