Takeaways from Day 10 of the Donald Trump hush money trial
Donald Trump’s attorneys on Thursday sought to paint one of the witnesses at the heart of the hush money deal with Stormy Daniels as someone with a long history of extracting money from celebrities while going “up to the line without committing extortion.”
Attorney's Tactics
Trump attorney Emil Bove raised a host of celebrities Keith Davidson has dealt with – Hulk Hogan, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, and Tila Tequila – seeking both to undercut Davidson’s credibility as a witness and to argue that the deals he cut involving the former president followed a long-running pattern. Davidson was evasive responding to the battery of questions about his prior celebrity dealings, in testimony that got heated at times.
Trump’s attorney also used recordings Michael Cohen secretly taped of his conversations with Davidson against the witness, including from 2018 of the two talking about the “leverage” of the Daniels story.
Judge's Ruling
Before the testimony began, Judge Juan Merchan held a second hearing on Trump’s alleged violations of his gag order where prosecutors raised four more statements Trump had made that they say violated the judge’s gag order barring discussion of witnesses and the jury. Trump has already been fined $9,000 for nine violations earlier this week.
Prosecution's Approach
After Davidson left the stand, prosecutors called a digital evidence expert from their own office to enter evidence into records, continuing to move forward with their hush money case against Trump.
After prosecutors finished walking Davidson meticulously through the deals he cut before the 2016 election for both Daniels and Karen McDougal, Trump’s attorney dragged Davidson through the proverbial celebrity mud, ticking through a host of deals he was involved with related to other high-profile figures.
Bove pressed Davidson on whether he had studied up on extortion law when he sought money from AMI and Cohen for the McDougal and Daniels deals. Bove asked Davidson whether he went “right up to the line without committing extortion” with the Trump deals.
Witness Testimony
Then Bove turned to celebrity deals he was tied to. Davidson was questioned about investigations by federal and local authorities over his dealings to sell Hulk Hogan a sex tape from his client, which was revealed in court by Bove. Davidson conceded there “was a monetary demand” made to Hogan to try to sell him the tape.
That deal and the other celebrity agreements all sought to secure hefty monetary payments for Davidson’s clients to keep damaging information out of the media, Bove alleged. Without saying so specifically, the upshot from Trump’s attorney was that the Trump deals followed a pattern that bordered on extortion.
Conclusion
Davidson’s testimony followed Cohen’s onetime banker, who said that everything was urgent with Cohen and that he was given Cohen’s account because he was used to dealing with difficult clients. And Pecker recounted the prickliness of Cohen, describing him as agitated and frequently upset, particularly when Pecker told him the Daniels deal was off.
Jurors have heard plenty about Cohen already, but they also got the first listen to Cohen’s voice on Thursday thanks to the audio recordings he surreptitiously took of conversations.
