Donald Trump’s attorneys on Thursday sought to paint one of the witnesses at the heart of the hush money deal with Stormy Daniels as someone with a long history of extracting money from celebrities while going “up to the line without committing extortion.”
Trump attorney Emil Bove raised a host of celebrities Keith Davidson has dealt with — Hulk Hogan, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen and Tila Tequila — seeking both to undercut Davidson’s credibility as a witness and to argue that the deals he cut involving the former president followed a long-running pattern.
Before the testimony began, Judge Juan Merchan held a second hearing on Trump’s alleged violations of his gag order where prosecutors raised four more statements Trump had made that they say violated the judge’s gag order barring discussion of witnesses and the jury. Trump has already been fined $9,000 for nine violations earlier this week.
Here are the top takeaways from Day 10 of the Trump hush money trial:
Trump lawyer drags Davidson through the celebrity mud: After prosecutors finished walking Davidson meticulously through the deals he cut before the 2016 election for both Daniels and Karen McDougal, Trump’s attorney dragged Davidson through the proverbial celebrity mud, ticking through a host of deals he was involved with related to other high-profile figures.
Bove pressed Davidson on whether he had studied extortion law when he sought money from AMI and Cohen for the McDougal and Daniels deals. Bove asked Davidson whether he went “right up to the line without committing extortion” with the Trump deals.
“I don’t understand your question,” Davidson responded.
Another gag order hearing over Trump comments: Merchan held a second hearing Thursday morning over more gag order violations prosecutors want Trump held in contempt for. Merchan did not rule on the latest allegations after Thursday’s hearing. Prosecutor Chris Conroy pointed to four of Trump’s comments since last Monday — two were about Cohen, the others were about the jury and former AMI chief David Pecker.
The district attorney’s office wants Trump fined $1,000 for each violation but is not yet asking Merchan to jail him, noting the inconvenient slowing effect it’d have on the trial.
Witnesses don’t have nice things to say about Michael Cohen: Davidson described how Cohen was difficult to deal with, frequently acting in a “pants on fire” manner. Davidson testified that he had “lost trust” with Cohen to pay the money he’d agreed to in the Daniels deal — and at one point he said the deal was off after Cohen failed to meet a deadline. He also described Cohen as despondent during a December 2016 phone call after learning that he would not be getting a job in the White House.
“He said something to the effect of, ‘Jesus Christ can you f**king believe I’m not going to Washington after everything I’ve done for that f**king guy. I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s a** so many times you don’t even know,’” Davidson testified Cohen told him.
