NEW YORK—The sixth day of testimony in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump concluded with new revelations as to how Keith Davidson, an attorney for adult star Stormy Daniels who represented her during negotiations of the catch-and-kill deal, believes his actions aided in the win of the former president during the 2016 presidential election.
Davidson, an attorney from Los Angeles, represented both Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during negotiations for the rights to their stories. Davidson negotiated a deal between McDougal and the tabloid National Enquirer to secure the rights to the story that she had an affair with Trump from 2006 to 2007. McDougal was paid $150,000. Davidson also negotiated directly with Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, to secure a hush-money settlement for Daniels' allegations.
Daniels and Trump used pseudonyms in a contract negotiated between Davidson and Cohen. Daniels was referred to as "Peggy Peterson," and Trump was "David Dennison." This was a strategy to ensure the confidentiality of the agreeing parties; it is, in fact, a common tactic to choose "P" and "D" pseudonyms in a scenario such as this one when a risk of legal action exists, representing the potential Plaintiff and Defendant in the possible case.
Davidson testified in court that he believes this deal between Daniels and Trump aided in the latter winning the election against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Davidson also admitted that if Trump lost the election, Daniels would have no leverage over the then-political candidate. Meanwhile, Davidson testified that he expressed regret about his actions in a text exchange with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard, who worked for then-publisher David Pecker and the defunct American Media Inc. parent company that previously owned the tabloid outlet. On election night in 2016, evidence presented by prosecutors shows Davidson texting Howard: "What have we done?" Their collective "activities may have, in some way," helped Trump secure his victory.
This is central to the prosecution's argument that Trump authorized the payments to hush up Daniels and McDougal to sway the election. Cohen held a central role in the scheme, Davidson testified, which contributed to the allegations that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to falsify business records—resulting in the 34 felony counts stemming from the Stormy Daniels catch-and-kill.
Earlier in the prosecution's case, Pecker admitted to the court that he used the National Enquirer to benefit not just Trump personally but his presidential campaign. In essence, the failure to disclose these contributions potentially violated campaign finance laws in both New York state and at the federal level. Other testimony from Davidson highlighted how Cohen became despondent when the former president didn't ask him to join him in Washington, D.C., as a part of the newly minted Trump administration. Davidson said Cohen would call him often in the weeks following the election. Davidson testified to one specific conversation that occurred in mid-December 2016. "It was a long call, and he had told me he was depressed and despondent and said that I ... he used very colorful language about that stage in his life," Davidson said, speaking of Cohen on the other end of the phone line, via CBS News online.
Davidson recalled that the conversation was to the effect: "'Jesus Christ, can you fucking believe I'm not going to Washington, after everything I've done for that fucking guy?'" Davidson added that Cohen told him he was never compensated for the $130,000 he paid to Stormy Daniels for her silence through a shell company and bank account that Cohen's personal banker at the time, Gary Farro, confirmed in testimony earlier in the trial. Davidson also said Cohen was delayed in transferring the funds to accounts he managed on behalf of Stormy Daniels at the time. Davidson also recalled further fallout in the aftermath of the revelation that Daniels was compensated to keep her story quiet. This arose after the Wall Street Journal ran a piece that the former president used Cohen as a go-between to pay and settle Daniels' allegations against Trump.
A text exchange between Cohen and Davidson shared by the prosecution highlights the two coordinating the response to the Wall Street Journal report. Both discussed intentions to make sure that Daniels released statements of denial, calling the assertions in the article to be false. Daniels never fully agreed to the statements, and it eventually resulted in Daniels maintaining that she and Trump had an affair in 2006. Later on in the trial day, a digital forensics investigator for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Douglas Daus, testified that he conducted an analysis on devices once belonging to Michael Cohen. Reportedly, Cohen had nearly 40,000 contacts on his cell phone, including Melania Trump and former White House communications director Hope Hicks. Daus said this was not normal, adding that Cohen's second device had about 385 contacts, which is average for most people on their devices.
It was also revealed in testimony that the late Larry Flynt even offered to pay $1 million to Stormy Daniels to break the agreement between her and Trump, and cover her legal fees.
Cohen, Hicks and Daniels are expected to testify in the trial.
There was another hearing today on violations of the court's gag orders. Prosecutors argued to Judge Juan Merchan that Trump has continued to violate the gag orders. Trump was already fined $9,000 for nine violations and was threatened with jail if he continued to defy the court's orders. If found to still be in violation of the orders, Trump could be the first former president to be jailed.
