Eric Trump listens as Davidson continues his testimony about Cohen.
Eric Trump looks up at a screen showing an email between Cohen and Davidson regarding the side letter agreement, which Davidson is reading aloud.
Mr. Davidson went on to testify that Mr. Cohen claimed that only he had a copy of the side letter agreement, which Mr. Davidson acknowledged was highly unusual.
Davidson testifies that no one wanted to do business with Cohen
Davidson testified that he was pressured to negotiate with Cohen when contracts with former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels’ manager Gina Rodriguez fell apart. did.
“The story is that no one wanted to talk to Cohen,” Davidson testified.
“Gina came up to me and she said, ‘Hey, we’re doing this deal, and it’s going to be the easiest deal you’ve ever done in your life. , and it has already been negotiated.” All you have to do is pay and talk to that person,” Cohen said.
Keith Davidson says he had to ‘inflate the contract’ to get his share
When Keith Davidson, working with Michael Cohen, took over contract negotiations on behalf of Stormy Daniels after the National Enquirer withdrew, he allegedly inflated the contract amount by increasing the total amount. We need to do that.”
“We had to inflate the contract. To compensate now that I was added to the contract. And Stormy and Gina were not going to get a discount for adding me,” he said. I testified.
Keith Davidson says ‘Access Hollywood’ tapes had ‘huge influence’ on Daniels’ story
Keith Davidson said the “Access Hollywood” tapes had a “huge influence” on the Stormy Daniels story.
“From what I understand, there was very little interest in it before the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out,” he said.
After the tapes resurfaced, Davidson said interest in Daniels’ story “reached a fever pitch.”
“Trump is shit,” Davidson said in a text message to Dylan Howard.
“Drop the white flag, people, it’s over!” Howard said.
Davidson testifies about ‘barrage of insults’ in conversation with Cohen
Keith Davidson said Stormy Daniels was a client he was introduced to by Daniels’ talent manager, Gina Rodriguez.
When asked if he spoke to Daniels during the various encounters, Davidson replied, “I think I had short conversations with Stormi and Gina…but I think most of the conversations were with Gina.”
He said he sent Daniels a cease-and-desist letter. “There were blog posts and articles published on websites that stated that Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump had some kind of physical romantic interaction,” he testified.
Davidson said he spoke to Michael Cohen by phone and was “received a barrage of hostile insults before I could even release my name.”
“I don’t think he was accusing us of anything. He was just screaming,” Davidson said.
Mr. Davidson said Mr. Cohen believed the article was leaked by Mr. Daniels, and Mr. Davidson told him that Mr. Daniels called him because he did not want the article published. He said he deleted the story because it was successful.
Further evidence that ABC News tried to secure an interview with McDougall
Davidson testified that ABC News dangled McDougal the chance to appear on a future season of “Dancing with the Stars” as part of negotiations with ABC News to quash reports of McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump. did.
Davidson said there was “much discussion” about McDougall appearing on future seasons of the long-running show. “The reasoning was that best efforts would make it happen. But that was never guaranteed. Best efforts were discussed.”
Davidson testified that Rhonda Schwartz, Brian Ross’ producer, called him regularly to secure interviews.
Mr. Davidson ended negotiations with ABC News after entering into a catch-and-kill agreement with American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer.
ABC News did not respond to a request for comment.
Davidson said the National Enquirer wanted to help McDougall and Trump by buying the story.
Prosecutors asked Davidson why he thought the National Enquirer bought McDougall’s article without intending to print it.
Davidson said the purpose was two-fold: one to strengthen McDougal’s brand, and the other to help Donald Trump by not exposing the affair.
He continued in his testimony that there was a “tacit understanding” between David Pecker and Trump that there was a close relationship.
Keith Davidson says Trump was the married man identified in National Enquirer/McDougal contract
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass questioned Keith Davidson about the final contract Karen McDougall signed with the National Enquirer’s parent company, and Davidson said the contract went into effect on August 5, 2016. He said he did.
Ms. Davidson said one of the paragraphs granted the subject administrator lifetime rights regarding an affair with a married man.
“Are there any married men who have found this to be true?” Steinglass asked.
“Yes,” Davidson said. “Donald Trump.”
Prosecutors reveal the essence of deal negotiations in the McDougall case
Prosecutors have described a series of text messages to Davidson that appear to put together a deal to pay McDougall to keep her quiet.
An email from former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard to Davidson appears to be referring to Karen McDougal, saying, “She makes more money from her contract with AMI than ABC.” “and I would be happy to sign any contract.” It alleviates…”
Another from Davidson to Howard said: “Let’s wrap up her deal with Karen. She’s been getting a lot of phone calls from Rhonda Schwartz.” She was a producer at ABC News.
“We are already figuring out how the deal works,” Howard texted Davidson.
Mr. Davidson also texted Mr. Howard about then-AMI General Counsel Cameron Stracher. Do you think that’s okay? I have tried very hard to avoid that. ”
Trump posts on Truth Social immediately after deleting the post that got Marchand fined.
Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon, just minutes before returning to court, and less than an hour after other posts that Judge Marchand had ordered removed pursuant to a gag order were removed. Posted on social.
Trump’s new post reads, “This judge took away my constitutional right to free speech.”
“I am the only presidential candidate in history to have been gagged. This entire ‘trial’ has been fabricated, and by taking away my freedom of speech, this highly contradictory judge has decided that he will not be able to hold the 2024 presidential election.” It’s rigged! It’s election interference!”