Trump hush money trial: Key takeaways from fifth day of testimony

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The second week of testimony in Donald Trump’s so-called hush money criminal trial is now in full swing in Manhattan.

On Tuesday morning, the former president arrived promptly for the fifth day of testimony, delivering his usual grievance-focused diatribe to the assembled media from behind barricades erected in the hallway of the criminal court.

Inside the courtroom, Mr Trump was hit with a $9,000 gag order fine and was granted his request to attend Barron’s graduation all before a witness even took the stand.

Jurors then heard from multiple witnesses with a brief stint from Michael Cohen’s banker Gary Farro and attorney Keith Davidson, who previously represented Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougall – two women who allegedly had affairs with Mr Trump.

The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Ms Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

As the case continues to unfold before the 18 New Yorkers — twelve jurors and six alternates — who will ultimately decide Mr Trump’s fate, here’s the key takeaways from the day:

After a lonely week last week for Mr Trump as he sat alone at the defence table, with no family attending alongside him and a paltry showing of supporters in the street, the day began on a brighter note for the criminal defendant.

Not only had a small crowd of supporters shown up to wave flags and signs outside the courthouse, but his second son Eric Trump was also in attendance as well as Texas Attorney General and Trump loyalist Ken Paxton.

To further brighten his mood, the first order of business of the day was an announcement by Judge Juan Merchan that, given how jury selection was completed in a week and the trial is moving forward at a good pace, Mr Trump will be allowed to attend his son Barron Trump’s graduation from high school on 17 May.

The former president is required to be in court every day as a criminal defendant and had previously complained that his request to attend the graduation had been denied. It had not. Judge Merchan said he would rule at a later date as he has now done.

A similar request by a juror to have 24 May off to make an early flight ahead of the Memorial Day weekend was also granted.

Any good feeling was soon dispelled when Judge Merchan issued his ruling on Mr Trump’s violation of the gag order imposed on him to protect witnesses, jurors, court staff, and their families.

Last week, prosecutors cited 10 violations made by Mr Trump, with the judge agreeing with nine of the occurrences.

As a result, the judge fined the former president $1,000 for each incident and ordered him to remove the offending Truth Social posts and campaign messages by after the lunchbreak at trial. The posts were taken down with minutes to spare.

In his written ruling, Judge Merchan recognised that for Mr Trump the $9,000 was a small punishment given his wealth and warned that Mr Trump could face an “incarceratory punishment” if he continues his “wilful violations” of the court’s order, if “necessary and appropriate under the circumstances”.

“While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the dignity of the judicial system to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine,” Judge Merchan wrote.

“In those circumstances, it would be preferable if the court could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor,” he added. “In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000. Because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”

Mr Trump must pay the fine by Friday.

The day’s key witness was Keith Davidson, who previously represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels during negotiations for payments to keep their respective stories about alleged affairs with Mr Trump quiet during the 2016 election.

Mr Davidson first represented Ms McDougal and, in a series of text messages with then-<em>National Enquirer </em>editor Dylan Howard shown to the court, brokered a deal with publisher David Pecker to buy the rights to her story for $150,000 and a series of magazine columns.

“I have a blockbuster trump [sic] story,” Mr Davidson wrote to Mr Howard on 7 June 2016, according to messages shown in court.

“It was sort of an entree or a teaser to Dylan to let him know perhaps I had an opportunity for him,” Mr Davidson testified on Tuesday. “Regarding the interaction between Karen McDougal and Donald Trump.”

Mr Howard promised to “talk 1st thing’.

“I will get you more than ANYONE for it,” Mr Howard wrote, according to messages shown in court. “You know why…”

“I don’t know if I had a clear understanding at that time but I knew Dylan’s boss David Pecker and Mr Trump were longtime friends,” Mr Davidson told the court about what he thought that meant.

A contract was signed in August 2016 for the rights to Ms McDougal’s story.

Mr Davidson became involved in Ms Daniels story after it was first alleged in an article on TheDirty.com. He told a furious Michael Cohen that the adult film star did not want the story out in public.

Nevertheless, Ms Daniels’ manager Gina Rodriguez tried to sell the full story to The National Enquirer. Still, it wasn’t deemed marketable and there was little interest throughout the summer of 2016 despite Mr Trump’s campaign for the White House.

It was then that the <em>Access Hollywood</em> tape was released. Asked how much influence the tape had on Ms Daniels’ story, Mr Davidson told the court: “So far as I’m aware, it had tremendous influence.”

“Before the Access Hollywood tape there was little if any interest … It wasn’t until the Access Hollywood tape that interest sort of reached a crescendo,” he testified.

A text conversation with Dylan Howard at the Enquirer revealed how much insiders believed Mr Trump’s 2016 election chances were ruined by the release of the tape.

Mr Davidson said: “Trump is f***ed.”

Mr Howard replied: “Wave the white flag. It’s over people!”

The editor went on to say: “Yeah but her talking …  is the final nail in the coffin… but he’s f***ed already.”

Both men felt that the revelation of an alleged affair with an adult film star on the back of the uproar over Mr Trump’s comments on the tapes would kill his 2016 campaign.

The scheme to buy Ms Daniels’ story and prevent publication was what unfolded next.

As it has been some eight years since the Stormy Daniels affair was first made public, many will have forgotten that in the agreement signed between Mr Trump and the adult film stars, they were referred to by pseudonyms.

Step forward David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.

One thing the court learned was that male code name for Mr Trump was actually the name of someone who was on Mr Davidson’s high school hockey team.

Asked how the real David Dennison felt about that, the lawyer admitted: “He is very upset.”

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass questioned Mr Davidson about what he knew about where the money was coming from in the deal to pay Ms Daniels. This led to objections from the defence team as he tried to elicit that the lawyer had thought Mr Trump was going to pay.

A series of test messages from 18 October 2016 between Mr Davidson and Mr Howard was then shown to the court with the Enquirer editor saying that the deal was falling apart because “Trump is tight”.

He added: “I reckon that Trump impersonator I hired has more cash.”

Mr Davidson said he interpreted that to mean: “That Trump wasn’t as wealthy as he stated.”

Cohen was then left scrambling to source the money to pay Ms Daniels.

Mr Davidson went on to paint a detailed picture of confusion and delays surrounding getting the money to Ms Daniels in exchange for her silence and — linking back to the earlier testimony of Cohen’s banker Mr Farro — the frantic way in which Mr Trump’s fixer struggled to get the funds together.

This led to a memorable description of Cohen as a “highly excitable, pants-on-fire kind of guy” at the time, before comparing him to the cartoon dog from the Pixar movie Up who gets suddenly excited and distracted at the sight of a squirrel.

The trial continues.