Former President Trump’s trial in Manhattan has featured a handful of witness testimony, including from Keith Davidson, the attorney of former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
Davidson, who represented Daniels as well as former Playboy model Karen McDougal, took the stand on Tuesday as the trial’s sixth witness. Both McDougal and Daniels attempted to sell their stories of affairs with Trump to media outlets, Davidson recounted in court.
Davidson spoke about conversations he had in 2016 with Dylan Howard, the former chief content officer at American Media Inc. and editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, regarding the outlet potentially covering McDougal’s claims she had an affair with Trump in the early 2000s . He also testified to negotiations he had with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, regarding payment to Daniels for her claims of an affair with Trump in 2006.
Davidson is a longtime Beverly Hills attorney who has represented a handful of individuals and companies in legal battles against notable celebrities such as Charlie Sheen, Hulk Hogan and Paris Hilton.
Trump is charged with more than 34 felonies, including falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty to each one and slammed the case as a “witch hunt” and “scam.”
The NY v. Trump case focuses on Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who allegedly paid Daniels $130,000 to quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels .
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony, in violation of a New York law called “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.”
