After a lunch break, Davidson is back. He slowly strode through the courtroom in his pointy black dress shoes, adjusted his jacket and sat down at the witness stand.
He seems to be a bit uncomfortable as prosecutors explore his texts with entertainment journalist Dylan Howard.
All people who love Trump more than his spouse, I guess.
Kaitlan Collins:
Good afternoon from the New York courtroom. Texas AG Ken Paxton, Susie Wiles and Jason Miller are all from the political orbit inside on Trump's behalf, in addition to his son Eric Trump. Wiles and Eric Trump spoke briefly before the judge entered. Court is now underway.
Prosecutor: Good afternoon Mr. Howard! Oh, sorry, Davidson. Please look at these texts.
Davidson: Dylan wanted the deal between Karen McDougal and AMI to happen.
Davidson: Dylan wrote, "F- it, not my money, I'll just ask."
Prosecutor: Is the full F word written out in the text?
Davidson: Yes. Then he wrote, She's getting pressed by Ronda Schwartz.
Prosecutor: Who's she?
Davidson: She worked for Brian Ross of ABC
On Aug. 2, 2016, Davidson and Howard continued to negotiate regarding the potential deal for McDougal's story with AMI. Davidson told Howard that McDougal would accept the deal if he could get AMI to agree to pay $150,000.
6/ PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO USE "NFL" (Not For Laffy). I can't read replies while live posting.
Press:
Davidson: Then AMI's general counsel set me a contract that didn't jibe with what had been negotiated with Dylan. I replied, Need to handle this quickly. The general counsel wanted to call Michael Cohen.
Prosecutor: Did you ask why?
Davidson: I don't remember
Howard texts Davidson on July 28, 2016: "I need this to happen."
Davidson testifies that AMI's then-General Counsel tells him to call Michael Cohen as they're trying to hammer out the details of the agreement between AMI and McDougal.
Davidson responds: "I've been trying like hell to avoid that." Explaining that in 2011, he dealt with Cohen and it was unpleasant and so he wanted to avoid dealing with Cohen again.
Davidson: I had dealt with Michael Cohen in 2011 and had not enjoyed it. So I was trying to avoid it.
Prosecutor: Did Dylan say anything else?
Davidson: F*cking Jesus.
Prosecutor: It's okay, you're just quoting. Did you call Cohen?
Davidson: Yes
On Aug. 5, 2016, Howard texted Davidson: "Ok we are paying."
Davidson replied to Howard "I told Cohen this never would've happened without you"
"He’s hopeless," Howard said, referring to Cohen. "Oh well, another one done."
Davidson says that after the deal closed with AMI, he called Michael Cohen. He let him know that the deal involving Cohen's client--Donald Trump--had closed. He told Cohen that the deal would not have happened without him. Cohen was "pleased," Davidson testifies
Steinglass: Why buy a story didn't intend to print?
Davidson: They were trying to build Karen into a brand & didn't want to diminish her reputation. The second was an unspoken understanding that there was a close relationship between David Pecker (AMI chief) and Donald Trump.
Davidson: They wouldn't run the story... because it would tend to hurt Donald Trump.
Prosecutor: Based on non-privileged communications to which you were privy, what married man benefited form this?
Davidson: Donald Trump.
Prosecutor: How much went to you?
Davidson: 45%
Prosecutor: Did you think AMI would ever publish it?
Davidson: No.
Prosecutor: Why?
Davidson: It was said AMI would not want to hurt Karen's brand. But mostly, there was an affinity between David Pecker and Donald Trump - so, to not hurt Trump
Prosecutor: You mean his campaign?
Davidson: Yes.
"What a Day" is right! You walked us through 62 posts in the morning session, another 40 posts in the afternoon, a total of 102 posts, apart from all the extraneous posts not concerning this trial.
I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your work and effort in bringing this to us all in one place.
@GottaLaff As Trump is on trial, having to listen to his defense must be...difficult. And on day 9, nonetheless... Who knows how long this will go on for. His team does get to talk here, don't they? If I'm wrong, my mistake.
Davidson: “There was a blog post or a story posted on the website (for radar.com) that stated that Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump had some sort of physical romantic interaction."
So Davidson sent a cease and desist letter to Radar.
Gina Rodriguez then calls up Davidson and says that "some jerk called me and was very very aggressive and threatened to sue me, and I would like you to call him back."
Gina gave Davidson the number and he called the Trump Org and got transferred to Michael Cohen.
DAVIDSON: “Before I could even get my name out I was just met with a hostile barrage of insults…and that went on for awhile."
21/ Davidson testifies that he explained to Michael Cohen that Stormy did not want the story to be published and he asked Cohen if he had done anything to get it taken down. Cohen responded that he had not, but told Davidson to try. Davidson was successful in having the post taken down.
Davidson is then asked about the Access Hollywood tape. He says that the tape had "tremendous influence" in terms of interest in Stormy.
22/ Conversations began between Gina Rodriguez, Davidson, Dylan Howard, and Michael Cohen about purchasing Stormy's story.
Davidson then corroborates David Pecker's earlier testimony that AMI didn't want to do this deal with Stormy.
Because the deal "was already cut" between Daniels and AMI, AMI "handed it off to Cohen; in essence, Cohen stepped into AMI's shoes."
NOTE: Davidson testifies that he understood that in dealing with Cohen, he was dealing with Trump. He did not question that.
23/ The Confidential Settlement Agreement was signed by Stormy and Trump with both of them using pseudonyms to protect their identities:
STORMY was Peggy Peterson (P, for plaintiff) TRUMP was David Dennison (A David Dennison was on Davidson’s high school hockey team.)
There was a Side Letter Agreement (SLA) that was used to identify the identity of the two parties involved and is designed to be for "attorneys' eyes only."
Davidson testifies that Michael Cohen demanded that only he have possession of the SLA, which was unusual.
26/ Davidson on 10/17/16 emailed Cohen at his Trumporg.com address with a subject line of "PP v. DD: Important." In the email Davidson warns Cohen Stormy will cancel the agreement "if no funds are received by the close of business today."
Davidson testifies he sent the email because the funding deadline had passed with a series of excuses for not paying.
27/ Davidson then testifies that when he told Cohen how dissatisfied Stormy and her rep were with the delays and the excuses, Cohen responded: "Goddamn it; I'll just do it myself."
Steinglass: "Did you ever believe that Michael Cohen would be the ultimate source of the funds?" Davidson: "Never prior to the funding, no."
On Oct. 17, 2016, Davidson emailed Cohen and advised that Stormy was canceling the agreement and that he would no longer be representing her.
DAVIDSON: “What did I think was really happening?”
👉🏼DAVIDSON ON COHEN: “I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election.”
STEINGLASS: Did Michael Cohen lead you to believe someone other than Michael Cohen was funding this transaction? 👉🏼DAVIDSON: Yes
Another critical piece of evidence now before the jury for its consideration:
Trump is delaying paying Stormy Daniels what he contractually owed her until AFTER the November 2016 election.
👇🏼
DAVIDSON: “What did I think was really happening?” DAVIDSON ON COHEN: “I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election.”
Prosecutor: Who did you think was really paying?
Davidson: I find that question confusing.
Prosecutor: When you were dealing with Michael Cohen did you have an understanding about how this deal was doing to be funded?
Davidson: I had an assumption
Prosecutor: To what did you attribute the lack of funding at this point?
Davidson: Frugality.
Prosecutor: Whose frugality?
Trump's lawyer: Objection! May I be heard at the sidebar?
[And again. Susan Necheles, too, at defense table]
Prosecutor: People's 176, these text messages...
Davidson: Dylan wrote, Going to see Pecker in 15, will ask for an update.
Prosecutor: Did you respond?
Davidson: Yes. I said, Waiting for a call any second.
Prosecutor: From who(m)?
Davidson: I don't remember
Prosecutor: In sending to Michael Cohen, what domain did you use?
Davidson: Gmail dot com
Prosecutor: What did you send?
Davidson: Wiring instructions. He told me, We're sending it. I said, I don't believe you. That, he sent from trumporg dot org, cc-ing his gmail
Davidson: This was 16 days after the agreement. Then this email from First Republic, which he forwarded to me. I meant nothing to me. He had my wiring instructions - but he didn't send
Prosecutor: Did you speak with him on the phone?
Davidson: He was pants on fire
Davidson: Michael Cohen was talking about of both ears.
Justice Merchan: We will break here, until Thursday at 10 am, jurors.
[Jurors leave]
Justice Merchan: I'd like you here at 9:30 on Thursday.
Davidson testifies that by October 25, Dylan Howard/AMI was attempting to resurrect the Stormy deal. AMI was encouraging Cohen to deal directly with Davidson and that Davidson should try to get as much as he could for the deal.
Davidson testifies that on 10/26/16, he sent Cohen his wiring instructions for the 4th or 5th time. Why? because of "Cohen's repeated assertion that he didn't have it."
After a bit of back-and-forth, Davidson says the resurrected Stormy Daniels deal shifted from AMI to Cohen, directly.
Davidson:
"The entire matter was very frustrating, that it was on again, off again, that there were delays in funding, cancellation, disengaging with client, re-engaging with client."
"Then, I call Cohen, and Cohen tells me, 'I'm not paying anything.'"
AMI was paying, Cohen told him, according to the testimony.
Davidson reviews an exhibit of an email showing him sending his wiring instructions to Cohen — "for the fourth or fifth time," he adds, with a rueful laugh.
@Nonilex also does a live feed of the #Trump court case, which is more like an editorial interpretation compared to Laffy's "anthology" style, but also very much appreciated.
Your personal experiences, coming as they do amidst an existential crisis for the US, and punctuated by the record you're creating on Mastodon, would make an engaging book i think. I hope you're archiving this stuff!
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