Trump defense suggests he was shakedown target, not hush money schemer

Donald Trump’s defense team suggested Thursday that rather than orchestrating a hush money scheme, the former president was really the target of a shakedown attempt by unscrupulous entertainment figures who saw his 2016 presidential campaign as an opportunity for a quick payday.

In the most contentious testimony yet in the criminal trial, Los Angeles lawyer Keith Davidson denied accusations that he flirted with extortion when he negotiated settlements with celebrities to keep potentially damaging stories out of the public eye.

By accusing him, Trump’s lawyers displayed a key element of their defense strategy: getting jurors to focus on the lawyers and middlemen who negotiated hush money payments on Trump’s behalf in 2016, rather than the politician who – according to prosecutors – orchestrated the payments and allegedly falsified paperwork about one of them to try to separate it from his presidential campaign.

The jury also heard a secretly recorded phone conversation between Davidson and Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which Cohen claimed Trump told him, “I hate the fact that we did it,” in reference to the hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, is fighting 34 charges of falsifying business records. Prosecutors say he mislabeled company books to conceal the reimbursement of Cohen for a $130,000 payment to keep Daniels quiet about an alleged sexual liaison years earlier. The Cohen payment, authorities say, was illegally categorized as legal expenses rather than a campaign cost.

Prosecutors want Davidson’s testimony about representing Daniels and another woman, both of whom were paid in 2016 not to reveal their claimed sexual encounters with Trump, to show that the purpose of those payments were to help Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump’s lawyers, by contrast, tried to use Davidson to show that he was well versed in squeezing money out of celebrities, and that Daniels thought her chances of getting paid for her story would vanish after the 2016 presidential election, which she expected Trump to lose.

When questioned Tuesday by prosecutors, Davidson was calm and occasionally funny on the witness stand. Facing off with Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove on Thursday, however, the conversation quickly turned accusatory and angry.

Bove suggested that Davidson has spent years negotiating big-money settlements from celebrities such as Charlie Sheen and Hulk Hogan, and that his hardball tactics came close to extortion.

The purpose of Bove’s questions seemed clear – to show that, contrary to the argument by prosecutors, Trump was not a deep-pocketed bully buying the silence of women who made allegations against him. Instead, the defense team suggested, their client was a cash cow for opportunistic entertainers looking to bolster their careers and get paid once Trump became a candidate for national office.

Bove and Davidson squared off when the defense lawyer asked the witness if he once “extracted” a $2 million payment from Sheen, a movie and television star with a history of troubled behavior.

Davidson argued that he did not “extract” money from anyone.

“I’m not here to play lawyer games with you,” Bove angrily responded.

“You’re getting truthful answers, sir,” Davidson replied. “If you’re not here to play legal games, don’t say ‘extract.’ “

Asked next by Bove whether he arranged a settlement with Sheen, Davidson replied icily: “I’m not going to discuss that.”

Bove then forced Davidson to admit that the FBI had investigated him back in 2012, and conducted a secretly recorded sting operation, when Davidson was negotiating with Hogan for the return of sex tapes featuring the professional wrestler – a scandal that had long-running legal consequences for the world of celebrity gossip news.

Davidson was never charged with a crime in that case, which was also investigated by local police in Florida.

Bove also suggested that in another instance, in which a man was trying to secure a $100 million payment after claiming to have set up a high-profile boxing match, Davidson threatened the man that bad things could happen to him if they couldn’t reach an agreement.

“I would never ever say that, and I did not say that,” Davidson shot back sharply.

While Trump’s defense seemed to score points against Davidson, and by extension Daniels, it’s not clear how much, if at all, that will help Trump’s chances for acquittal, since neither Daniels nor her lawyer had anything to do with how expenses were categorized in Trump’s business.

Once again, much of the day’s testimony was consumed with a discussion of Cohen, a convicted liar and tax cheat who is expected to take the stand in coming days as a key prosecution witness.

Davidson said that after Trump was elected president in 2016, Cohen dreamed of becoming the White House chief of staff or maybe even the attorney general of the United States.

When he learned that Trump wasn’t even going to bring him to Washington, Davidson testified, Cohen seemed so despondent that Davidson worried he might kill himself.

Thursday’s session of the historic first criminal trial of a former U.S. president began with a hearing about four alleged violations by Trump of a gag order issued by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. The order bars Trump from commenting about witnesses, court staff, prosecutors or the family of the judge and District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).

Merchan ruled earlier this week that Trump had already violated the order nine times, but prosecutors say four other public statements were also problematic.

During the hearing, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that his client needed to be able to make certain statements as part of his presidential campaign, especially since his Democratic rival was doing the same.

President Biden “talked about this trial and he talked about a witness that’s going to be in this trial,” Blanche said, referring to jokes Biden made at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The president said Trump recently had some “tough days” with “stormy weather” – an obvious reference to Daniels. Merchan smiled at the quip.

“You’re saying that he can’t respond to attacks by President Biden without saying Stormy Daniels?” the judge asked skeptically. “He’s certainly allowed to respond to something that’s said by President Biden, there’s nothing in the gag order that says he can’t.”

Throughout the argument, Trump sat at the defense table, his eyes mostly closed. He occasionally cocked his head at a remark by the judge, who seemed to be signaling that he would again conclude that Trump had violated the gag order.

Later in the day, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked the judge to clarify whether, under the order, Trump is allowed to post articles about the hush money case on social media.

Necheles argued that this was a core First Amendment free speech issue for a political candidate wanting to share and amplify news articles. The articles “discuss aspects of the case, [they are] very critically important to his election campaign. They’re talking about the kind of issues he has been raising,” Necheles argued.

The judge told Necheles he would not evaluate individual posts by Trump before they are public.

“There’s nothing wrong with the gag order,” Merchan said, noting that it had already been upheld on appeal. “I think the best advice to give your client is when in doubt, steer clear.”

As Trump left the courtroom for the day, he stopped to speak to reporters in the hallway and complained bitterly about the gag order.

“This judge is totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order. Nobody’s ever had that before and we don’t like it and it’s not fair,” Trump said. “Other people are allowed to do whatever they want to us, and I’m not allowed as a presidential candidate … the Republican Party nominee and the one who’s leading Biden by lot, I’m not allowed to talk.”