Trump trial full coverage: Judge fines Trump for violating gag order, warns of jail time as testimony continues in the criminal hush money case

The jurors have been excused for the day. They are expected to report back on Thursday at 10 a.m.

After the hush money trial wrapped for the day, Trump railed against Judge Merchan's gag order, calling it "unconstitutional."

"There's no crime, there's no anything here," he added, as he left the Manhattan courthouse..

Trump railed against Judge Merchan yet again on Truth Social during the afternoon break. His second post of the afternoon came hours after he was ordered to take down social media posts that violated the gag order issued against him in the hush money trial.

The latest post likely doesn't violate the gag order since Trump is allowed to talk about the judge.

Once AMI backed out of the deal to buy Stormy Daniels’s story about Trump, Dylan Howard, editor of the National Enquirer, told Daniels’s manager to work directly with Trump fixer Michael Cohen to negotiate a deal.

Daniels’s manager refused to work with Cohen and asked Keith Davidson to deal with him.

“The moral of the story is that no one wanted to talk to Cohen,” Davidson testified.

Eventually, once the $130,000 sum was agreed upon, Davidson said Cohen missed the first payment deadline and continued to make excuses. Davidson said during testimony it was clear to him that Cohen didn’t have the authority to issue the payment.

When Davidson expressed frustration on behalf of Daniels and threatened to pull out of the deal, Cohen ultimately said, “Goddamnit, I’ll just do it myself,” according to Davidson.

This transpired, Davidson testified, after the Access Hollywood tape was released and just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

Davidson told the court that Cohen did not wire the money on the agreed-upon date of Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, and made repeated excuses for his failure to pay on time, including blaming the Secret Service's "f***ed up" computer system, according to CNN.

After a while, Davidson says he told Cohen, "I don't believe a word really that you say."

Davidson, who also represented Stormy Daniels, says there was little interest in Daniels's story about her alleged affair with Trump in 2006 until the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" hot mic tape in October 2016.

After that, interest in Daniels's story "reached a crescendo," he said, according to CNN. "So far as I’m aware, it had tremendous influence," Davidson said.

Davidson said in court that he and Dylan Howard, National Enquirer's editor-in-chief, exchanged text messages about the tape release.

“Trump is f—," Davidson said in his text to Howard.

“Wave the white flag. It’s over people!" Howard responded.

Keith Davidson testified that there were two reasons why AMI would buy Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with Trump and not run it.

“I think one explanation that was given was that they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn’t want to diminish her reputation,” Davidson said, according to CNN. “And second was more of an unspoken understanding that there was a close affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump and that AMI would not run this story or any story related to Karen and Donald Trump because it would tend to hurt Donald Trump.”

During prosecutor Joshua Steinglass’s questioning of Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, Davidson testified to getting a 45% chunk of McDougal’s $150,000 deal with the National Enquirer.

The deal was to keep quiet her story that she had an affair with Trump.

The New York State Unified Court System is publishing daily trial transcripts of the People v. Donald J. Trump.

The court's media website will publish each day's proceedings and the certified transcripts are made available by the end of the next business day.

You can access them here.

Keith Davidson testified about dealing with Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer, for the first time in 2011. According to the New York Times, Davidson said the interaction was "not pleasant or constructive, and I didn’t particularly like dealing with him, and that’s why I was trying like hell to avoid talking to him."

Shortly after removing social media posts that violated the gag order, Trump took to Truth Social to accuse Judge Merchan of taking away his constitutional right to free speech.

"I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED," he wrote. "This whole 'Trial' is RIGGED."

The new post likely does not violate the court's gag order, as Trump is permitted to complain about the judge.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass has started his questioning of Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

According to CNN, the questioning has focused on Davidson’s 2016 texts with National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard: “I can’t believe they are asking me to go back for another 25 but they are. [T]He deal is accepted at 150k. Can u do that?”

Howard responded: “He just called me. F*** it. Not my money. I’ll ask.”

Davidson is the sixth witness to be called to the stand in the case so far.

The trial has resumed after taking a lunch break.

While the court broke for lunch, former President Trump removed nine social media posts that Judge Merchan ruled violated the gag order he's under for the hush money trial. Trump was fined $1,000 for each post and threatened with jail time if he continues to violate the order.

Trump met the deadline to take the posts down by 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday. He also needs to pay the fines by close of business on Friday.

Attorney Keith Davidson said former Playboy model Karen McDougal was “teetering” between two offers for story: one from the National Enquirer and the other with ABC News.

During negotiations in 2016, Davidson texted National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard: “How about 1m now. And 75k per year for next 2 years as a fitness corresponded for ami & ur related pubs,” according to the New York Times.

Howard responded: "I'll take it to them but thinking it's more hundreds than millions,” which Davidson said he interpreted to mean that Howard was expecting a counter offer that was substantially less. Davidson countered with $800,000 and $100,000 per year, totaling $1 million.

Howard responded by suggesting the parties were not “in the same ballpark,” according to CNN. Days later, he texted Davidson: “She’ll get more out of a deal with AMI than ABC” and that “We are going to lay it on thick for her.”

“Good. Throw in an ambassadorship for me. I’m thinking Isle of Man,” Davidson replied, clarifying on the witness stand that his remark was “just a joke.”

According to CNN, Davidson texted Howard on July 22, 2016: "Don’t forget about Cohen. Time is of the essence. The girl is being cornered by the estrogen mafia."

The text message was sent amid negotiations between the National Enquirer and ABC over the rights for McDougal’s story about an alleged 2006 affair she had with Trump.

On the stand, Davidson said it “a very unfortunate" text, according to CNN: "That phrase is not one I used or came up with. That was a term, I think, by one of Karen's associates at that first meeting."

Davidson also noted that several women associates were leaning on McDougal to sign a deal with ABC, the New York Times reported.

Davidson also represented Karen McDougal in 2016.

He confirmed that he arranged a meeting between McDougal and National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard. In that meeting, according to reports, she confirmed the 2006 affair with Trump.

Ahead of the meeting, according to the New York Times, Davidson texted Howard: "I have a blockbuster Trump story," to which Howard replied, "Did he cheat" on Melania?

After the meeting ended, Davidson said, he and Howard kept in touch. One follow-up text from Davidson dated June 27, 2016, reportedly read: "It's a story (t)hat should be told...," to which Howard replied: "I agree."

Davidson also confirmed that he was in talks with ABC News for a potential interview with McDougal, and that he saw it as a way to get McDougal's story in front of National Enquirer publisher David Pecker faster, according to CNN.

Davidson, who is testifying pursuant to a subpoena, said he received immunity to testify before a grand jury but did not seek it, per reporters in the courtroom. On the stand, he confirmed he’s had professional relationships with David Pecker, Michael Cohen and Dylan Howard.

Davidson said he first met Cohen in 2011 about a blog post involving Stormy Daniels and Trump, according to the New York Times. At the time, he said Cohen was working on Trump’s behalf.

The sixth witness called to the stand is Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

According to the New York Times, Davidson negotiated two deals before the 2016 election involving hush money payments made to the two women by Trump's camp to keep them from going to the press about alleged affairs they had with Trump.

McDougal, a former Playboy model, said she was paid $150,000 by the National Enquirer’s parent company, AMI, for the rights to her story about an affair with Trump beginning in 2006.

Daniels, an adult film star and the central witness in this case, said she was paid $130,000 by Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen to silence her about their own affair, also in 2006.

The Times reported that Davidson drafted the hush money agreements using the pseudonyms “Peggy Peterson” for Daniels and “David Dennison” for Trump.

PhillipThompson's company, Esquire Deposition Solutions, was subpoenaed for the video and written transcript from Trump's taped deposition in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case in October 2022, according to CNN.

Segments of that deposition were played in court for the jury, who were shown clips of Trump describing what Truth Social is and responding to questions about the Access Hollywood tape.