The Donald Trump Manhattan criminal election interference hush money trial had a few juicy bits–including the fact that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen hoped to delay the payment to Stormy Daniels until after the election–but from a strategic standpoint, the prosecution continues to lay out the plan and reason for paying off Trump’s lovers: to help his campaign.
- For the first time, a member of Trump’s family attending the trial: son Eric was in the gallery.
- Judge Merchan found Trump in violation of the gag order, assessing $1,000 for each of nine violations. The judge ordered the offending posts removed from Trump’s accounts by 2:15 p.m. ET; they were gone before the deadline.
- Merchan did not impose a stricter gag order. In fact, he clarified that his gag order concerning Trump mentioning witnesses does not prevent Trump from responding to an attack on Trump on social media by a witness. In that case, Trump may respond, Merchan said, a boundary that will surely be tested by Trump.
- “The court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders,” Merchan told Trump, warning that Trump could be jailed “if necessary and appropriate.”
- Judge notified Trump that he will likely be able to attend Barron’s high school graduation based on the current pace of the trial. Barron’s reaction is unavailable.
- Trump fell asleep multiple times during testimony, raising questions about his stamina, his competence, and his attitude about these serious charges.
- The midday witness was the head of the CSPAN archive, Robert Browning (not the poet), there to attest to the authenticity of videotape evidence.
- Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both McDougal and Daniels, takes stand. He puts the reality behind the agreements, as the person representing parties involved.
- Davidson said the release of the Access Hollywood tape, where Trump says he could “grab [women] by the pussy” and they’d let him because he’s famous, was a “tremendous influence” on the interest in Stormy Daniels’ story.
- Asked how he thought the payment would be funded, Davidson said he never thought Cohen was the source of the money, because Cohen didn’t have the authority to spend that amount of money on behalf of Trump. Davidson said he thought the money came from Trump or Trump’s company.
- Davidson email to AMI employee after neither Cohen nor Trump paid the money due: “He owes AMI everything & he totally fucked you.”
- After Cohen missed deadlines to pay Stormy Daniels repeatedly, Davidson felt Cohen wanted to intentionally delay handing over the cash, Davidson testified. This matches accounts of others testifying–and many pundits–who believe Trump didn’t think he would win the 2016 election, which would make the hush-money payments moot; it also blows out of the water the idea that Trump covered up his affairs strictly for his third wife’s feelings.
- Trump has campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin scheduled for Wednesday, the trial’s standard mid-week day off. On Thursday, we’ll see how long he’s able to stay awake after his first mid-week campaign events during the trial.
- Another gag order hearing will be held on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET, prior to the jury entering the room at 10 a.m. Davidson will be back on the stand when testimony continues Thursday.
- Friday’s session will be truncated due to a juror leaving on a previously-scheduled trip; it’s scheduled to end around noon.)