Donald Trump hush money trial: Takeaways from week two of testimony
Former President Donald Trump walks out to speak to reporters during his trial in Manhattan Criminal Court last Tuesday. Credit: POOL/AFP via Getty Images/Justin Lane
The private negotiations over the hush money deal brokered by lawyers for former President Donald Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels came into focus during the second week of testimony in Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial.
Over two days of questioning, Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Daniels in 2016, laid out his private conversations with Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Davidson cast Cohen, a Lawrence native, as a “highly excitable” aide who dragged his feet on finalizing a $130,000 deal to quash Daniels’ allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” Davidson told prosecutors on Tuesday.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has denied Daniels’ allegations. He has pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal reimbursements made to Cohen for the hush money payments.
As prosecutors seek to convince the jury the hush money payments were made to conceal damaging information that could have changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, they played a recording of Trump and Cohen speaking briefly about the conditions of the payment to Daniels.
Trump suggested Daniels be paid with cash, but Cohen said “No,” insisting a shell corporation should be used instead.
Here are other key takeaways from the second week of testimony:
During cross-examination, Trump’s legal team sought to portray Davidson as an opportunist who made a living from negotiating hush money deals. He represented one client who allegedly was paid by the celebrity news website TMZ in 2010 for information about actor and Long Island native Lindsay Lohan during her time in a drug rehabilitation facility.
Davidson, who is based in Los Angeles, also represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who alleged a long-term extramarital affair with Trump. She entered into a $150,000 hush money deal with the parent company of the National Enquirer before the 2016 election. The agreement was brokered by longtime Trump ally David Pecker, a tabloid executive who testified last week the deal was orchestrated to aid Trump’s presidential bid.
Trump defense attorney Emil Bove questioned whether Davidson’s work bordered on extortion.
“I did everything I could to make sure that my actions were lawful,” Davidson replied.
Sterling Marchand, a white collar criminal defense attorney with the Washington, D.C., firm Baker Botts, told Newsday it wasn't surprising Trump’s legal team sought to attack Davidson’s credibility as a key witness for the prosecution.
“I don’t think it is effective to suggest that Davidson’s past dealings with ‘hush money’ payments are unethical when that’s precisely the same type of payments at issue for Trump,” Marchand said. “It does nothing to undermine the crux of Davidson’s testimony on the back and forth with Cohen on the deals.”
Hope Hicks, Trump’s 2016 campaign spokeswoman and former White House communications director, was called by prosecutors to testify on Friday about the days leading up to the hush money deals with Daniels and McDougal.
Hicks, a key figure in Trump’s inner circle during his first presidential run and during his time in office, testified the release in October 2016 of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump could be heard boasting about grabbing women’s genitals without consent was pulling his campaign “backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”
“I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”
Hicks said she asked Cohen to investigate rumors of an additional damaging tape, but ultimately there wasn't one. Later, under cross-examination by Trump’s defense, she cast Cohen as an aide eager to “insert” himself into the 2016 campaign operation, even if he was not officially part of the campaign.
Trump often has complained the trial is preventing him from campaigning, but he has seized opportunities to campaign locally.
On Thursday evening, he delivered pizza to a fire department in midtown Manhattan, and on April 16 he spoke outside an upper Manhattan bodega, where he railed against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s handling of criminal prosecutions.
"It makes me campaign locally, and that's OK," Trump told reporters outside the bodega.
The trial, which is expected to run six weeks, includes a day off each Wednesday. Last Wednesday, he held rallies in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, where he railed against the charges against him and the trial judge in the case, Juan Merchan.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Wisconsin, Trump would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if he were to lose.
“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Trump said. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
Trump was fined $9,000 for violating a court-imposed gag order that bars him from talking about witnesses and jurors.
Merchan on Monday held Trump in contempt of court, and warned the former president that if he continued to violate the gag order he could face time in jail “if necessary.”
Trump was ordered to take down a series of social media posts that took aim at Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution.
Merchan is expected to rule on four additional alleged violations brought forward by prosecutors late last week, after hearing arguments from both sides on Thursday.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said inaccurately the gag order prevented him from testifying. That prompted Merchan to clarify from the bench on Friday that there was no restriction on Trump testifying should he choose to do so.
“I want to stress Mr. Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial, just as you have the absolute right not to testify,” Merchan said.
The trial will return to a four-day schedule this coming week after a court holiday last Monday led to a three-day trial week.
The private negotiations over the hush money deal brokered by lawyers for former President Donald Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels came into focus during the second week of testimony in Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial.
Over two days of questioning, Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Daniels in 2016, laid out his private conversations with Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Davidson cast Cohen, a Lawrence native, as a “highly excitable” aide who dragged his feet on finalizing a $130,000 deal to quash Daniels’ allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” Davidson told prosecutors on Tuesday.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has denied Daniels’ allegations. He has pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal reimbursements made to Cohen for the hush money payments.
As prosecutors seek to convince the jury the hush money payments were made to conceal damaging information that could have changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, they played a recording of Trump and Cohen speaking briefly about the conditions of the payment to Daniels.
Trump suggested Daniels be paid with cash, but Cohen said “No,” insisting a shell corporation should be used instead.
Here are other key takeaways from the second week of testimony:
Defense goes after Daniels’ lawyer
During cross-examination, Trump’s legal team sought to portray Davidson as an opportunist who made a living from negotiating hush money deals. He represented one client who allegedly was paid by the celebrity news website TMZ in 2010 for information about actor and Long Island native Lindsay Lohan during her time in a drug rehabilitation facility.
Davidson, who is based in Los Angeles, also represented former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who alleged a long-term extramarital affair with Trump. She entered into a $150,000 hush money deal with the parent company of the National Enquirer before the 2016 election. The agreement was brokered by longtime Trump ally David Pecker, a tabloid executive who testified last week the deal was orchestrated to aid Trump’s presidential bid.
Trump defense attorney Emil Bove questioned whether Davidson’s work bordered on extortion.
“I did everything I could to make sure that my actions were lawful,” Davidson replied.
Sterling Marchand, a white collar criminal defense attorney with the Washington, D.C., firm Baker Botts, told Newsday it wasn't surprising Trump’s legal team sought to attack Davidson’s credibility as a key witness for the prosecution.
“I don’t think it is effective to suggest that Davidson’s past dealings with ‘hush money’ payments are unethical when that’s precisely the same type of payments at issue for Trump,” Marchand said. “It does nothing to undermine the crux of Davidson’s testimony on the back and forth with Cohen on the deals.”
Hope Hicks takes the stand
Hope Hicks, Trump’s 2016 campaign spokeswoman and former White House communications director, was called by prosecutors to testify on Friday about the days leading up to the hush money deals with Daniels and McDougal.
Hicks, a key figure in Trump’s inner circle during his first presidential run and during his time in office, testified the release in October 2016 of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump could be heard boasting about grabbing women’s genitals without consent was pulling his campaign “backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”
“I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”
Hicks said she asked Cohen to investigate rumors of an additional damaging tape, but ultimately there wasn't one. Later, under cross-examination by Trump’s defense, she cast Cohen as an aide eager to “insert” himself into the 2016 campaign operation, even if he was not officially part of the campaign.
Campaigning between court appearances
Trump often has complained the trial is preventing him from campaigning, but he has seized opportunities to campaign locally.
On Thursday evening, he delivered pizza to a fire department in midtown Manhattan, and on April 16 he spoke outside an upper Manhattan bodega, where he railed against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s handling of criminal prosecutions.
"It makes me campaign locally, and that's OK," Trump told reporters outside the bodega.
The trial, which is expected to run six weeks, includes a day off each Wednesday. Last Wednesday, he held rallies in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, where he railed against the charges against him and the trial judge in the case, Juan Merchan.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Wisconsin, Trump would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if he were to lose.
“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Trump said. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
Trump held in contempt
Trump was fined $9,000 for violating a court-imposed gag order that bars him from talking about witnesses and jurors.
Merchan on Monday held Trump in contempt of court, and warned the former president that if he continued to violate the gag order he could face time in jail “if necessary.”
Trump was ordered to take down a series of social media posts that took aim at Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution.
Merchan is expected to rule on four additional alleged violations brought forward by prosecutors late last week, after hearing arguments from both sides on Thursday.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said inaccurately the gag order prevented him from testifying. That prompted Merchan to clarify from the bench on Friday that there was no restriction on Trump testifying should he choose to do so.
“I want to stress Mr. Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial, just as you have the absolute right not to testify,” Merchan said.
The week ahead
The trial will return to a four-day schedule this coming week after a court holiday last Monday led to a three-day trial week.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
