Testimony started w/a bang last week as David #Pecker, the fmr publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, said that he had entered into a secret plot w/ #Trump & #MichaelCohen to #CatchAndKill negative stories about Trump as he ran for president in 2016. #GaryFarro, the 3rd to testify, started off w/dry details about banking transactions. But #Farro is leading us to the #HushMoney payment
Judge #Merchan says #Trump can have May 17 to attend the high school graduation of his youngest son, Barron. Trump had complained about not immediately being given permission. “I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem,” the judge says.
Justice Juan M. #Merchan cruised over that quickly, but what just happened should not be overlooked. #Trump has been found in #contempt & fined what seems to be at least $5,000. The way it was presented was very hard to follow so we’ll confirm the number as soon as we can.
Merchan, issued his ruling as the #TrumpTrial began its third week, saying that #Trump’s statements, including on social media, had violated the #GagOrder. Prosecutors had asked that Trump be held in #contempt, citing 10 public statements that they said posed a “#threat” to the trial.
The judge, Juan M. #Merchan, fined him $9,000, punishing the former president for repeatedly violating a #GagOrder that bars him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors & jurors.
Merchan determined that #Trump had broken the #GagOrder by making several public statements on social media & on his campaign website in which he attacked #witnesses & the #jury.
Already, prosecutors have alerted to the judge to 4 new potential violations. Those were not covered by Justice #Merchan’s order & will be discussed at another hearing, which will be held on Thurs morning.
In addition to fining #Trump after finding him in #contempt, Justice Merchan ordered him to remove the offending Truth Social posts today.
Justice #Merchan wrote that he was “keenly aware of, and protective of, Defendant’s First Amendment rights.” But nonetheless, he wrote that he would not tolerate continued violations of his orders and that if necessary & appropriate, he would “impose an incarceratory sentence.” In plain language, he is warning #Trump that he will send him to #jail if necessary.
Justice #Merchan explicitly called #Trump’s claim that reposts don’t count as violations of the #GagOrder “counterintuitive and absurd.”
Justice Merchan rejected the defense’s claims that Trump had merely reposted the messages from others and that he had largely been acting in response to political attacks from two potential witnesses in the case: #MichaelCohen & #StormyDaniels.
#GaryFarro is testifying about LLCs & know-your-client forms. The prosecutor questioning him has asked him to spell out what LLCs are. Know-your-client forms are used by banks to verify who a client is.
“Everything was urgent w/ #MichaelCohen,” Gary Farro testifies about Cohen’s interest in opening his acct quickly. Cohen used the account to make the hush-money payment to #StormyDaniels.
He says Cohen did not make it clear that it would be used to pay a porn star.
First Republic did not do business w/the porn industry, as Farro testified last week. If the paperwork #MichaelCohen submitted had made allusions to its actual purpose, “there would be a determination made by the 2nd & 3rd line of defense” at the bank. The payment would have been flagged by bank auditors, as “it is an industry that we do not work with,” said Farro.
An email was shown from a FirstRepublic banker to #MichaelCohen, flagged as “high importance,” confirming his request to transfer $131k from his home equity line of credit acct to the Essential Consultants LLC acct.
Farro’s testimony is a reminder that moving money around always leaves an electronic footprint. There are wire transfers & paperwork inside the bank. It doesn’t always stop a fraud from happening but is helpful after the fact.
Mangold, one of the prosecutors, walked the banker Gary Farro through a wire transfer that occurred immediately after Essential Consultants LLC was created. The documents displayed show that on Oct. 27, 2016, #MichaelCohen & the LLC wired $130k to Keith Davidson, #StormyDaniels’ lawyer at the time. Cohen wrote that the purpose of the wire transfer was for a “retainer.”
It’s also the 1st time we’ve seen Blanche since the hearing last week in which he sought to argue that Trump had not violated the judge’s #GagOrder. Blanche lost that hearing.
Gary Farro was asked by Blanche about speaking with “the people,” (the prosecutors) Trump shook his head pointedly when Farro talked about meeting w/ prosecutors he had in DC ahead of his testimony.
#Blanche is trying to cast some doubt on #GaryFarro’s testimony & use him to criticize #MichaelCohen. He asks Farro to say again that Cohen was a “difficult client.” Farro agrees that he was.
Blanche is also trying to separate Cohen's actions from #Trump's, arguing that the account was never established as related to Trump. Basically it’s defense's entire argument: that Cohen was acting on his own.
#Gary Farro is reportedly a bit irritated w/ #Blanche, #Trump's lawyer. Blanche suggests that Farro opened up a shell corporation, & Farro bites back: “I don’t open up shell corporations. I open up LLC accounts.” Blanche is directing jurors' focus to what #MichaelCohen did -- that is, effectively start a shell corporation that was used to pay #StormyDaniels. It’s a way to attack Cohen through Farro, making the former fixer sound deceptive & potentially criminal.
After briefly consulting w/ his defense team & leaning down to whisper to #Trump, Todd #Blanche asked #GaryFarro directly if he ever had any communications w/ #MichaelCohen about Trump & if he ever spoke w/Trump himself. Farro said no.
Blanche has finished his cross-examination of Gary Farro, & Rebecca Mangold, a prosecutor, has returned for re-direct questioning.
During the break, the lawyers have continued to discuss the case with the judge. Now, a prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, rises & says that if #Trump testifies, the prosecution would seek to cross-examine him about the judge’s ruling on the #GagOrder. This issue will be argued at length sometime later — & possibly not even today — but Colangelo raises it now.
The #Trump campaign is already fund-raising off Justice #Merchan’s #GagOrder ruling, sending an email to supporters claiming, in all caps, that a “liberal judge just silenced me.”
The judge returned to the bench but #Trump took some extra time to return to the courtroom, which is unusual in this case. Now Trump is back & #Merchan has warned Todd #Blanche, his lawyer: “Let’s try to keep the breaks short.”
Trump is joined by his son Eric again, although Susie Wiles & Dan Scavino, two of his aides, have not re-entered the courtroom.
Dr. Robert Browning is the next witness. He is a Purdue professor focusing on #Congress & the #media, he is also the head of #CSPAN archives. He says he was compelled to testify.
Robert Browning explained that C-SPAN is a “public television network that telecasts events in their entirety.”
Browning is a custodial witness, or records custodian - witnesses certify the truth of records presented. In this trial, the defense did not agree on certain facts that the prosecution sought to stipulate were true. So, the prosecutors need these sorts of witnesses to help the jury understand the basic truth of the episodes they want to talk about at trial.
Prosecutors played #CSPAN clips, starting w/one from an Oct 2016 #Trump campaign rally in NC, where he talks about 2 women who said Trump sexually assaulted them. “I have no idea who these women are,” Trump said at the time. “These are lies being pushed by the media & the Clinton campaign to try & keep their grip on our country. They’re all false, totally invented, fiction.”
Trump seems to be watching himself as the C-SPAN clip plays on the monitor in front of him.
Next is video of a campaign event #Trump did in PA, in Oct 2016. He blasts media outlets & says, “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign.” He later vows to sue, saying "the events never happened, never."
Merchan precluded prosecution from introducing direct evidence that many women, near the end of the 2016 campaign, accused Trump of #SexualAssault. They are getting some of that evidence into the trial w/these videos of Trump attacking the women on the campaign trail.
The third video shows #Trump at a news conference in 2017 during the presidential transition, saying, “#MichaelCohen is a very talented lawyer, he’s a good lawyer.”
Defense had no questions.
We've moved on to a new witness, someone named Phillip Thompson who works at a company supplying court reporters, interpreters that transcribed Trump's deposition in #EJeanCarroll trial. He was subpoenaed.
Rebecca Mangold, one of the prosecutors, had Phillip Thompson walk through the validity of the transcript of Trump’s deposition in one of the #EJeanCarroll cases. We are now seeing video clips of #Trump in that deposition verifying that Truth Social is his social media site & what his handle is.
Asked to describe Truth Social, Trump answers, “It’s a platform that’s been opened by me as an alternative to Twitter.”
Prosecutors call #KeithDavidson, who negotiated 2 deals before the 2016 election that paid women from Trump’s past in exchange for their silence about sexual or romantic relationships w/him. He was a lawyer to #StormyDaniels during the #HushMoney transaction. He also represented #KarenMcDougal, a former Playboy model who was paid $150k by The #NationalEnquirer’s parent company for the rights to her story about a 10-month affair w/ #Trump starting in 2006.
Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, asks #KeithDavidson if he was given immunity from prosecution in this case. Davidson says, despite not having wanted to be here, that he did not seek immunity. This is a way for prosecutors to show that he is not simply cooperating to avoid prosecution himself.
Joshua Steinglass asks #KeithDavidson if he knows 2 key witnesses: #DavidPecker, who the jurors already have heard from, & #MichaelCohen, who they’ve heard a lot about. Steinglass is tying Davidson into the case, helping the courtroom understand where he’s situated. Davidson just said that he represented #StormyDaniels as her lawyer — Daniels, whose name has been dangled in front of jurors several times, is of course another key player & potential witness.
#Trump has been sitting w/his eyes closed for significant portions of testimony this morning. It is unclear how the jurors, who have to sit through this same testimony, will feel about a defendant closing their eyes so much.
Davidson is testifying about his agreement w/ #KarenMcDougal, a fmr Playboy model.
Davidson’s contract w/McDougal consisted of an agreement to either make a claim against #Trump, negotiate a confidentiality agreement w/ Trump, sell her life rights as related to her story of an affair w/ Trump, promote herself in an “exclusive” press opportunity, or some or all of the above.
Prosecutors are walking #KeithDavidson through his text messages w/ #DylanHoward, who was editor of The #NationalEnquirer, in which Davidson tells Howard: “I have blockbuster #Trump story.” In his reply, Howard asked, "did he cheat" on Melania.
The text messages are damning. Jurors already know the basics of #KarenMcDougal’s account of an affair w/ #Trump. But now they are seeing it corroborated in texts, right after they were reminded Trump was married to Melania at the time.
Prosecutors are stitching their case together w/lots of different types of evidence.
In texts between #DylanHoward, the editor of The #NationalEnquirer, & #KeithDavidson, Davidson tells Howard, that #KarenMcDougal’s story “should be told” & Howard responds “I agree.” The NE, as the jurors know, had no intention of telling the story — instead it sought to bury it. So not only does this evidence remind us of David Pecker’s testimony last week, it also helps prosecutors double down on the idea that The NE was involved in a secret plot to help #Trump.
#KeithDavidson stressed that #KarenMcDougal did not want to go public in telling her story, & he said that the competing deal w/ABC would have forced her to tell it.
Her goals were to rejuvenate her career, make money, & avoid becoming “the scarlet letter,”.
“Was AMI attractive because she would not actually have to tell her story?” Steinglass asked.
Davidson said, “That was one of her stated goals.”
“Throw in an ambassadorship for me. I’m thinking Isle of Man.”
Davidson said the text was a joke that referenced #Trump's campaign. Pressed further by the prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, he added that he understood that getting McDougal a deal would help Trump’s candidacy.
The #TrumpCampaign has removed 2 posts from its campaign website that Justice Merchan determined were violations of a gag order preventing #Trump from attacking potential #witnesses. Both posts involved #MichaelCohen.
It appears that the 7 social media posts that were also found to be violations of the #GagOrder have been deleted as well. Justice #Merchan ordered the posts' removal by this afternoon.
Today’s testimony & the texts being shared provide a look at the sleazy negotiations that were occurring behind the scenes in early Aug 2016, while #Trump was the #Republican nominee & only a few months #out from being elected. Publicly, at this time, Trump was consolidating a skeptical #GOP establishment behind his candidacy. Privately, his fixer, #MichaelCohen, was discussing the finer points of a #HushMoney w/ #KarenMcDougal & the owner of The #NationalEnquirer.
#Trump posted on Truth Social mins before returning to court & >1 hr after other posts — which Judge Merchan ordered to be deleted in accordance w/his #GagOrder — were taken down.
"This Judge has taken away my Constitutional Right to FREE SPEECH. I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED. This whole 'Trial' is RIGGED, and by taking away my FREEDOM OF SPEECH, THIS HIGHLY CONFLICTED JUDGE IS RIGGING THE PRESIDENTIAL OF 2024 ELECTION. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!" the post cont.
“Mr. Davidson, do you know someone named Stormy Daniels?” Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, asks.
We have had several brief mentions of #StormyDaniels, Davidson’s client, for whom he helped negotiate the #HushMoney deal at the heart of the case. Hopefully, this our real introduction to her, & to the $130k pay off.
3 witnesses, have said some not nice things about #MichaelCohen. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, isn’t steering away from it. Davidson referred to a “jerk” w/o using his name & Steinglass asked, “Who was that jerk?” Prosecutors were expecting to elicit this testimony & Steinglass playing into it signals that they’re comfortable w/it.
#KeithDavidson says that when he talked to #MichaelCohen, he was met w/a “hostile barrage” of “insults,” “insinuations” & “allegations” & that went on for quite a while.
#Trump’s lead defense lawyer, Todd #Blanche, is delighted as Davidson describes Michael Cohen screaming expletives at him. Blanche laughs & smiles at Trump, who is seated next to him. Blanche has been very focused on destroying Cohen’s credibility with the jury.
Keith Davidson, speaking about the deal reached w/ #StormyDaniels, brings up The #AccessHollywood tape on which #Trump described assaulting women. Davidson calls the remarks “troublesome” —& then he says they had “tremendous influence” in raising interest in Daniels’s story.
Davidson links the Access Hollywood tape directly to the Trump campaign’s heightened desire to purchase Daniels’s story. It wasn’t until the tape came out, Davidson testifies, that “interest reached a crescendo.” #TrumpTrial
After the #AccessHollywood tape became public, Davidson texted Dylan Howard, the editor of The #NationalEnquirer, that #Trump's campaign was doomed. Howard responded: “Wave the white flag. It’s over people!”
The tape put immense pressure on the Trump campaign, which was floundering after its release. Thus #MichaelCohen was pressured to pay hush money for the #StormyDaniels story. Davidson is testifying that things were bad for Trump but —if the Daniels story were public— could get worse.
Davidson, asked what Cohen’s interest in the #StormyDaniels story was, says, “I believe that #MichaelCohen was the personal attorney or general counsel for Donald #Trump and that this story involved his client, that that was his interest in the story.”
Keith Davidson, who was #StormyDaniels’s lawyer, just explained that he used pseudonyms for Daniels & #Trump in the written deal he drew up, and that Trump’s pseudonym, as has been reported, was David Dennison. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, asks Davidson if David Dennison was a real person & Davidson responds that he was, & that they were hockey teammates. “How’s he feel about you now?” Steinglass asks. “He’s very upset,” Davidson responds to general laughter.
Davidson is now being asked about the settlement agreement w/ #StormyDaniels. A lot of evidence is mounting that cuts against the idea #Trump would have been unaware of all this.
Davidson goes over the details of the #HushMoney deal reached w/Daniels.
Emails & text messages are repeatedly being brought up as corroborating evidence. For decades, Trump didn’t want his lawyers taking notes & didn’t use email or text himself.
Davidson testified that when the deal between Dylan Howard, the fmr #NationalEnquirer editor-in-chief, & Gina Rodriguez, #StormyDaniels' manager, fell through, Davidson was pressured into negotiating w/ #MichaelCohen.
“Gina approached me. She said, ‘Hey, we have this deal & it’s going to be the easiest deal you’ve ever done in your entire life, & it’s already been negotiated. All you need to do is pay for it & talk to that a------,'” referring to Cohen.
Keith Davidson said when he took over negotiating the deal on #StormyDaniels' behalf — working w/ #MichaelCohen after the National Enquirer backed out — that he "needed to pad the deal" by making the total larger.
"We needed to pad the deal. To compensate me now, because I was added to the deal. And Stormy & Gina weren’t going to take a discount for adding me," he testified.
Appeals court denies #Trump's request for a trial #delay
Days after the trial has begun, an appeal's court has denied Trump's request that the trial be delayed. Trump sought a delay because Judge #Merchan didn’t recuse himself, because he couldn't invoke a presidential immunity defense & because the judge made his team file motions w/ a delay to allow for redactions.
By Oct 17, 2016, Davidson emailed #MichaelCohen at his TrumpOrg address w/the subject line: “PP v. DD: Important.”
In the email Davidson said, “My client informs me that she intends to cancel the settlement agreement if no funds are received by the close of business today.”
Davidson testified Cohen gave him a series of excuses about not paying in a phone conversation. "The conversations didn’t leave me w/a comfort level” that the settlement would be funded.
Excuses included Secret Service setting up firewalls in their email, computers being “all f----- up,” & Cohen’s inability to reach #Trump who Cohen said was in “4 or 5 different states today”.
Prosecution pushed Davison whether he "ever believed #MichaelCohen was going to be the ultimate source of the funds.” Davidson responded, "Never. Never prior to funding."
Davidson testified he believed the money would be coming from "Donald Trump or some corporate affiliation thereof."
Before a short afternoon break, Keith Davidson provides one last telling quote about #MichaelCohen’s finagling of the #StormyDaniels story: “I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” Davidson says. This drives home, again, prosecutors’ stated motivation for the #HushMoney payment: to silence Stormy & smooth #Trump’s road to the White House.
Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, is seeking to introduce something. But Emil Bove, a defense lawyer, keeps objecting & succeeding in his objections, w/the judge repeating “sustained”
While much of the language the defense objected to is gone from the record, the jury heard it nonetheless. Steinglass is trying to establish that #Trump was the beneficiary of the contract & would likely be paying.
Keith Davidson says that he understood the reason the deal may have been held up because of “frugality.” “Whose frugality?” Steinglass asked, prompting another objection & yet another sidebar.
Davidson is reading his texts w/ #DylanHoward aloud. One of them joked about hiring a #Trump impersonator who had more money than Trump. Pressed on what that meant, Davidson says he took it to mean that Trump was not as wealthy as he claimed.
More text messages between Keith Davidson & Dylan Howard reflected Davidson's belief that if #StormyDaniels' story got out, "it would be a tornado."
The texts also corroborated Davidson's testimony that he walked away not only from #MichaelCohen but also from representing Gina Rodriguez, Daniels' manager, & Daniels herself. Davidson said he expected "there would be tremendous media activity around this story."
Right before court adjourned, Justice #Merchan reminded the court that #Trump was held in #contempt & fined $9k. First up Thurs is a hearing on 4 more violations of Trump's #GagOrder & should only take 30 mins when court resumes. After that hearing, Davidson is expected to pick up in his testimony where he left off: On the verge of completing the #HushMoney deal that silenced the story of his client #StormyDaniels.
Outside the courtroom, #Trump again called the #GagOrder unconstitutional & repeated his claims that Justice #Merchan was biased.
Even as he complains the gag order keeps him from commenting on the trial, a post on his social media account, published while he was in the courtroom, called the trial a “witch hunt” & complained it was “hours of sitting down & listening to nothing except EXONERATION AND LIES.” (What trial is he watching? Must have been a dream)
Worth reminding everyone that these people got paid because a GOP CANDIDATE FOR US PRESIDENT cheated on his pregnant third wife with a porn star and a Playboy Bunny so US voters wouldn't know what a cheating, lying scumbag he is.
Too bad for US voters this "sinful" behavior was already well-known. MAGA Evangelicals gave him a pass anyway. Says as much about them as it does him.
The prosecution brings up an email in which Keith Davidson told #MichaelCohen that unless he paid the $130k by the end of the day — he was already past deadline -— #StormyDaniels would consider the #HushMoney deal canceled. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, makes a point of getting Davidson to confirm that he sent the email to Michael Cohen’s #TrumpOrganization email address — another way of reinforcing for the jury that Cohen was acting as #Trump’s agent.
Prosecutors are now playing video, & having Thompson verify the corresponding transcript, of #Trump describing when he married his wife Melania (it was 2005).
And now is the portion of the deposition in which Trump was asked by #EJeanCarroll’s lawyer if he was familiar w/ the infamous "#AccessHollywood” tape. Trump confirmed in the deposition that it was him speaking on that video.
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