5 takeaways from day 10 of the Trump trial: ‘What did we do?’

Former President Trump’s trial in New York entered its tenth day on Thursday, with Keith Davidson on the witness stand.

Davidson is a Los Angeles lawyer who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom claimed to have had sexual encounters with Trump about a decade before he was elected president.

Trump denies both women’s allegations.

Trump, the first former president to face a criminal trial, is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The story revolves around a $130,000 payment to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, intended to prevent her from going public with her story.

The money was paid by the former president’s then lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. He was then reimbursed in a series of payments from entities controlled by Trump.

The prosecution’s argument is that these reimbursements were falsely classified as legal expenses to hide their true purpose – and that they represented electoral interference, as voters could have discovered the women’s allegations.

Trump’s team, noting that the hush money payments are not illegal per se, argues that the former president did nothing wrong.

The former president has repeatedly stated that the prosecution — led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) — is a politicized effort aimed at harming his 2024 election hopes.

Here are the key takeaways from Thursday’s proceedings.

‘What did we do?’

One of the most vivid pieces of evidence Thursday was a 2016 text message sent by Davidson to Dylan Howard, then editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid.

“What did we do?” Davidson asked Howard when the results came in on election night.

Howard’s response was, “Oh my God.”

The two men were in contact about possible deals for Daniels and McDougal.

In his Thursday testimony, Davidson referred to the Election Day text exchange as “dark humor.”

“There was an understanding that our…activities may have helped Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Davidson testified.

Legally, this is important. The crime Trump is charged with is generally classified as a misdemeanor unless it was committed in furtherance of another crime.

Davidson’s testimony helps the prosecution’s argument that the deals were made to help Trump in the 2016 election, and not just to spare him personal embarrassment.

A Trump ribbon

Trump had to remain eerily silent in the courtroom itself. But his voice was heard, in recorded format, on Thursday.

The moment came when a recording secretly made by Cohen in September 2016 was played.

In it, the lawyer discusses the agreement with McDougal with Trump. According to The New York Times, the tape also features a voice similar to Trump adviser Hope Hicks in the background.

Trump is heard asking how much the deal will cost, asking “one-fifty?” – apparently meaning $150,000.

There is also a brief argument between Trump and Cohen over whether to pay by cash or check. Trump wants to pay in cash, but Cohen refuses.

While the details are brief, the power of hearing Trump discuss the deal could be significant for jurors.

Michael Cohen’s disappointment gets a closer look

Cohen is the most important figure in the case, after Trump and Daniels themselves.

He is expected to testify on behalf of the prosecution and appears almost certain to speak in blunt terms about Trump’s knowledge of the agreements and their underlying purpose.

Trump’s team will try to paint Cohen as a completely unreliable witness, motivated by animosity toward his former boss – for whom, in happier times, Cohen once said he would “get shot.”

The defense has a lot to work on.

In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on eight felony counts related to tax evasion, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and violations of campaign finance law. The previous month, he pleaded guilty to a separate charge of lying to Congress.

After a stint in prison and another period of home confinement, he was released in November 2021.

Before all this, when he was still working for Trump, Cohen was hoping for a good job in his boss’s presidential administration.

It was not to be.

“Jesus Christ, can you believe I’m not going to Washington?” Cohen asked Davidson during a phone call in December 2016, according to the latter’s testimony.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove suggested that Cohen even had hopes of becoming attorney general — fanciful thinking from a 2024 perspective.

The details could be useful to Trump’s team in portraying Cohen as a liar seeking revenge rather than a truth-telling whistleblower.

Stormy Daniels’ ex-lawyer is under pressure

Davidson sought to present himself as a serious lawyer, simply willing to do what was best for his clients.

But this noble self-image came under pressure from Trump’s team during Thursday’s questioning.

Bove implied that Davidson was just a few legal niceties away from committing outright extortion on behalf of his clients.

Davidson responded that he always acted within the law.

But some of the seedier elements of the celebrity world were featured, with references to sex tapes separately involving wrestler Hulk Hogan and reality TV star Tila Tequila, as well as a client of Davidson’s who apparently helped make it public that the Actress Lindsay Lohan was in rehab.

Reporters in court said Davidson seemed disconcerted by the details.

A new batch of possible gag order violations

The trial had a sideshow, even in these relatively early stages, about alleged violations by Trump of the gag order that Judge Juan Merchan imposed on him.

Last week, Merchan ruled that Trump violated the order in nine of the 10 examples presented by prosecutors. The judge fined Trump $1,000 for each instance and expressed regret that he could not impose heavier fines.

Merchan heard arguments on four other alleged violations Thursday morning but has not yet issued a ruling.

A fundraising email Thursday afternoon from the Trump 2024 campaign and the Republican National Committee had the subject line: “They would cut out my tongue if they could.”