“#StormyDaniels was a walking, talking reminder that Trump was not just words" at a time when Trump was trying to distinguish between his words & both Clintons’ actions, #Steinglass said.
Steinglass notes that Trump had not shown much interest Daniels' story until after the #AccessHollywood tape came out.
He shows phone records w/a huge increase in communications between #KeithDavidson, #DylanHoward, #MichaelCohen & #Trump.
#Steinglass now talks# about the 2nd of 3 hush-money deals, which involved #KarenMcDougal & was arranged by The #NationalEnquirer. He says that #Pecker & #DylanHoward of The Enquirer & #KeithDavidson, McDougal's lawyer, spoke in code. But you don’t have to be a codebreaker, he says, to understand what they were talking about
Steinglass also notes that the trio was communicating w/ #MichaelCohen, who testified that he had been charged w/keeping #Trump apprised of their progress
Prosecutors play the recording of #MichaelCohen talking to #KeithDavidson, who was #StormyDaniels's lawyer, but are playing more of it than before. It corroborates much of what Cohen’s testimony about the #HushMoney payment, including that he cared about #Trump & that he would not “play pennywise, pound foolish” w/his then-boss.
Audio:
https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/Evidence/People/5-2-2024/
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#Blanche asks #MichaelCohen if he wanted a job in the #Trump WhiteHouse. Cohen testified to the House in 2019 that he didn’t want one. But other witnesses, like #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels's fmr lawyer, testified that Cohen was interested & sad he was being left behind.
Blanche: “You really wanted to work in the White House, correct?”
Cohen:“No sir.”
Blanche says that Cohen specifically wanted to be WH chief of staff, & Cohen again denies it.
#MichaelCohen & #SeanHannity were long friends. Cohen even supplied legal advice to Hannity.
These texts from Cohen to #KeithDavidson, Daniels's lawyer show Cohen’s relentless work on #Trump’s behalf.
Cohen is asked about the complaint letter he received from the #FEC about his payment to #StormyDaniels, which was filed by a good-government group after WSJ published an article revealing the payment. He says his response to the FEC wasn’t false, but misleading.
Prosecutor #Hoffinger brings up the joint defense agreement #MichaelCohen was part of, which meant the atty defending him was aligned w/Trump. She makes sure Cohen tells the jurors it was an advantage for #Trump, as well as for Cohen.
Cohen testifies about the#StormyDaniels statement in which she denied having had a “sexual &/or romantic affair” w/Trump. Her lawyer, #KeithDavidson, testified this statement was technically true, bc they didn’t have a full affair.
#MichaelCohen, reads texts instructing #KeithDavidson, lawyer for #StormyDaniels, to “write a strong denial” from Daniels, saying that she had not had an affair w/ #Trump. This is a statement that jurors have seen— & that Trump wrote nonsense about on social media & was fined $1k for violating of his #GagOrder.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal
Prosecution shows voluminous records of phone calls between #MichaelCohen & #HopeHicks after the article about #KarenMcDougal came out. If anything, these records make Hicks look as if she underplayed the amount that she was speaking to Cohen & his involvement in the campaign.
Next is one of Cohen's calls to #KeithDavidson in documentary evidence, (the lawyer for McDougal & #StormyDaniels) after the story about McDougal being paid off was published.
Several times last week, prosecutors painted #Trump as a micromanager. They used custodial witnesses to read passages of his books that depicted him as a boss who distrusted his employees for a fear they will "rob you blind." This is a continuation of that theme.
#Hoffinger, the prosecutor, lingers on the back-&-forth between #MichaelCohen & #KeithDavidson ensuring that the wire transfer of Daniels's money & the NDA were in place.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference
#Trump shakes his head & smirks when #MichaelCohen says he didn't mention Trump when setting up the bank account because he wanted to "protect him" from the transaction.
(#HopeHicks testified Trump told her essentially the same thing)
Prosecutors show an email Cohen sent #StormyDaniels’s lawyer, #KeithDavidson, showing that he had acquired the necessary funds.
Cohen says that he laid out the Daniels deal for Trump because "everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off."
these texts - combined w/ #MichaelCohen's testimony - indicate that the motivations for the #HushMoney deal were to protect #Trump politically.
After Cohen decided to pay #StormyDaniels himself, we are seeing, he launched into a blitz of phone calls w/ both #KeithDavidson & David #Pecker. This is documentary evidence: & shows, w/ surprising ividness given that it is simply metadata, the frenzy that Cohen was experiencing as he sought to suppress the Daniels story.
#MichaelCohen recalls that he & #AllenWeisselberg, spoke about possibly generating the $130k through a membership request or an event being held at a club.
Cohen is directly tying #Trump to the #HushMoney payment, corroborating the testimony of others, including #KeithDavidson & #HopeHicks, who said Cohen would never had made the payment w/o Trump's authorization. Cohen talks about Weisselberg helping him to think through how to make the payment.
#MichaelCohen, reads emails he exchanged in 2016 w/ #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels's lawyer, says that the correspondence represented that “we were losing control over the settlement of this agreement in order to prevent” Daniels’s story from coming out. He says that loss of control was a “direct result of my failure to wire funds.” Reportedly there’s still anxiety in Cohen’s voice about that “failure,” nearly 8 years later.
#MichaelCohen responded to #KeithDavidson that it was the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
"I used the holiday of Yom Kippur as a way of just once again trying to delay" the payment, Cohen says.
Davidson testified that was exactly what he thought Cohen was doing - & to try to push the issue to beyond the election when the story would no longer matter.
Cohen brings up another early trial witness, Gary Farro.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
After the lunch break, #Hoffinger, the prosecutor, picks up where she left off, w/ #MichaelCohen on the verge of describing having made the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels. She shows a series of emails w/ #KeithDavidson, who was Daniels's lawyer in 2016.
Davidson, who already testified he was frustrated by a delay in receiving the payment, says in the email that it wasn't necessary for him to speak to Cohen, & that he just wanted to be paid.
Texts between #MichaelCohen & #KeithDavidson, the fmr lawyer to #StormyDaniels & #KarenMcDougal, are displayed on the screen.
Cohen, goes through his texts w/ Davidson & #DylanHoward, editor of The #NationalEnquirer, taking the jurors through material they're familiar w/from when Davidson testified, but it's more corroboration.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #MobTactics
Andrew Giuliani, another #Trump ally & the son of his fmr lawyer #RudyGiuliani, is also posting from the courtroom, calling #MichaelCohen a "serial liar" & smearing the Manhattan DA's office, which brought the case.
Cohen is asked how he communicated w/ #KeithDavidson, a lawyer for both #KarenMcDougal & #StormyDaniels, says "phone, email, text.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
Prosecution presents a page from #AllenWeisselberg’s phone records.
#JennieTomalin mentioned the names of 2 people who factor into the case: #Weisselberg, the #TrumpOrganization's fmr CFO, & #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels's fmr lawyer.
Tomalin testimony concluded.
#law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
The jurors heard an audio recording of #KeithDavidson, #StormyDaniels’s fmr lawyer, telling #MichaelCohen that she was desperate for the money & was panicked that her leverage to get it would disappear after the 2016 election because she expected #Trump to lose. Davidson describes hearing Daniels say this to him on the phone, but Daniels denied it to the court shortly after the tape was played.
Defense’s goal seems to be to establish that she was motivated by money.
