Convincing was the evidence presented to the jury so far in the trial of Donald Trump in the financing case of porn star Stormy Daniels in New York.
Prosecutors presented the jury with a recorded 2016 phone conversation of his Trump with his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for paying former Playboy model Karen McDougal not to speak to the media about an affair she says she had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married with the Inks.
Trump fumed as audio was played at his trial
Cohen had secretly recorded his phone conversation with Trump, which the FBI found two years later during a search of his office. A little later, CNN released the audio document, which is of poor quality and in some places it is not clear what exactly Trump and Cohen are discussing. However, the jurors listened to it with particular interest, as the AP reports, while their former president USA appeared outraged as the excerpt presented by prosecutors at trial suggested Trump knew about paying the former Playboy “bunny” to buy her silence.
Karen McDougall and Donald Trump
At one point in the audio, Cohen says he spoke with then-Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weiselberg about “how the whole thing is going to be financed.” Trump can be heard replying: “What do we have to pay for this? 150?” Trump suggests paying in cash, but Cohen says “No” four times. Before the recording ends, Trump can be heard saying “check.”
The publisher of the scandal-mongering tabloid National Enquirer, David Packer, eventually paid Karen McDougall $150,000 for the exclusive rights to her story about her affair with Trump, but chose to “bury” the story on the eve of the election.
“What did we do?”
The recording was followed by hours of testimony by attorney Keith Davidson, who was hired in 2016 by Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels to negotiate on their behalf with Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. Davidson told the court that he was surprised that his secret negotiations might have contributed to Trump’s election victory. On election night in 2016, with Trump’s victory in sight, Davidson sent then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard a text: “What have we done?” And the answer he received was: “Oh my God.”
With information from iefimerida, Davidson is considered one of the most important prosecution witnesses used by the prosecution against Trump in his trial for buying the silence of Stormy Daniels. Trump persistently denies having an affair with her, although he admits the porn star received money. His lawyers argue that he committed no crime and that he acted in this way to protect his name.
US law does not prohibit confidentiality agreements between two parties, but prosecutors accuse Trump of falsifying Trump Organization business documents, insisting that the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels was an illegal campaign donation, which the real estate mogul used to to cover up a sex scandal and an adultery case shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers pressed Davidson with their questions until he admitted that he had never met the Republican politician in person, since he dealt exclusively with his lawyer, Cohen. Davidson also recalled that in a phone conversation about a month after the 2016 election, Cohen lashed out at Trump, complaining that he had yet to pay him for the Daniels takeover case and failed to secure him a post in the new administration. .
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